READ THE PROGRAM NOTE

CREATIVE CREDITS

Concept, performance, choreography: Florentina Holzinger
Performance by and with: Renée Copraij, Beatrice Cordua, Sophie Duncan, Jessyca R. Hauser, Florentina Holzinger, Lucifire, Annina Machaz, Suzn Pasyon, Laura Stokes, Veronica Thompson, Steffi Wieser
Video design, Live camera: Josefin Arnell, Jessyca R. Hauser
Sound design, Live sound: Stefan Schneider
Light design, Technical director: Anne Meeussen
Stage design: Nikola Knezevic
Stage assistant: Camilla Smolders
Technical assistant: Stephan Werner, Dörte Wilfroth, Koen Vanneste
Dramaturgy: Renée Copraij, Sara Ostertag
Coaching: Ghani Minne, Dave Tusk
Music coach: Almut Lustig
Outside eye: Michele Rizzo, Fernando Belfiore
Theory, research: Anna Leon
Costume advisor, tailor: Mael Blau
Prosthetic, mask: Students of Wigs, Make-up and Special Make-up Effects for Stage and Screen, Theaterakademie August Everding (Munich), Marianne Meinl
Stunt support: Haeger Stunt & Wireworks
Stunt instructors: Stunt Cloud GmbH (Leo Plank, Phong Giang, Sandra Barger)
Management & International Distribution: Katharina Wallisch & Giulia Messia – neon lobster
Tour Production Management: Moira L Sunter Garee

A production by SPIRIT

Co-produced by: Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna – AT), Spring Festival (Utrecht – NL), Theatre Rotterdam (Rotterdam – NL), Mousonturm (Frankfurt – DE), Arsenic (Lausanne – CH), Münchner Kammerspiele (Munich – DE), Take Me Somewhere (Glasgow – UK), Beursschouwburg (Brussels, BE) deSingel (Antwerp – BE), Sophiensaele (Berlin – DE), Frascati Productions (Amsterdam -NL), Theater im Pumpenhaus (Muenster – DE), asphalt Festival (Düsseldorf – DE)

Supported by: O Espaço do Tempo (PT), Fondation LUMA (FR) and De Châtel Award (NL)

FLORENTINA HOLZINGER

Florentina Holzinger’s dance pieces are driven by the notion of identity, sexual and physical transgression. Drawing inspiration as much from Viennese Actionism, body art and bodybuilding as from classical ballet, cabaret and circus; she deconstructs, performance after performance, the very definition of femininity. Along with her stage works Florentina is regularly teaching movement classes. Her work is intrinsically linked with the aim of exploring modes of embodiment and the development of practices to support a physical life in action. Her practice is heavily informed by martial arts, functional and somatic movement practices as well as every dance.

Florentina Holzinger studied choreography at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. Her Diploma solo work Silk was awarded the Prix Jardin d’Europe at the lmPulsTanz Festival 2012. She collaborated with Vincent Riebeek for a trilogy of pieces, Kein Applaus für Scheiße, Spirit, and Wellness followed by Schoenheitsabend-Tänze des Grauens und der Extase (2011-2015). Her second solo work, Recovery, which premiered in 2015, is an experimental consideration on a traumatic stage accident she had suffered and critically explores various kinds of female representation as well as the potential of female corporeality.

In later works she continued dissecting the narratives of ballet. First with Apollon (2017), a hack on Balanchine’s 1920s Apollon Musagete, followed by TANZ (2019), an action ballet that reflects on tradition and narrative departing from the romantic ballet La Sylphide. In 2020, she presented for the first time the work Etude for an Emergency at the Münchner Kammerspielen; a stuntopera developed a musical composition for 10 bodies and a car. Since then, the work has been presented on multiple occasions as a series of site-specific works. In the same year, TANZ was awarded for “Best Performance of the Year’’ by Theater Heute and with the NESTROY Price for Best Direction, and it was presented in the frame of Theatertreffen (Berlin).

In 2021, Holzinger created for Ruhrtriennale the big scale piece A Divine Comedy. For her role in this work, the artist Trixie Cordua was awarded the FAUST Award. The work Ophelia’s Got Talent (2022) was created as artistin-residence at the Volksbühne in Berlin, it was selected for the Theatertreffen 2023, and was awarded for Best Actress (Saioa Alvarez Ruis) and Best Stage Design (Nikolas Knezevic) by the Austrian NESTROY Award.

In 2024, Holzinger debuted her first opera project, SANCTA, a coproduction between the Mecklenburgischen Staatstheater Staatsoper Stuttgart and the Wiener Festwochen, as well as the Volksbühne am RosaLuxemburg-Platz Berlin, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Julidans and Theater Rotterdam.

RUN TIME

Approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes with no intermission.