Florentina Holzinger

Florentina Holzinger is an Austrian choreographer, director and performance artist. She 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 ImPulsTanz festival in 2012. Her second solo work, “Recovery”, premiered in 2015, is an experimental contemplation of a traumatic stage accident she suffered and critically explores different types of female representation as well as the potential of female corporeality.

In her most recent works, she has continued to dissect the narratives of ballet: first with “Apollon”(2017), an exploration of George Balanchines’ “Apollon musagète” from the 1920s, followed by “TANZ”, an action ballet reflecting on tradition and narrative, based on the romantic ballet “La Sylphide”. In 2020, she presented the work “Étude for an Emergency”, a musical composition for ten bodies and a car, for the first time at the Münchner Kammerspiele. In the same year, “TANZ” was awarded the “Best Performance of the Year” by Theater heute and the NESTROY Prize for Best Director, as well as being invited to the Theatertreffen.

In 2021 Holzinger created the large-scale piece “A Divine Comedy” for the Ruhrtriennale. For her performance in this piece, the artist Beatrice “Trixie” Cordua was awarded the German Theatre Prize DER FAUST. Holzinger’s most recent creation, “Ophelia’s Got Talent” (2022), created as artist-in-residence at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin, has been invited to the 2023 Theatertreffen.

Florentina Holzinger’s dance performances are driven by the idea of identity, sexual and physical transgression. Inspired by Viennese Actionism, body art and bodybuilding, but also by classical ballet, cabaret and circus, she deconstructs hegemonic images of femininity in her shows. This is also reflected in the diverse cast of her company, which brings together performers of different origins, generations and abilities. In addition to performers with dance training, she is joined on stage by stunt women, sex workers, piercers and martial arts artists.

As of May 2023