Altered States, the title of the 17th International Festival of Contemporary Dance for the Biennale di Venezia 2023 (13-29 July), is the third chapter with which the director Wayne McGregor continues to explore this discipline of motion, in dialogue with technoculture and the most advanced scientific thought, and in a perceptional relationship with the audience.
Altered States
We sit in the darkening auditorium waiting for the show to begin. This precious moment before the curtain goes up, where all is possible. Our breathing slows, as the collective pull of this shared experience – this audience organism – encourages us to wash away the energies of our day and to be made ready for this ‘cut out of time'. We are in this fluid state of anticipation, curiosity and expectation, this blissful state of unknowing. We are sensing from the inside out, our internal chemistry – our enteroception sense in overdrive.
– Wayne McGregor, Director of the Dance Department of La Biennale di Venezia.
The 17th International Festival of Contemporary Dance continues its long-term programme of commissions for new dance aimed at young artists and Italian and foreign companies, and of mentoring and training.
The artists and art works selected for Biennale Danza 2023 – says McGregor – are movement alchemists. Their work is driven by an insatiable curiosity to explore and experiment both in process and performance; through improvisation, soma-sensory installation, radical minimalism or with surprising departures of form and context. Fundamentally, they challenge traditional dance orthodoxies and in doing so release us to experience our bodies anew, connecting our external models of the world with our lesser-known internal maps – altering our states of understanding and experience.
[McGregor's full introduction is reproduced in full below.]
The inauguration of the Festival has been entrusted to two young artists: Oona Doherty, two years ago winner of the Silver Lion and now a focus of interest for the many festivals, theatres and institutions in Europe which have co-produced Navy Blue with La Biennale; and Andrea Peña, a native of Colombia, now based in Montréal, the winner of the international call for a new choreography, Bogota, together with her multidisciplinary company Andrea Peña & Artists.
The 16 young dancers and 2 choreographers of Biennale College Danza 2023 will be in residence in Venice for three intensive months of training that will conclude on the stages of the festival.
Duo by William Forsythe, a piece from 1997 that dissects and revises the principles of the pas de deux, will be presented in a new production by Riley Watts and Brigel Gjoka, formerly dancers with Forsythe who had produced a new version back in 2015, which will now be extended to involve all the Biennale College dancers. Dance Constructions, the historic series of performances by Simone Forti, a perfect synthesis of the research into movement that has distinguished the Italo-American artist's practice since the beginning of her career, will be reconstructed for and with the Biennale College dancers. Xie Xin, considered a key figure in contemporary choreography as the expression of a fluid and intangible dance, will be commissioned to create a new work with the participants of the College. Finally, the dancers will work together to produce two new original creations conceived by the choreographers selected for the College.
A new work has also been commissioned to Pontus Lidberg. The choreographer, filmmaker and dancer rooted in the classical vocabulary of ballet, which he has successfully brought back into circulation while projecting it towards the future, a brilliant performer of the works of many great choreographers – from Jiří Kylián to Ohad Naharine – and later choreographer for major companies on both sides of the ocean – from the New York City Ballet to the Paris Opera Ballet – will present the world premiere of On the nature of Rabbits.
The festival will feature many international choreographers, some of them renowned, others yet to be discovered on European stages. Coming to Italy for the first time is Carlos Acosta's Acosta Danza with Ajiaco with choreography by Sidi-Larbi Cherkaoui, Javier De Frutos, Michaela Taylor, and Alexis Fernandez. Also in Italy for the first time is Botis Seva and his youthful company Far from the Norm, champions of a dance that is grounded in hip hop culture. Another first for Italy is the Australian choreographer Lucy Guerin, who out of her post-modern training in New York developed a personal conceptual approach to choreography. The French-Algerian choreographer Rachid Ouramdane, a prominent figure in French dance and now director of one of the Théâtre de Chaillot in Paris will be coming to Venice, as well as Michael Keegan-Dolan, the award-winning Irish director and choreographer, author of eccentric works that create a short-circuit between dance, music and theatre. Finally, the Tao Dance Theater of Tao Ye and Duan Ni, the company from Beijing awarded the Silver Lion, who “have built a unique and evolutionary dance genre that has enraptured with a mesmeric, minimalist force” (McGregor).
