Florentina Holzinger, an award-winning choreographer and performance artist, brings her most recent work, TANZ, to NYU Skirball this spring. The performance takes inspiration from ballet, and artists from the ages of twenty to over-eighty take the stage in a two act ballet d’action body horror that has left audiences across the world in both shock and awe. Throughout the show, performers master the use of their bodies to participate in ritual and flight, making commentary on discipline, chaos, and the gendered body.
RELATED EVENTS
RELATED EVENTS
Gwendolyn Alker on Florentina Holzinger
Florentina Holzinger’s TANZ puts the female body at the center of narratives of violence.
GET INTO IT
GET INTO IT
Trailer for Tanz
CONTENT WARNING: Nudity, Blood
GET THEE TO THE LIBRARY
GET THEE TO THE LIBRARY
Recommended readings to get you in gear for the show.
- Kathrin Heinrich, Mavericks Florentina Holzinger and Milo Rau push theatre beyond its limits, 2024
- Rosemarie Brucher, Art Comes from Skill, 2019
- Bryan Turnock, Body Horror, 2019
- Sascha Ehlert and Florentina Holzinger, Florentina Holzinger: Preparing for an Emergency, 2022
READ ALL ABOUT IT
READ ALL ABOUT IT
‘I Want the Pope on Stage’: Florentina Holzinger Takes on the Church
“The choreographer speaks to Matthew McLean about ‘TANZ’, ‘Ophelia’s got Talent’ and her plans for the future”
TANZ at RISING: A Spectacle of Effort
“This stunt-heavy transmogrification of Romantic ballet stages a series of ascents and descents: descending into nudity; rising in flight; raising the house lights; descending into the forest.”
Tanz review – gross-out body-horror ballet is an unlikely laugh
“Tanz is the aftermath of an almighty crash between romantic ballet and body horror.”
Tanz review: nudity, vomit and walkouts – yet this bloody ballet is beautiful, too
“Austrian performance artist Florentina Holzinger’s exploration of ballet’s dark side is not just provocative but surprisingly thoughtful and hilarious”
Prep School: Apollon
Prep School: Apollon
Check out Skirball’s 2020 Prep School page from Holzinger’s production Apollon, the second show in Holzinger’s ongoing series.

Study Guides
Florentina Holzinger: Apollon
Prep School: Apollon
EXTRA CREDIT
EXTRA CREDIT
An Interview with Holzinger from the “Mind Culture Podcast” on her practices regarding a production titled Divine Comedy, from 2021.