Why "Ophelia Got Talent" is the best dance performance of the year
Florentina Holzingers performances have been hotly debated for years. For some, she is the most radical talent in the contemporary dance scene, for others, she is an amateur who only knows how to create a spectacle. Choreographies such as Tanz, Étude for an Emergency or Ophelia’s Got Talent are definitely spectacular. While there's some classical pointe dancing, the main focus is on wrestling on moving cars, swinging on meat hooks, and diving in glass pools. Holzinger and her dancers injure themselves, and blood flows. The Austrian artist, who describes herself as an "adrenaline junkie," is into risky stunts, offbeat sideshow acts, and trashy pop culture. She also flirts a bit with the legacy of the Viennese Actionists.
Oh yes, and everyone performs naked on stage. This is perhaps the most remarkable thing about Holzinger's choreography. While nude scenes are no longer uncommon on German-speaking stages, the way she transforms the exposed female body into a center of power, a symbol of feminist self-empowerment, is unique. Anyone looking for voyeuristic peep-show excitement will be disappointed. The women on stage don't strike sexy poses; they perform powerful, acrobatic feats; bare skin is their natural work attire.
With their self-confident nakedness, the women demystify erotic clichés
Which doesn't mean that as a viewer, you don't still stare in fascination at the exposed bodies, study pubic hair styles, admire toned muscles, and register wrinkles and moles. Because the performers act so confidently and without any shame, their nakedness becomes the ultimate power suit. Being naked doesn't necessarily mean being defenseless. Exposing breasts and vulvas makes women more powerful than they already are. It demystifies erotic clichés. And it broadens our perspective, which is still bombarded with far too many false images of what the perfect body should look like.
Holzinger’s women are self-confident subjects, not projections of the male gaze. They're deconstructing theater and dance history written by men — Dante, Shakespeare, and Stravinsky. The public reaction shows how provocative this still is. There was a scandal at the Termi Festival in Italy. The conservative press claimed Holzinger was making pornography. The curator who had invited her to the theater festival was fired.
During the bloody splatter finale, a spectator in the audience collapses
Her new play, Ophelia Got Talent, which had its premiere 2022 at the Berliner Volksbühne , just had its run at Kampnagel-Sommerfestival in Hamburg and was named the best choreography of the year by Tanz magazine. It starts with a talent show parody, Captain Hook as coférencier, a sword swallower versus a female Houdini, escape tricks in an aquarium, tap dance numbers, sea shanties, underwater ballet, Schubert's Trout Music... What does all this have to do with the Ophelia myth? I have no idea. But the dramaturgy creates a pull. By the time I get to the daring helicopter stunt, when five flying Amazons on a rope bring the lurching aircraft down with a collective orgasm, I'm hooked. During the bloody splatter finale with sea monsters and exorcist-like carnage, one spectator in the hall passes out. The rest of the audience applauds. And cheers for the exceptional naked artist and her radiant crew.