Wayne McGregor's Presentation Biennale Danza 2023
Altered States
We sit in the darkening auditorium waiting for the show to begin. This precious moment before the curtain goes up, where all is possible. Our breathing slows, as the collective pull of this shared experience – this audience organism – encourages us to wash away the energies of our day and to be made ready for this ‘cut out of time'. We are in this fluid state of anticipation, curiosity and expectation, this blissful state of unknowing. We are sensing from the inside out, our internal chemistry – our enteroception sense in overdrive.
Right now, in our bloodstreams, there are hundreds of chemicals racing through each of our bodies – naturally occurring chemicals. Those chemicals direct how we think, feel, speak, and behave. We operate largely at the mercy of them, experiencing reactions, thoughts, and emotions, often without realising that we can actively manage them, gently altering our internal chemical balance to influence the way we breathe, move, empathise, and communicate.
When we dance or experience incredible dance performances, our body's inner sensations are provoked into states of change as chemical reactions inside us transform our perceptions in real time. We breathe faster, our eyes dart, our heartrate increases, and our chest tightens; or we quieten, relax back, eyes wide, the hairs on our skin standing tall – the connections between our brain, body, mind, and the world reshape, and sometimes, when we are lucky, metamorphosise. We can feel elated, challenged, energized, infuriated, surprised, adrenalized, transported or quite simply, we sit there, with tears streaming down our faces. This is the power of dance. The greater one's new affinity with the artwork, the more radical the altered states as we are moved from the prosaic to the profound. Dance changing then, our very state of being.
Biennale Danza 2023 we will continue our 5 programme strands:
Live/Installation
Biennale College
Collaboration
Film
Talks/Workshops
Live
The artists and art works selected for Biennale Danza 2023 are movement alchemists. Their work is driven by an insatiable curiosity to explore and experiment both in process and performance; through improvisation, soma-sensory installation, radical minimalism or with surprising departures of form and context. Fundamentally, they challenge traditional dance orthodoxies and in doing so release us to experience our bodies anew, connecting our external models of the world with our lesser-known internal maps – altering our states of understanding and experience.
We are delighted to be commissioning and co-commissioning new work this year in a Festival of 7 world premieres – as well as thrilled to be presenting 3 European premiere and 9 Italian premieres from iconic dance world leaders to emerging, innovative new voices. Over 150 artists will be LIVE in Venice with 89 events across 17 days. We will also be hosting full production residencies for artists who are premiering work with us providing critical time in our theatres to test, experiment and technically develop their projects ready for international touring.
This year we begin with a major collaboration to celebrate one of the most gifted and revolutionary movement artists of the century Simone Forti – our Golden Lion.
In a dynamic collaboration between Biennale Danza and the Museum of Contemporary Art LA (MOCA), and Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA), Biennale Danza 23 will present the European opening of Simone Forti, the first in depth exhibition to explore the monumental career the visionary artist. Forti is perhaps best known as a choreographer, which the exhibition will highlight with performances of her ground-breaking Dance Constructions, featuring a cast of Biennale College artists and creatives. At the same time, Forti can more expansively be understood as an artist who works with movement. Looking beyond the Dance Constructions, this exhibition surveys six decades of the artist's incisive work, elucidating the breadth and depth of her practice through works on paper, videos, holograms, and performance ephemera and documentation. Featuring work from the 1960s through to the present day, Simone Forti is a homage to a towering artist who has forever reframed the dialogue between visual art and contemporary dance.
Tao Ye and Duan Ni (our Silver Lions) bring their exceptional company Tao Dance to Venice for the first time with their European premieres of 13 and 14. With a rigorously austere and minimalist aesthetic, Tao mesmerizes and challenges with their innovative circular movement system. Here, the body is presented as an element to be perceived for its optical allure – devoid of representation, narrative, or context, simply existing as an object alone. In confronting our felt sense of time, Tao Dance provokes us into a place of meditative focus whilst allowing us to access our deepest internal emotional landscape.
