Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger’s unapologetic work is igniting discussions on the expectations imposed on women’s bodies in performance. Jo Pickup shares reaction in Australia.
To say that Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger is an artist poised at the cutting edge of contemporary dance world would be a misleading statement.
Given her penchant for body mutilation and deathly aerial flights on stage, it’s more accurate to say she’s not poised, but dangling by her teeth from a rope above our heads.
Holzinger’s work features nudity, bleeding, defecating and masturbating female bodies on stage, and has shocked and revolted many who’ve seen it. Though in doing so, the artist has stridently opened conversations about the kinds of female bodies we expect to see in dance on stage, and why we expect to see them.
Described by Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre’s Artistic Director René Pollesch as presenting ‘a radical feminism’ through her works, and explained by the artist herself as a way to ‘teach people something about what forms of shame are necessary and which are not’, Holzinger’s work raises questions of how certain social pressures leave their marks on women’s bodies...Keep reading on Arts hub.
To say that Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger is an artist poised at the cutting edge of contemporary dance world would be a misleading statement.
Given her penchant for body mutilation and deathly aerial flights on stage, it’s more accurate to say she’s not poised, but dangling by her teeth from a rope above our heads.
Holzinger’s work features nudity, bleeding, defecating and masturbating female bodies on stage, and has shocked and revolted many who’ve seen it. Though in doing so, the artist has stridently opened conversations about the kinds of female bodies we expect to see in dance on stage, and why we expect to see them.
Described by Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre’s Artistic Director René Pollesch as presenting ‘a radical feminism’ through her works, and explained by the artist herself as a way to ‘teach people something about what forms of shame are necessary and which are not’, Holzinger’s work raises questions of how certain social pressures leave their marks on women’s bodies...Keep reading on Arts hub.