ENSEMBLE
The ensemble was founded in 1995 by the Austrian choreographer Saskia Hölbling and is an independent dance company based
in Vienna. To date, more than 30 productions have been created under her artistic direction.
In October 1995, Saskia Hölbling was considered a “high-flyer” in the Austrian dance scene. Her international
breakthrough came in 1998 with “Do your desires still burn”. This resulted in invitations to the Rencontres
choréographiques internationales de la Seine-Saint-Denis and other international festivals. At that time, Saskia is
artist-in-residence at dietheater Wien under the direction of Christian Pronay.
Their performances at Uzès Danse 1998 marked the beginning of a long-term partnership with the Centre Chorégraphique
National de Franche-Comté à Belfort under the direction of Odile Duboc and Laurent Vinauger. DANS.KIAS is a regular
guest at the Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de la Seine-Saint-Denis under Anita Mathieu and their work is
also regularly shown at ImPulsTanz, Karl Regensburger.
For the opening of Tanzquartier Wien (TQW) 2001 under the direction of Sigrid Gareis, Saskia developed an exciting
double evening full of contrasts: the solo “rrr...” (“reading, readings, reading...”), together with the Canadian
choreographer Benoît Lachambre and the French video artist Laurent Goldring, which reflects on the zero point as a
utopian starting point for the future in relation to the body, and “in.tent // frame 2” as a summery group pop piece for
her company DANS.KIAS.
In addition to her own nationally and internationally successful productions, she creates choreographies in the fields
of Contemporary Music in collaboration with the Wiener Taschenoper: “Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” by Claudio
Monteverdi and “A-Ronne” by Luciano Berio with the vocal ensemble Nova in the frame of Wien Modern (2002), “Labyrinth”
by Wolfgang Mitterer in the Semperdepot Wien (2004), „Naturale“, „Sequenza V“ and „Visage“ by Luciano Berio in the
Beriosaal of the Konzerthaus Wien (2009) and “Oresteia” by Iannis Xenakis directed by Carlos Padrissa (la Fura dels
Baus) at the Karlsplatz in the frame of the Wiener Festwochen (2011).
“Poetic, focused and unimpressed by the identitarian mainstream of dance in the decade” (Helmut Ploebst), she developed
the “squatting projects” together with Laurent Goldring/F: "body in a metal structure" (2012), "bodies (with)in fences"
(2013) and bodies in tubes (2014) and, together with her current ensemble, created pieces about the collapse of our
hypertrophic society inspired by Jean-Luc Nancy's reflections: “corps à corps” (2016) at the Odeon, “corps suspendus”
(2017), “things” (2018) and “da-nach” (2019) at the Atelierhaus of Fine Arts Vienna.
“through touches” (ImPulsTanz 2021), the major interface project “inhabit the impossible” (WUK 2023) and the current
production “fragments of desire” (Off Theatre 2024) once again mark a turning point and address how we deal with the
uncertain horizons of our present.
