In
Apollon, the renegade choreographer
Florentina Holzinger combines fin de siecle freak shows with 1960s live art, offering a new perspective on the rupture between high art and entertainment culture. Through this hilarious and furious destruction of a classical narrative, Holzinger addresses the myth of the "perfect woman," the artist herself.
Five women tackle the neoliberalist cult of the body, jumping between the aesthetics of an occult-fitness studio and a cyborg bullfight, with a hint of Balanchine's neoclassical ballet quartet
Apollon.
The original ballet revolves around Apollo, the Greek god of music, who is visited by the three muses Terpsichore, Polyhymnia, and Calliope, and must choose a favorite between them. Holzinger removes the male Apollo from this equation, upending the male gaze and deconstructing a god. Performances that are simultaneously funny, dangerous, and disgusting interrogate female performance, male power, and the cultivation of the body.
Advisory: Apollon is appropriate for ages 18+
Florentina Holzinger resides and works in the Netherlands. Her work sits on the boundary between performance art, choreography, ritual and stunt show. She consciously plays with the shifting of boundaries between high culture and entertainment, exploring different modes of female representation and questioning the full potential of female physicality. Her collaboration with choreographer/performer Vincent Riebeek resulted in a trilogy of pieces:
Kein Applaus für Scheisse, Spirit, and
Wellness. In addition to this, she created
Recovery, Apollon, and
TANZ. As of 2021, Florentina will be an artist-in-residence at the Volksbühne Berlin.
This project is supported by the Performing Arts Fund NL, General Delegation of the Government of Flanders to the USA , Goethe Institut in New York, as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York, and the Austrian Cultural Forum.
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