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Arts Intel Report

ImPulsTanz—Vienna International Dance Festival

Eun-Me Ahn’s Post-Orientalist Express.

July 9 – Aug 8, 2026

ImPulsTanz is Viennese not in the sense of waltzes and Nazis, but of rent control and Mahler in Dada mode. The whopping 50 productions this summer represent the full spectrum of experiment and experience. Besides old and new works by such established choreographers as Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Maguy Marin, Wim Vandekeybus, Trajal Harrell, the young and prolific Tao Ye, and Bill T. Jones (fashioning fragments of autobiography for fellow dancer-choreographer Raja Feather Kelly to embody), a whole series is devoted to young choreographers you’ve never heard of but might in a few years. In between is where the culture currently lies. Alexandra Bachzetsis, from Switzerland, splits the difference between pop pornography and autofiction; the Korean Eun-Me Ahn cheekily mixes her metaphors with Post-Orientalist Express; and the Viennese Hyeji Nam conjures a futuristic shamanism from Korean tradition. The fun is not limited to performances, though. Spectators become participants, with free, outdoor classes in waacking, “ancient futurities,” the tarantella, and “screaming out loud.” Afterparties bleed into the morning (where there’s always physiotherapy to reassemble you). For parents, free childcare. For the destitute, free tickets, thanks to Austria’s Hunger for Art and Culture initiative: a largesse that may stay with you long after the art has faded from mind. —Apollinaire Scherr

Photo: Sukmu Yun and Jiyang Kim