For Biennale Danza 2021 we welcomed Oona Doherty to Venice as our Silver Lion and invited her to present a dream project in the future. In her new major work, and our Italian premiere for 23, Oona returns with her unsettling Navy Blue, a Biennale Danza Commission. Featuring music from Rachmaninoff andJamie xx, this confrontational and visceral work considers where we have been and where we are heading, as it urgently appeals for societal change. Navy Blue, an ode perhaps to the cruelty and pointlessness of life is shot through with Doherty's arresting, shimmering beauty – fragments of hopes reaching out in the darkness.
Superstar dancer and choreographer Carlos Acosta brings his explosive eponymous Cuban company Acosta Danza to Italy for the first time. Formed in 2015 to harness and develop the young creative dance talent emerging from Cuba, Acosta Danza and their astonishing dancers have taken the dance world by storm in passionate and daring performances of joyous eclectic style. Choreographers Micaela Taylor, Alexis Fernandez (Maca), Yaday Ponce and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui share their breath-taking work in a four-part programme that includes a world premiere by Venezuelan dance sensation Javier De Frutos.
Our open call outs for choreographic artists in Italy and globally, to be commissioned by Biennale Danza, yielded incredible submissions. This initiative not only provides us with the rare opportunity and insight to discover fresh talent world-wide – artists sharing with us rich ideas ready for production and a desire to present their work in the Biennale context – but it also opens-up the Biennale to new nurturing dialogues, cross-talk and collaboration.
Columbian/Canadian multi-disciplinary artist Andrea Peña, the winner of the international call out will present BOGOTA – a brave and raw approach to new movement exploration and hybrid forms that explores the notions of death and resurrection, through a post-industrial, queer, and Latin American baroque lens.
With Vanishing Place, Luna Cenere, the winner of our Italian commission, continues her research on the naked body, posture, object, landscape and gesture, in startling dialogue with one another – piercing the very heart of what it is to dance.
Michael Keegan Dolan's MÁM, storms onto the stage in a virtuosic ninety-minute dance and music marathon embodying every single human emotion. Bringing together the virtuoso Irish traditional concertina player Cormac Begley, the European classical, contemporary collective, s t a r g a z e and twelve international dancers from the Teaċ Daṁsa company, MÁM is a meeting place between soloist and ensemble, classical and traditional, the local and the universal.
Whilst Paris based Rachid Ouramdane's Variation(s) pitches two phenomenally danced solos in an extreme musical work verging on trance, our everyday “normal” waking consciousness is hypnotized into an elevated altered states of experience.
Launching his new company with us in 2023, Pontus Lidberg's world premiere and Biennale Danza Commission On The Nature Of Rabbits is a collaborative tour de force – Pontus' team includes Emmy award winning animation director Jason Carpenter and Grammy award winning composer David Lang. On The Nature Of Rabbits interweaves a soul searching true story of connection, love and sexuality in the early 1990s with a reflection on our evolving relationship with nature in a time of rapid change.
Deconstructing street dance and challenging perceptions of Hip Hop, Botis Seva's work is emotionally charged, theatrical, and popular – mixing urban dance, text and physical theatre to create an originally direct new medium. Seva's, award winning company Far From The Norm invites debate on social political issues and the contemporary world. In this Italian premiere and through haunting childhood memories and adult life traumas, BLKDOG questions how we fight through our vices to find a sense of peace. Overwhelming, hard-hitting and uplifting.
Installation
Australian maverick Lucy Guerin brings her insatiable curiosity and gravity defying 39 digital PENDULUM installation to Arsenale, created with percussive artist Matthias Schack-Arnott. Throughout Biennale Danza 23 festival, performers roam amongst a field of moving pendulums that each consist of a suspended bell that tolls, pulses and hums. Performers activate the bells; hurling, catching, stopping, spinning, dodging and resisting the swing in their dance with gravity. The power and vulnerability of the human body is revealed through these attempts to control the relentless rise and fall of the pendulum's weight in this eternally moving frame. And we, the audience, feel the motion of time passing inside us, building an intimate kinesthetic empathy with performer, pendulum, and our internal chemistry.
Collaboration
Mestre residency:
In a special project for Biennale Danza 2023 in Mestre's Teatro del Parco, Lucy Guerin's sharp, elegant choreographic work Split will reflect the dilemmas of negotiating with oneself and others in a world of increased pressure and reduced resources. Featuring a musical score by UK composer Scanner, Split is a thought-provoking structural meditation rendered in movement.
