The book is broken up in parts, in months and years to be specific, at least in the beginning, when Uli heads to New York everything happens in March/Spring it seems, and where Uli is at the moment.

Each part would make itself known with a picture of Uli, the place, and the date.

I loved how it was broken up into time periods, because it made it easier to follow.

The art was AMAZING! So colorful, bright, & full of so much movement.

I loved seeing the dancing scenes and could relate so much as I used to be a dancer myself!

I also appreciated how we saw Berlin in pieces after the war that caused so much heartbreak, death, destruction, sorrow and left deep scars in our world.

I really liked the story and how it was executed, a boy who dreams of dancing and doing good things with his talent in the middle of tough times, the background of the war, Also liked the LGBT representation and the romance introduced in the story.

Tanz! is gorgeous! Each of the drawings is vivid and filled with movement and energy that it just jumps out of the page. They also speak that he text is pretty much unnecessary. And that's a good thing, because some of it is not up to par with the drawings. Looking forward to the second volume.

This book's illustrations were fantastic. They were lively and enthralling. I felt as if I could have understood what was going on even without the text. I could tell the text was translated because the wording was clunky and difficult to understand at times. However, the illustrations made it worthwhile to read.

These are the words of our protagonist, Uli, after he moves to New York to study dance after leaving Folkwang in 1950s East Germany, where he ran into barriers to his self expression, namely his love of musicals and Broadway dance.

The story so far is sweet but I particularly like how the lingering trauma of the Second World War, of Uli's contemporary life, of racism and homophobia, is conveyed in the art and, especially the noticeable change in movement after Uli's move.

Overall, very good start to this series. I can't wait to buy this and read more!

•Character development- 4☆
• Story Plot- 3☆
• Side characters- 3.5☆
• Flow of the story- 3☆
• Overall - 3.5☆

Sadly I am unable to review this title as by the time I was able to find a system that would like me install a programm that allows acsm. files to be read the file had expired I could no longer access it. I have rated it 3 stars based on the details I have of the title.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

The art style flows so much for me! I really liked this but I will say there are more pages with no dialogue than with which is new to me and really shows how much the flow and movement of dance is important to Uli. This follows his journey from West Berlin to New York and brings in a range of characters who he has met. He is very openly gay within this as it is shown with his obvious hookups. It is, however, set in the 1950s and handled racism and homophobia well in my opinion.

Rating: 4⭐
Would I Read It Again? Yes
Would I Recommend it? Yes

While this book has a likable main character and interesting journey for him, the story was very disjointed. There were surreal artistic breaks and also sections with no dialogue that break up the story too much for me. I did appreciate the unique art style and variety of characters.

A visually stunning, queer graphic novel about dance. I loved it with my whole heart! I especially loved the way movement is illustrated...so fluid and lovely. The use of color, too. The typesetting was disappointingly amateurish, though.

My teen and I were both so intrigued by this graphic novel, and we were thrilled to get to read a copy thanks to NetGalley! A young man travels from West Berlin to New York to follow his dream to dance on Broadway, in this beautiful story of movement, color, and life depicted on the pages and throughout the story.

This graphic novel was moving, tender and complicated which I absolutely adored getting to read, it was unlike any other I had ever read. Thank you for sharing this treasure with us, I cannot wait to see what more Mazars has in store for us in future titles.

Beautiful, expressive watercolors depict a young man's journey from post-war West Berlin to New York to follow his dream to dance on Broadway. It's a compelling coming of age story, depicting cultural misunderstandings and clashes as well as sometimes learning and respect. I am excited to follow this story as it progresses in the promised next volume.

I received a review copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


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Uli is a student at the prestigious German arts school Folkwang in 1957, but he doesn't fit in. His passion lays with American-style dances, inspired by African American music and choreography, musicals and Hollywood dramas. We see him meet different lovers and when his group goes to Berlin, they meet a group of American dancers. He's quickly drawn to Anthony, an young African American ballet dancer and they share a night that plants idea in Uli to go to New York.
There, Uli finds rather quickly a part, which frustrates his new girlfriend and also Anthony. Uli, in his naivite, doesn't realise the privilege he has. His heart is in the right place, but he seems oblivious to the struggle women, people of color and Black Americans have. Tensions rise when Uli is clearly romantically interested in Anthony, who in turn has no interest in anything serious, partially due to homophobia, but particularly because of racism as Uli is completely disinterested in talking about Anthony's painful experiences and deflects when Anthony talks about segregation, gentrification and the commodification and whitewashing of Black culture to suit white tastes.

Not only are the drawings beautiful, atmospheric and captivating, Mazars is able to tell a story of pain, trauma, art, inspiration and conflict through images. For example, the conflict between Uli and Anthony is never explicitly adressed but through context - conversation, expressions, avoidance, etc. - it is clear what's going on.
Good-hearted and sensitive Uli is a dreamer, a cute and charming young man with dreams, but he's oblivious to many societal problems. He has a crush on Anthony, but can't or won't see the racism that makes Anthony's life miserable. When Anthony shares stories of the dance studio he wants to establish with his Black friends or how a certain artist doesn't appropriate Black culture, Uli isn't interested, he's focused on sex or changes the topic of conversation.

