The Oreibasia of the Maenads is a project that emerged from my intensive involvement with Dionysus. It is a series of 4 short films that show different moments of the dancing rituals of the Maenads, which had the aim of evoking the god who is absent in winter.
In winter, the Maenads, followers of Dionysus, climbed the 2,458-meter-high Parnassos like gale-force winds in a swarm almost to the point of flying. The rigidity of nature and the obsession of the Dionysian women – an obsession that reveals an almost limitless abundance of power – meet and complement each other.
The frenzied maenads, with their hot liveliness, balanced the ice-cold hardness of the wintry mountain world, in which life would have been forgotten without this contrast and only the rigidity of death would have been reflected.
The real purpose of the Maenads‘ physical performance was to revive and awaken Dionysus. And this succeeded because it was set in motion by the unprecedented effort of the dancing maenads for three months during the winter period. (Source: Karl Kerény: Dionysos. The archetype of indestructible life)
Idea / concept / dance: Alexander Wenzlik
Camera: Stephanie Felber, Sebastian Korp
Editing: Alexander Wenzlik
Costume: Mirella Oestreicher