Last year Indigo Lewin, our photographic artist in residence 21-24, unveiled her intimate dance portraits of Biennale Danza 21 – elucidating epic encounters with our recent past, whilst film maker Ravi Deepres shot all of our stellar performers/performances in hi-definition, multi camera captures for the Biennale archive. Continuing our collaboration Indigo and Ravi will both be in residence for Biennale Danza 2023 evolving their unique perspective on our special world. Look out for their printed exhibition of work in the Biennale catalogue 23.
Biennale College has been a highlight of both the 2021 and 2022 Biennale Danza, with superb, imaginative young artists growing exponentially during their intensive 3 months in Venice. Our ambition to connect our burgeoning young talent with unrivalled learning, training, mentoring, and creating opportunities has been fortified by the excellence we have experienced in the past two editions. Each season, we reflect and revise our offer and work towards a gold standard in dance training in the context of this wonderful international series of Biennale festivals. Again, 16 young dancers from around the world and 2 young choreographers will be resident at Biennale Danza 2023, taking class, workshops, rep and vitally creating new work. In a special commission, Chinese dance phenomena Xie Xin, fresh from her creation period at the Paris Opera, will create a new work with the College participants for a shared programme in the Arsenale.
Continuing our ambition to have the greatest living dance artists working with Biennale College, we are thrilled that our students will have William Forsythe's work Duo remade on them and experience an intensive course in Forsythe's techniques taught by 2 seminal dancers of his company Riley Watts and Brigel Gjoka.
Additionally, the Biennale College will be central to the celebration of our Golden Lion Simone Forti by performing her Dance Constructions that will form a part of her retrospective exhibition. Sarah Vox Swenson, choreographer, dancer, and Forti's specialist will be in Venice teaching and re-staging the Dance Constructions on behalf of MOMA.
To have Xie Xin, Simone Forti and William Forsythe at Biennale College 2023 is a remarkable testament to the quality of the work we are undertaking and the belief these artists have in the work of Biennale College in fostering the creativity and talent of the next generation of dancers and performers.
Biennale College is equally committed to investing in the future generation of choreographic dance talent, through a focus on young artists and emerging dance makers. Through co-productions, residencies, and invitation, we can make significant support early for young makers and facilitate projects they could not easily access without us. This year, two international emerging talents will be commissioned to create new work for the Biennale College. Please watch out for our announcement later this month.
Film
Our dance film programme has had a steadily committed audience from its inception, and we would like to continue this strand of work in 2023. In Biennale Danza 23 we will profile film work from the festival artists, work curated by them and major releases from established makers, as well as raw experimental visions. This season we will also present premieres of work by multi-generational artists including the autobiographical film by UK septuagenarian choreographer Sue Davies in collaboration with David Hinton and Hugo Glendinning.
Talks/Workshops
Curated conversation and discussion opportunities to meet artists pre and post shows – to delve deeper into their work and their artistic vision – is both revelatory and insightful. We will provide extra opportunities for these encounters in 23. Continuing and nurturing our in-conversation mentoring programme with the Biennale's new group of young dance journalists and curators, we will provide a solid foundation for their future career paths, as well as exciting our audiences with liberating debate.
Each artist performing or presenting work in the Biennale Danza 23 will offer workshops for a broad range of participants during our festival itself. This ever-expanding workshop programme allows a diverse audience of professional and non-professional dancers to experience live the incredible physical worlds of our Biennale talent. Many of these workshops will be open to the public and actively encourage amateur dancers to participate and enjoy the power of dance in action. This year, Botis Seva will also undertake special participatory workshops in Mestre, inspiring with his positive energy and sharing his collective vision.
We are thrilled that Bottega Veneta will once again support our vision and programme for Biennale Danza 2023. Developing and bolstering young creative talent is central to both of our missions and their championing of Biennale College and our invited global artists in resources, advocacy, profile and particularly artistic collaboration is a special partnership that we relish. Thank-you for going beyond.
