[8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series – Podcast

23 Episodes

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Lisen Pousette & Olivia Rivière at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2025-11-0625:46

Today’s guests are Lisen Pousette and Olivia Rivière, the makers of the performance DUNKEL, which was invited to this year’s [8:tension] Series. We talked about the time when they met in choir school and how singing is their natural habitat. How they moved on from soprano and alto to heavy metal and growling and about their ongoing fascination with the deconstruction of the voice. Almud Krejza was talking with Lisen Pousette and Olivia Rivière during ImPulsTanz Festival 2025.

Martina De Dominicis at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2025-10-3040:28

Today’s guest is Martina De Dominicis, who’s work Latente was invited to this years [8:tension] Series. Martina talked about nostalgia as something more than missing the past, but missing the future, which one thought would come but did not, about how fruitful it can be to trust in one‘s gut-feeling. And about the importance of unlearning as well as of doing things one can not do - yet. Almud Krejza was talking with Martian De Dominicis during ImPulsTanz Festival 2025.

Matteo Haitzmann at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2025-10-2322:22

Today’s guest is Matteo Haitzmann, composer and choreographer, who’s work Make it Count was invited to this years [8:tension] Series. He told me which lessons from being a danceWEBber back in 2018 came in handy now, being back at the festival for a residency. How the restrictions during Corona times made him accidentally invent a new instrument. And which role the village he grew up in still plays for him when creating. Almud Krejza was talking with Matteo Haitzmann during ImPulsTanz FestivaL 2025.

Netti Nüganen at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-12-2632:52

Today’s guest is Netti Nüganen. Known to ImPulsTanz audiences as part of a number of Florentina Holzinger’s productions, she first presented one of her own performances at this year’s festival. Her piece The Myth: last day, a pseudo-archeological excavation turned punk concert, is an exercise in how history is constructed. With author Sean Pfeiffer, Nüganen further reflects on this intersection of fact and fiction. They also discuss how engaging with both text material and physical objects constitutes her performative practice.

Camilla Schielin at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-12-1925:26

Today’s guest is Camilla Schielin, a dancer-choreographer working in Vienna. After showing her solo piece into (quickening ground) at ImPulsTanz, she talked with author Sean Pfeiffer about the development of the piece, the music and dance styles that influenced it, and how other performers shape her work.

Luca Bonamore at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-12-1218:55

Today’s guest is Luca Bonamore, a dancer and choreographer from Vienna. His latest group piece, Silent Lovers, is concerned with cruising - a historically queer practice of public sexual encounters. In his conversation with author Sean Pfeiffer, Bonamore discusses his start as a dancer, what it means to open up the private to the public, and navigating the multitude of Viennese spaces he performs in.

Jette Loona Hermanis & Anna Ansone at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-12-0528:52

Today’s guests are choreographer-performer Jette Loona Hermanis from Estland and visual artist and stage designer Anna Ansone from Latvia. They sat down with author Sean Pfeiffer to talk about their collaborative piece FrostBite, a post-nuclear fantasy between theatre, dance and installation. They also discuss the importance of genre, fashion and improvisation in their work, and how they channelled child’s play in developing the piece.

j. bouey & Tyrone Bevans at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-11-2838:55

Today’s guests are j. bouey and Tyrone Bevans, both waacking dancers and choreographers based in New York. With author Sean Pfeiffer, they discuss the history of waacking and the world premiere of their duet A Message at ImPulsTanz. They also talk about finding inspiration in the 1970s and dance as a vehicle for liberation.

Viní Ventania & Vitória Jovem – Irmãs Brasil – at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-11-2140:34

Today’s guests are Viní Ventania and Vitória Jovem, performing together as Irmãs Brasil, the „Sisters of Brasil“. Their duet Eunuchs, a haunting and commanding piece about the historic and on-going hate and violence against gender-nonconforming bodies, was one of two winning works at this year’s ImPulsTanz - Young Choreographers' Award. Speaking with author Sean Pfeiffer, they reflect on their time in Vienna, the discussions their performance sparked at the festival, and how Eunuchs as a piece of art is still evolving.

Xenia Koghilaki at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-11-1429:02

Today’s guest is Xenia Koghilaki, a dancer-choreographer working between Athens and Berlin. With author Sean Pfeiffer, she discusses her research into crowd dances and moshing. She talks about the resulting piece Slamming, and how anticipation and release function as structural devices in her work.

Astrid Boons at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-11-0728:57

Today’s guest is Astrid Boons, a Belgian choreographer currently working in the Netherlands. Her piece Khôra aims to find humanity in an increasingly technologized world. Her conversation with author Sean Pfeiffer touches upon the philosophical underpinnings of the work and how collaborating closely with the performers shapes her process.

Georges Labbat at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-10-3135:13

Today’s guest is Georges Labbat, a dancer, choreographer and visual artist working in Paris. With Vienna based choreographer and artistic co-director of the [8:tension] Series, Chris Haring, he met at the Austrian Film Museum to discuss his performance Self/Unnamed. Here, Labbat dances with a resin puppet modeled after himself. They talk about the process of creating the puppet and the ambivalent projections regarding power and desire the duet invites.

