In the morning, 10 a.m., in the Munich Kammerspiele. Rehearsals will begin shortly, before that Florentina Holzinger will take the time to talk. Born in Vienna in 1986, the choreographer directed for the first time at a city theater. “Étude for an Emergency” will be premiered on Sunday. It is a “musical study for ten bodies and one car”.
A car? Eh sure, because if someone can make a car dance, it's the wonderfully intrepid Holzinger.
Do you like driving a car?
Florentina Holzinger: I am a cyclist. But I like to drive a car on stage.
Do you then look more at horsepower or optics?
Florentina Holzinger: I think I'm more of a PS guy.
But you are working with an Opel Corsa!
Florentina Holzinger: Well, unfortunately we couldn't afford the chic part. It was just a Corsa. We got it from the junkyard - and there were a lot of Opel Corsa.
In the announcement of the Kammerspiele it says "What stunts in action films are, the aria in the opera can be".
Florentina Holzinger: Originally we wanted to work on a stunt opera. We moved a bit away from that, however, because I realized that I am not yet familiar with the opera - and I am probably not that interested in it. I work with classically trained singers, but they mainly create sound effects for action scenes. Classical music is often used as a soundtrack. Specifically, it will be about the depiction of death - in film or on stage.
Are there any differences?
Florentina Holzinger: In the opera, the characters sing their aria and then tip over. Action movie stunt people celebrate dying much longer, playing out the scenes. We make it even more excessive: we repeat and repeat. An étude.
In your work, dead material such as metal often meets the bare human body. What appeals to you about this interplay?
Florentina Holzinger: It was really about integrating the car as a teammate on stage. This is our reality in life: that we become more and more one - or also: have to - with technology. It looks almost natural. It is therefore logical for me to consider the car as a dancer and to let it exist alongside the other bodies, hierarchically equivalent.
Does the Corsa dance on petrol?
Florentina Holzinger: Oh, there are rules, and that's why you can't do that on stage. The German theater is a prison in this regard. (Laughs.)
It sounds like you've spent a lot of time studying paragraphs to see what's allowed and what's not ...
Florentina Holzinger: Definitely. Sorry, but then I understand why city theater looks the way it looks - the Kammerspiele are certainly the most progressive. In traditional theater, a car is at most a prop, which should stand untouched in the background and look good. But for us it is important to interact with the material, to give it physicality.
If you watch stunt people at work, you can see how strict the movement sequences are - to make the unpredictable predictable. Allows one
such corset creativity at all?
Florentina Holzinger: That is what interests me. A stunt is a very choreographic process: how is the body staged? How is illusion dealt with? That's why I find stunt training more exciting than the result in the film.
This is a very athletic approach.
Florentina Holzinger: Of course that too, yes. This is comparable to the type of dance that interests me: the more action-packed. (Laughs.) Ultimately, that's what we do: study the body in training. The scenes show a very realistic exercise of bodies in extreme situations, which later serves as an illusion in an action film.
Are you even interested in telling a story?
Florentina Holzinger: I'm not interested in a narrative. I am concerned with the body in exercise - but it also tells something, it also develops. And that's enough history for me.
Is that the reason why the dancers are naked - to be able to look at the work of the body scientifically like in an anatomical study?
Florentina Holzinger: I think so, yes. We looked at a lot of crash tests as preparation - it is precisely this laboratory situation. The more you can reduce the body to its physicality and take everything else away, the more you can watch the experiment.
What is it like to work in the structures of a city theater for the first time?
Florentina Holzinger: Challenging.
Why?
Florentina Holzinger: It shouldn't sound ungrateful, but I have never known these working conditions from the independent scene. In this respect, the title of the piece applies: the evening is an étude, an exercise - for me too: how I can cope with the way a city theater works. (Laughs.)
The word “frontier worker” is often used in reports about you. Are you annoyed?
Florentina Holzinger: No, that only depresses me. Because if I am a “frontier worker”, it means that many other things are simply very quick.
Do you see yourself as a frontier worker?
Florentina Holzinger: Not really. I am always amazed at how boring it is what I do.
Still, a majority of viewers seem to see your work as crossing borders.
Florentina Holzinger: That certainly applies to the dance sector. I would like to show things that normal consumers do not see so often. For me, theater is a place for experimentation - and an experiment is something you do for the first time. I don't like repetitive theater - I want to discover something new. And if that has anything to do with crossing the border: okay!
What does a dancer have to bring to join you?
Florentina Holzinger: Enjoy putting the body in situations that may be strange to it.
When is the staging a success for you?
Florentina Holzinger: When the performers have fun. It's good if they're good for them.