Our Altered States Biennale Danza invites you to change your internal chemistry, to shift your states of being through experiencing dance, dancers, choreographers, composers, and artists work designed to take you somewhere else, somewhere new, somewhere deeper. As we open ourselves to noticing the sensory information our bodies feedback to us minute by minute, effecting our every decision, perception, move and emotion we hand over our sense systems in the theatre to be hijacked and aroused, stimulated and infused, influenced and touched.
And if nothing else, let the exceptional dance transport us beyond words, outside of our rational and more towards this felt-sense – our very own Altered States.
Calender La Biennale di Venezia 2023
THURSDAY, JULY 13
| h. 6pm Arsenale – Sale d'Armi A (till Saturday, July 29) time and place to be defined | SIMONE FORTI / MOCA opening of the exhibitionSimone Fortiin collaboration with The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles BIENNALE COLLEGE DANZA Dance Constructions re-staging Sarah Vox Swenson in collaboration with the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York |
| h. 7.30pm Arsenale – Tese dei Soppalchi | ANDREA PEÑA (CA; CO) winner of the Biennale Danza 2022-2023 international call for a new choreography BOGOTA (2023, 80') World premiere – commission La Biennale di Venezia artistic direction Andrea Peña choreography Andrea Peña with François Richard, Jean-Benoit Lebrecque, Frederique Rodier, Erin O'Loughlin, Charlie Prince, Nicolas Bellefleur, Jontae McCrory, Chi Long, Jo Laïny Trozzo-Mounet scene Jonathan Saucier composer Debbie Doe lighting Hugo Dalphond dramaturgy Angelique Willkie rehearsal direction Helen Simard costume design Polina Boltova visuals Bobby Leon, Lian Benoit, Kevin Calero technical direction Conrad St-Gelais production Isaïe Richard co-production La Biennale di Venezia, Danse Danse, L'Agora de la danse, Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo funded by Canada Council for the arts, Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec, Conseil des Arts de Montréal followed by a conversation with the artist |
| h. 10pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | OONA DOHERTY (IR) Navy Blue (2022, 60') Italian premiere – commission La Biennale di Venezia choreography Oona Doherty in collaboration with the dancers Amancio Gonzalez Miñon, Andréa Moufounda, Arno Brys, Kinda Gozo, Hilde Ingeborg Sandvold, Joseph Simon, Mathilde Roussin, Kevin Coquelard, Sati Veyrunes, Thibaut Eiferman, Tomer Pistiner, Zoé Lecorgne, Magdalena Öttl original music score Jamie xx © by Universal Music Publishing Ltd. music production William Smith with additional music Sergueï Rachmaninov writer collaborator Bush Moukarzel video conception Nadir Bouassria lighting design, technical director John Gunning costumes Oona Doherty, Lisa Marie Barry production OD Works, Kampnagel International Summer Festival, Sadler's Wells, Théâtre National de Chaillot, La Biennale di Venezia, Maison de la Danse, Belfast International Arts Festival, The Shed and Big Pulse Dance Alliance (coproduced by Dance Umbrella, Dublin Dance Festival, Torinodanza Festival, Julidans) funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Creative Europe program of the European Union supported by Kulturstiftug des Bundes, Direction régionale des affaires culturelles followed by a conversation with the artist |
FRIDAY, JULY 14
| h. 4pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | LUCY GUERIN / LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) PENDULUM (2021, 40') European Premiere co-creators Lucy Guerin, Matthias Schack-Arnott choreography Lucy Guerin with the dancers Deanne Butterworth, Tra Mi Dinh, Alice Dixon, Stephanie Halyburton, Helen Herbertson, Amber McCartney, Lilian Steiner composition, sound design Matthias Schack-Arnott lighting design Bosco Shaw system design, programming Nick Roux pendulum design Rob Larsen costume design Harriet Oxley commissioned by RISING Melbourne producer Brendan O'Connell production Lucy Guerin Inc followed by a conversation with the artist |
| h. 6.30pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | OONA DOHERTY (IR) Navy Blue (2022, 60') Italian premiere – commission La Biennale di Venezia second performance |
