NYU Skirball Presents the North American Premiere of Florentina Holzinger's TANZ

NYU Skirball will present the North American premiere of Florentina Holzinger's TANZ, featuring the 83-year-old legendary ballerina Beatrice Cordua, on Friday, February 14 and Saturday, February 15 at 7:30 pm at NYU Skirball. Featuring an all-female cast of performers ages thirty to over eighty from various dance backgrounds, TANZ is a pursuit of perfection in a fleeting world, where the mundane is transformed into the sublime.

TANZ is structured around a ballet class led by the German ballerina Beatrice Cordua, the first to perform Le sacre de printemps in the nude. Over Cordua's very rich career, she has collaborated with artists such as Pina Bausch, John Neumeier, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Johann Kresnik and many others. Ms. Cordua leads the performers in intense training in “action ballet,” known as “sylphic studies.” Through shared rituals, they learn to master their bodies and minds, gaining extraordinary abilities like flight.

TANZ (2019) completes Holzinger's trilogy that began with Recovery (2015); and Apollon (2017, showcased at NYU Skirball in 2020).

Florentina Holzinger studied choreography at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, Amsterdam. Her diploma solo Silk won the Prix Jardin d'Europe at the lmPulsTanz Festival 2012. She collaborated with Vincent Riebeek on a trilogy of pieces between 2011 and 2015. While still touring worldwide, TANZ (2019) won several awards, including the Austrian theatre prize "Nestroy" in the category "Best Direction." For the Ruhrtriennale in 2021, Holzinger created her first large-scale work, A Divine Comedy. Her most recent creation, Ophelia's Got Talent (2022), was created as an artist-in-residence at the Volksbühne in Berlin. Her first opera project, SANCTA premiered in 2024. In the same year, she starred her first leading role on the cinema screens in the movie MOND, directed by Kurwin Ayub, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival. www.neonlobster.org   

NYU Skirball is located in the heart of Greenwich Village, a long-time destination for avant-garde artists, free-thinking intellectuals, and political dissidents. NYU Skirball's celebrates this history, embracing works that engage, provoke and inspire audiences. NYC's home for cutting-edge performance, artistic research, and discourse, The Center's programming ranges from re-inventions of the classics to cutting-edge premieres, in genres ranging from dance, theatre and performance arts to music and film.

TANZ runs 2 hours and will play Friday, February 14 and Saturday, February 15 at 7:30 pm.  Tickets start at $50 can be purchased online, by visiting the box office in person, Tuesday – Saturday from 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm, or by calling 212.998.4941. NYU Skirball is located at 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square, New York, New York 10012. www.nyuskirball.org.

NYU Skirball's programs are made possible in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the Howard Gilman Foundation; Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels; Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater; Collins Building Services; Villa Albertine; Goethe Institut; Polish Cultural Institute; General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA; Austrian Consulate General New York; and Marta Heflin Foundation; as well as our valued donors through memberships, commissioning, and Allies for Arts Access Fund support.