Soa Ratsifandrihana at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-10-2426:08

Today’s guest is Soa Ratsifandrihana, a Franco-Malagasy dancer and choreographer based in Brussels. With author Sean Pfeiffer, she talks about showing her solo piece g r o o v e at ImPulsTanz – Vienna International Dance Festival. The work entangles different aspects of Ratsifandrihana’s personal as well as dance heritage, playing with the tension between history and momentary presence.

Deva Schubert at the [8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast

2024-10-1729:16

Today’s guest is Deva Schubert, a dancer and choreographer from Berlin. She sat down with author Sean Pfeiffer for a conversation about her work Glitch Choir, one of the winners of the 2024 ImPulsTanz - Young Choreographer’s Award. They discuss the ever-changing nature of the piece, and how one finds pleasure in a work primarily concerned with grief and lamentation.

[8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast with Olivia Axel Scheucher / Nick Romeo Reimann

2024-05-0138:23

Today’s guests are theatre director Olivia Axel Scheucher and actor Nick Romeo Reimann. Their collaborative work FUGUE FOUR : RESPONSE was first developed for the Porn Film Festival Vienna. The satirical investigation of how sex and bodies are commodified in the digital age was then adapted for Volkstheater Dunkelkammer. For the [8:tension] Series, Olivia, Nick and their collaborators (actress Thea Ehre and performer-choreographer Luca Bonamore) presented the piece in yet another setting – the proscenium stage of Schauspielhaus Vienna. A month after the festival, Olivia and Nick sat down with writer Sean Pfeiffer. They discussed their residency time at the ImPulsTanz Festival, their foray into the world of contemporary dance and performance, as well as the question of genre in their work.

[8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast with Sebastiano Sing

2024-04-2435:38

The work of Sebastiano, a Vienna-based choreographer and performer, has long been occupied with making space for big emotions. His piece MATHIEU was first developed in a TURBO residency at ImPulsTanz Festival 2022. Following its premiere in WUK Vienna’s project space, it was then presented at Schauspielhaus Vienna in the frame of [8:tension]. In his conversation with writer Sean Pfeiffer, Sebastiano discusses the creative potential of guilty pleasures and the collaboration with dancer Hugo Le Brigand and musician Ernst Lima. He also opens up about how he learned to stop worrying and love the term of Tanztheater.

[8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast with Anne Lise Le Gac

2024-04-1742:58

Her work La Caresse du Coma ft. YOLO is a multi-media performance, a lecture on digital chimeras, and an invitation to a strange and yet strangely familiar world. Together with musical collaborator Loto Retina, Anne Lise transformed the Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz into a misty, spa-like space of uncertainties and fabricated truths. After their showings, the two of them sat down with writer Sean Pfeiffer. They discussed the role of levity and humor in their work, the productivity of not knowing for sure, and how their residency time at ImPulsTanz stimulated their creative partnership.

[8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast with Marga Alfeirão

2024-04-1030:19

Marga’s work opens up spaces in which she is able to explore feminine sensuality and sexuality at her own pace. She and her team joined writer Sean Pfeiffer for a conversation before the second showing of their “lesbian lap dance duet” LOUNGE. They discussed the reciprocal effect between the music and the dancers and the piece’s ebb and flow of energy and slowness. They also talk about the difficulties in balancing the public and the private while performing intimacy on stage. After its premiere in cold, dark January at Sophiensaele in the frame of Tanztage Berlin, the heat of summer brought another layer to the work. LOUNGE went on to win the ImPulsTanz – Young Choreographers’ Award 2023, awarded by an international jury of three: writer and scholar Anna Kozonina, choreographer, performer and 2021 award winner Tamara Alegre, and curator and dramaturg Mateusz Szymanówka.

[8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast with James Batchelor

2024-04-0344:06

James is a choreographer, dancer and dance teacher from Australia. Now based in Berlin, he works internationally. Before the second showing of his piece Shortcuts to Familiar Places at Schauspielhaus Vienna, James sat down with Chris Standfest. They discussed the ways in which James’ mentor Ruth Osborne as well as the legendary Gertrud Bodenwieser shaped the work. They also touch on the specific excitement of showing it in Vienna, where Bodenwieser Lived before she had to flee from the Nazis. They further reflect on how expression or Ausdruckstanz is reentering the current dance landscape.

[8:tension] Young Choreographers' Series Podcast with Harald Beharie

2024-03-2732:04

Harald’s first solo Batty Bwoy is both bleak and playful in its re-appropriation of racist and homophobic stereotypes. By embodying this harmful imagery, they emerge on the other side as a newly ambivalent figure, impossible to grasp. Batty Bwoy was presented in a spacious white cube setting within the exhibition Blackness, White and Light by New York-based visual artist Adam Pendleton at mumok – Museum of Modern Art Stiftung Ludwig Vienna. The challenging setting created an intense dialogue between the Norwegian-Jamaican performer and Pendleton’s work, leading to huge success with the audience and 2 add-on performances. Writer Sean Pfeiffer and Harald talk about his inspirations for the piece, the musical collaboration with a Norwegian prog-rock band, and the delicacy of involving an audience directly.

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[8:tension] Young Choreographers’ Series – Podcast