Verein Freifall
Holding onto everything I’ve got
Verena Schneider
Austria
Handstand, juggling
THE PROJECT / Holding on to everything I’ve got unfolds as a contemporary circus piece about our connection to the earth. It intertwines real and imagined parallels—between her body, the objects she moves with, and the cultural, earthly, and familial heritage that shapes her. The aim is to create a circus that is both intimate and political—a way of sensing how we destroy not only the landscapes around us, but also the landscapes within us.
By questioning her own biography, Verena explores the familial presences that shape her and reveal the complexity of earthly inheritance. As performer, accompanied by a musician, she confronts her body to embody these ruptures and their ecological consequences.
A circus emerges that turns away from fantasies of control — towards a practice rooted in relationships, mutual dependence, and the question of agency.
BIO / Verena Schneider is an Austrian acrobat/performer, circus maker and interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of circus, dance, and performance. With a background in circus arts (Le Lido – Toulouse, FLIC Scuola di Circo), and choreography (CodArts/ Fontys), her work weaves together handbalancing, acro-dance, object manipulation, and choreographic research to cultivate a personal circus language. She co-founded the circus company Kumquat with Charlotte Le May in Toulouse and the Vienna-based association Freifall.
Verena’s research focuses on an introspective circus practice. Navigating injuries and artistic demands, she tries to place the ecology of the body at the center of her work. In this process, she explores how listening to the body can become an act of resistance — a guide toward acknowledging vulnerability, failure and interdependence. This ongoing practice allows her circus to evolve over a lifetime, through tenderness and care, in relation to the shifting landscapes she moves within.