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Dancing Pina film image, director Florian Heinzen-Ziob

Dancing Pina

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North American Premiere

A decade after her passing, the emotive brilliance of iconic Tanztheater choreographer Pina Bausch lives on through a new generation of performers as they make her movement vocabulary their own, under the guidance of original members of her cast. Director Florian Heinzen-Ziob’s stunning documentary takes us behind the scenes as the ballet ensemble of the Semperoper in Dresden, Germany rehearses Pina’s poignant dance-opera Iphigenia in Tauris. Meanwhile, dancers from fourteen African countries gather at the École des Sables in Senegal to breathe new life into Pina’s visceral reimagining of The Rite of Spring.

Through intimately shot interviews and rehearsal footage, the performers share what “dancing Pina” means to them: the fusion of personal experience and choreography; learning to fully inhabit the body that one has; and facilitating a true encounter with the self through performance. Bolstered by gorgeous cinematography both onstage and on the shore of Toubab Dialaw, Senegal, the end results are achingly beautiful. A journey of fascinating insights into the lives of dancers and the expressive power of movement.

 

Media Partner

Stir Logo

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Malou Airaudo, Clémentine Deluy, Josephine Ann Endicott, Jorge Puerta Armenta, Sangeun Lee, Courtney Richardson

Credits
Country of Origin

Germany

Year

2022

Language

In English, French, German, and Portuguese with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
Content Warning

Gender or Sexual Discrimination

18+
111 min
Documentary

Book Tickets

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Credits

Producer

Florian Heinzen-Ziob, Georg Heinzen

Screenwriter

Florian Heinzen-Ziob

Cinematography

Enno Endlicher

Editor

Florian Heinzen-Ziob

Director

Florian Heinzen-Ziob headshot, Dancing Pina director

Florian Heinzen-Ziob

Born 1984 in Düsseldorf, Germany, Florian Heinzen-Ziob is a freelance director, producer, and co-founder of the production company Fontäne Film. He studied media arts and film directing at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. As an author, director, and producer, he made the feature-length documentaries Original Copy (2015), German Class (2018), and Dancing Pina. His films have been shown at over a hundred film festivals worldwide, including International Film Festival Rotterdam, Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Sheffield DocFest, and DOK.fest Munich, and have received several awards. He lives and works in Cologne, Germany.

Filmography: Original Copy (2015); German Class (2018)