It won't be like this forever – this is written on the sign that the choreographer Moritz Ostruschnjak carries across the stage, while the dancer Daniel Conant performs the traditional Bavarian Schuhplattler dance for an audience which is properly seated according to the latest COVID-19 guidelines. The thirty minute long solo Tanzanweisungen (Dance Instructions) is full of self-reflective and ironic references that defy a concrete definition. Ostruschnjak remains true to the eclectic style of his latest productions and allows his dancer a smooth transition from the Bavarian Schuhplattler into a grand jeté, from boxing footwork into the break dance moves and from a révérence to the rope jumping. The common element is sound, the pounding, clapping, breathing, jumping, bouncing that fills the space as a consistent rhythm. As if wound up, the protagonist tirelessly works his way through the extremely diverse canon of movement, assuming poses of resistance, combat and victory, stylized masculinity, youth culture, classical ballet, ballroom dances and sports in rapid succession – an absurd sequence of divergent elements that overdraw, ironize and contradict each other and that, in combination, playfully yet relentlessly lead into an abyss. Accordingly, the piece ends with the DAF’s provocative song “Der Mussolini”, a literal dance instruction – "dance the Mussolini dance, dance the Adolf Hitler dance, dance the Jesus Christ dance..."

Moritz Ostruschnjak lives and works as a freelance choreographer in Munich. As an active member of the graffiti scene, he became interested in contemporary dance through breakdancing. Ostruschnjak studied at the Iwanson International School of Contemporary Dance in Munich and completed his training with Maurice Béjart in Lausanne. For a while he worked as a dancer at home and abroad. Since 2013, when he started working as a choreographer, he has created the solo Island of Only Oneland and the ensemble pieces Text Neck, BOIDS, UNSTERN and AUTOPLAY. His production YESTER:NOW (2021) premiered at the Gasteig Cultural Centre, which hosts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. His pieces have been performed at festivals like Tanzwerkstatt Europa and SPRING Utrecht; UNSTERN was selected for the Tanzplattform Deutschland 2020, and Tanzanweisungen has placed him among the Aerowaves Twenty 2021. In 2020 he was awarded the City of Munich award for his artistic work.