\n<\/p>\n
That weightlessness, or the effect of it, is \u201cwhat Romanticism was about,\u201d Cordua said. \u201cThey all wanted to get to a higher sphere. I found it really interesting to see and meet people that do all those scary things that I don\u2019t find so scary \u2014 these artists that do all these extreme things with their bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holzinger sees the body modification scene similarly. In the circus sideshow world, people have trained their bodies \u201cto deal with pain levels so that they can do this physical suspension,\u201d Holzinger said. \u201c<\/strong>People who have not seen or experienced this themselves, they think, this is physically not possible. The skin will rip. We will see all the skin rip! And then they see the skin doesn\u2019t rip, and of course, for them, it\u2019s like magic.\u201d<\/p>\n How different is it \u201cto what people feel when they see a ballet dancer in pointe shoes looking like it\u2019s completely effortless?\u201d she said. \u201cThey are all also a bit like, \u2018That is something I could not do. How is it possible?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Holzinger continued, \u201cA mainstream audience that goes to the ballet house would never question whether this is unhealthy for the ballerina to do,\u201d Holzinger said. \u201cOr that when we watch it, we are experiencing something violent. But when they watch \u2018Tanz,\u2019 and they see people suspended, they are shocked that I make my people do something as violent as that.\u201d<\/p>\n In the sideshow arena, people are proud \u201cto call themselves pain artists,\u201d Holzinger said, \u201cbut a ballerina would never call herself a pain artist. It\u2019s exactly about the illusion: It is painful, but it should not look painful. And let\u2019s not talk about the pain. It\u2019s effortless.\u201d<\/p>\n Pain, she knows, can be even stronger and more intense in sports. But her experience in contemporary dance, with its focus on somatic ideas of internal attentiveness, was that pain was negative. \u201cLike as a dancer, you should not feel pain,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen it\u2019s painful, you stop. That was, I guess, also a big fascination for me, to deal with my body in a different way. \u2014 where it actually also gets interesting when it is<\/em> painful. How can you still produce something that you have not felt before?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n