Tanz! is a beautiful, tender, yet complicated story. Uli has PTSD from the war and the drawings really capture his nightmares. Mazar also makes the interpersonal relationships complex and real, with everyone having dreams, aspirations and opinions and sometimes people clash. Not necessarily out of malice but for manyfold reasons. I'm looking forward to reading the next installments.

Mazar's style is absolutely to my liking, whilst the story itself is heart-warming, relatable and delicate, it deals with the themes of racism, homophobia, of identity. An absolutely banging start to this series.

Tanz is a mesmerizing graphic novel that follows Uli, a young aspiring dancer from Germany, as he maneuvers through the ups and downs of making it in show business.

Uli's life in the most prestigious dance school, Folkwang, felt repetitive and mundane. He searches for more excitement as he slowly disconnects with his life in dance school. Until one night he went to a club and met an American dancer. The American told him that he'd be more fitting in New York, where dancers can perform in musicals. Uli has always liked musicals and after witnessing his first musical in London. He made up his mind.

The art style is fluid, simple, and engaging. All of the fluid dance movements and the colors adds a vagueness in Uli's reality. Simmering between a dream like state and a casual day in town. Uli is much melancholic as he struggles adjusting to blending in New York social showbiz circles and landing a part in a dance troupee, or maybe broadway.
For all struggling artist that is trying to make it showbiz can definitely relate to Uli's perspective. Even though the time is set in 1950s-1960s, it felt as though Uli is a struggling dancer trying to make it in Broadway in modern times. The American that became Uli's future love interest is more secretive as men at that time, especially young black gay men, are in the closet as society isn't succeptible to same sex relationships. Different from Uli's lifestyle in Europe.

This book is a quick read that I enjoyed and I kept staring at each page as the art work is just magnificent. I wonder how Uli and The American story will be like and I hope their relationships develops into a much more serious manner.

The artistic style is really fascinating -- though I felt like I did not comprehend everything the author intended to symbolize. I was interested enough in the relationships of the main character, but was not super piqued by the heavy focus on dance. This will likely appeal more to a difference audience.

Thanks to NetGalley, Europe Comics, and Maurane Mazars for the ARC.

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.

I really.. really really did not like this. It felt like a jumbled mess the ENTIRE time. The art left something to be desired. Even the speech bubble style bothered me. There were so many times (and this is a short story!!) that I found myself looking at pages and pages of meaningless drawings wondering WHY this was necessary to the story. Poorly structured throughout.

I appreciated the diversity included within the story and the couple comments about the struggle of dancers of different ethnicities and backgrounds..but quite literally nothing else appealed to me. Nothing. I'm super bummed about it.

C/W: Racism, homophobia and war

3.5 stars

"Tanz!" as a graphic novel relies far more on its artwork than it does words. While I don't think the art-style is for everyone, people who enjoy traditional cartoon work and fine-art may find "Tanz!" quite interesting purely from an aesthetic perspective.

I loved how Uli's journey while only shown in glimpses really tied down this idea that pursuing a passion is never easy, no matter how easy it comes to you. I was surprised at the handling of heavy topics like immigration, racism, homophobia and war tied into the novel. As I said, this novel relies a lot upon this central idea of movement. to explain itself and that comes with quite a few advantages. This is definitely a story that touches on the crushing reality of many new adults who are trying to carve a space for themselves.

This is a solid first volume and I'm interested to see if the second lives up to my expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of "Tranz!" all opinions stated are my own.

Tanz translates to dance in English.

This German graphic novel tells the story of Uli, a German dancer, who dreams of being on Broadway. Overall, I was not wild about the story. I think the basis of the narrative was decent, but it just wasn't executed well. The storytelling was a bit simplistic and sparse on dialogue. I also felt like it ended a bit abruptly; however, it appears that this is issue 1 of a series.

First, I was not digging the art, but as Tanz! progressed, I liked it more and more. The art is reminiscent of watercolor.

I would recommend this to those that like graphic novels that are all about the art or those interested in dance. Me? I will not be picking up any more issues of Tanz!

The first ten pages surprised me. Overall, this graphic novel has bright and pastel colours but the first ten pages were dark, representing I am guessing the war and how Uli’s parents ran away. It was quite different from the rest of the comic but I think necessary to get the reader into the context. I enjoyed this graphic novel a lot. I am quite sad it is only the first part and not the whole story. I can’t wait to read the rest. I loved the colours and the drawing style; even though I wasn’t sure about it at the beginning, I totally adore it by the end. It depicts body movement so well which is very important for a graphic novel about dance. The character of Uli is very interesting and following him grow up and develop engaging. The fact that the events take place after the second world war really makes you think about what is happening in the story and about the meaning of the different dance styles. A big part of the story also discusses race. The way Uli’s react sometimes, as well as the behaviour of some characters, is very interesting. I like how it talks about a subject I never really thought about before, which is race in the field of dance. I recommend it to everyone.
4.5/5