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[praktikerin]

READ MY BODY.

B

orn in Heidelberg to a family of academics, Vivien was always the odd one out. She was bright enough, but also very dyslexic, so she struggled with school, instead finding her talents in sports and dance (jazz and tap). At age 7, she took up ballet and soon showed great potential for it, within long dedicating herself to it fully. Eventually, at age 12, she was sent by her parents to a physical education-oriented school in Berlin where she would focus on dance, tutored by former star dancer, Anneliese Klein, on the side. It was Anneliese who, when Vivien had managed her Hauptschulabschluss, sent her to audition for Staatsballett Berlin, to become an aspirant with them. She was accepted and started a career with the company that would eventually lead to her becoming a principal dancer herself. Now 34 years old, she is beginning to wonder what to do with herself when she can't dance anymore.

At this point, she meets the Luxembourg-residing German poet, Alexa Hase, who has entered into a working partnership with the Staatsballett Berlin for their upcoming Tänzer/in mixed bill, an angry feminist and halfway anarchist who both provokes her and makes her reconsider aspects of her life she had until then taken for granted. The two develop a deep-felt friendship, then a romantic relationship, and Alexa becomes Vivien’s way of finally moving on from her old, broken relationship to her ex, Adam Taylor, into a new and less constricting future, where she might be ready to hone other parts of her life than just those supported by her laboured body.

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