'Germany, April 1957. Uli has a dream: to become a famous Broadway dancer. But as a modern dance student at the prestigious Folkwang school, Uli’s energetic and outgoing personality stands out in sharp contrast to the melancholy of post-war Europe. During a trip to Berlin, he meets Anthony, a young American dancer. The attraction is immediate. Anthony convinces Uli to come to New York and try his luck on Broadway. The young men part ways, but Uli will pack his bags and embark on an adventure that will take him to a new life overflowing with life, color, and movement — but also disappointment, harsh reality, and a good dose of heartbreak.'
Tanz! tells the story of Uli, a young ballet dancer from Germany in the 1950's. Uli is, for the time and place, a very happy and enthusiastic young person, traits that not all of his friends share, what with the country recovering from the ravages of the second world war. Over the course of several months the reader follows Uli has he travels around Europe, and eventually moves to New York, in his mission to find a career in dance.
I wish there was more to really talk about in regards to the plot, but I have to be honest, not a huge amount really happens in this first volume, with large sections of the book given over to sequences that show Uli and his friends dancing, or travelling around Europe. Whilst these sections look pretty, thanks to the artwork that Mazars utilises in the book, they don't really move the story forward very much. Whilst not a problem on its own, these moments probably came to about half of the page count of the book, meaning that by the time I was done I was left a little disappointing that I hadn't gotten more from it.
I wanted to lean more about Uli, I wanted to know why he loved dance and theatre so much, what drove him to push himself to succeed, yet I never really felt like I got to know him very well over the course of this first volume. He would do certain things, but I never knew why he was doing it, what his motivations were, so I never felt too connected to him or his journey.
Even when the book touched upon potentially important and interesting discussions, such as the queer community in the 50's, or the difficulty that Black dancers faced in comparison to their white counterparts, these moments didn't really go into any real depth. Yes, a character would say 'you've got it easy Uli, I don't get the same opportunities as a Black man', and that was about it. I wanted these issues to be explored more, but they didn't get the chance to really shine here.
I'm hoping that the future volumes of the book will go into these things more, that we'll get some interesting social commentary, and that Uli will begin to feel more fleshed out. I'm hoping that as this is just the first volume that Mazars is simply still setting the stage for more interesting stories to come. It's possible that I might have missed some things, that there was more to this book than I was able to pick out, and I hope that others will enjoy it more than I did, but sadly I was left feeling a bit empty by the read. Fingers crossed future volumes will change my mind.
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