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.

Office Hours: Coming Soon

Get Into It

Trailer for Tanz

CONTENT WARNING: Nudity, Blood

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

Florentina Holzinger and Matthew McLean for Frieze | February 2, 2023

‘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”

Sanjoy Roy for The Guardian | November 2, 2022

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.”

Sybilla George for Farrago Magazine

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.”

Tim Byrne for The Guardian | June 8, 2023

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”

Extra Credit

Check out Skirball’s 2020 Prep School page from Holzinger’s production Apollon, the second show in Holzinger’s ongoing series.

An Interview with Holzinger from the “Mind Culture Podcast” on her practices regarding a production titled Divine Comedy, from 2021.