Oh, the beauty of romantic ballet! For instance La Sylphide, with its floating pointe dancers and the evil witch Madge. ‘Floating’ and ‘witch’ are keywords for Florentina Holzinger: very special sylphs move about in her tremendously successful piece TANZ from 2019, which was voted Production of the Year by Theater heute magazine and won the Austrian theatre award Nestroy for Best Direction. Pointe shoes feature in TANZ as well, and there is some floating, but Holzinger’s dancers and performers enjoy themselves doing stunt acts and ballet exercises at the barre as well as riding broomsticks. Because Madge has multiplied in this piece. Look forward to tricks and acrobatics, plus a grand appearance by 80+-year-old dancer Beatrice Cordua. The former star principal with John Neumeier feels truly liberated thanks to Florentina Holzinger. TANZ equals wit, lots of surprises, a motorcycle in the air, splatter, pop and danced madness. You can watch it several times and still be blown away by it.
