Van Rijswijk’s winning performance featured an eccentric fortune teller who encounters a spirit that leads her on a journey of discovery. Along with the character, Van Rijswijk incorporated scents that matched the energy of the performance – earthy sage, woody copal, rose and hibiscus – as well as correlating music and narration. In addition to appearing to control the lights with her mind and making steam appear by magic, Van Rijswijk said, “I even did a trick that has never been done before where I reach out with my hands and two towels get thrown to me by a machine. It was like a football stadium, everyone stood up and cheered.”
When she’s not competing in the Aufguss championships, Van Rijswijk travels the world training new Aufgussmeisters. After a recent training programme in Mauritius, she stressed how important it is to adapt Aufguss to the local culture. “Every time I visit a country for training, I look at what they are already good at and let that be their signature. Earth, air and fire were a common theme in the wellness in Mauritius. As soon as I saw this, I knew we had to incorporate this into their Aufguss routine.”
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Across the Atlantic, Travis Talmadge, co-founder of Bathhouse in New York tells me about his own style. “It’s a little bit understated, but cool. We use modern music, anything from trancey house music to R&B.” With the biggest Aufguss programme in the US, and hosting the country’s first-ever national competition in 2025, Talmadge and business partner Jason Goodman are pioneering the sweatbox culture with their own American flair.
While twirling a towel the way a pizza maker spins pizza dough serves as a creative outlet for sauna masters, the ritual provides something quite different for participants. Deborah Carr, director of the British Sauna Society, explains why Aufguss seems to be resonating with sauna-goers these days.
Getty ImagesAufguss is an exhilarating communal wellness journey (Credit: Getty Images)