| h. 9.30pm Teatro Piccolo Arsenale | ACOSTA DANZA (CU) AJIACO (2023, 70') Performance (2022, 18') Italian premiere choreography Micaela Taylor music Andy Stott Sleepless, Johnny Dexter Goss Angels, The radical self AGF Band-Feat Kubra Khadem, Suite Bergamasque – Debussy (L75-III. Clair de lune) lighting Pedro Benitez costumes Micaela Taylor, Ynet Uranga Faun (Duet) (2016, 15') Italian premiere choreography Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui rehearsal directors Daisy Phillips, Daniel Proietto music Claude Debussy, Nitin Sawhney lighting Adam Carrée costumes Hussein Chalayan De punta a cabo (2016, 17') Italian premiere choreography Alexis Fernández assistant choreographer Yada Ponce music Kumar, Kike Wolf from “Beautiful Cubana” by José White, Omar Sosa lighting Adam Carrée, Pedro Benítez costumes Vladimir Cuenca 98 Dias (2023, abt. 20') World premiere choreography Javier De Frutos music Estrella MorentePregón de las moras (featuring Michael Nyman), Le di a la caza alcance aftera Poem by San Juan De La Cruz (featuring Michael Nyman), Calle del Aire poem Federica Garcia Lorca Son de negros en cuba lighting Javier de Frutos, Pedro Benitez costumes Javier De Frutos with Enrique Corrales, Zeleidy Crespo, Yasser Domínguz, Mario Sergio Elías, Arelys Hernández, Liliana Menéndez, Marco Antonio Palomino, Raúl Reinoso, Laura Rodríguez, Deborah Sánchez, Alejandro Silva, Patricia Torres production Valid Productions followed by a conversation with the artists |
SATURDAY, JULY 15
| h. 2pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | LUCY GUERIN / LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) PENDULUM (2021, 40') European premiere second performance |
| h. 4pm Arsenale – Tese dei Soppalchi | ANDREA PEÑA (CA; CO) winner of the Biennale Danza 2022-2023 international call for a new choreography BOGOTA (2023, 80') World premiere– commission La Biennale di Venezia second performance |
| h. 5pm Teatro Piccolo Arsenale | ACOSTA DANZA (CU) AJIACO second performance |
SUNDAY, JULY 16
| h. 5pm and 7pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | LUCY GUERIN / LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) PENDULUM (2021, 40') European premiere second performance |
| h. 9pm Arsenale – Tese dei Soppalchi | ANDREA PEÑA (CA; CO) winner of the Biennale Danza 2022-2023 international call for a new choreography BOGOTA (2023, 80') World premiere– commission La Biennale di Venezia second performance |
TUESDAY, JULY 18
| h. 6pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | LUCY GUERIN/ LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) PENDULUM (2021, 40') European premiere second performance |
| h. 8pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | BOTIS SEVA / FAR FROM THE NORM (UK) BLKDOG (2021, 65') Italian premiere direction, choreography Botis Seva Far From The Norm dance artists Jordan Douglas, Joshua Nash, Victoria Shulungu, Rory Clarke, Joshua Shanny-Wynter, Naïma Souhaïr, Larissa Koopman lighting design Tom Visser costumes Ryan Dawson Laight music Torben Lars Sylvest mix engineer Pär Carlsson executive producer Lee Griffiths, production manager Andy Downie, touring production manager Andrej Gubanov &Chriss Burr, tour & marketing manager Siân Gilling rehearsal director Hayleigh Sellors research & development rehearsal director Ekin Bernay with the artistic contribution of Charlotte Clark, Clarissa Shulungu, Ezra Owen, Hayleigh Sellors, Isaac Ouro-Gnao, Savanah Anais Rowe, Shiloh Seva, Tyrone Isaac-Stuart production Far From The Norm, Norrlandsoperan, Sadler's Wells with the support of Arts Council England, Kingston University, Laban Theatre, Siobhan Davies Dance, UEL Dance: Urban Practice Department followed by a conversation with the artist |
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19
| h. 4pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | LUCY GUERIN / LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) PENDULUM (2021, 40') European premiere second performance |
| h. 6pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | BOTIS SEVA / FAR FROM THE NORM (UK) BLKDOG (2021, 65') Italian premiere second performance |
| h. 9pm Arsenale – Tese dei Soppalchi | RACHID OURAMDANE (FR) Variation(s) (2019, 60') Italian premiere design, choreography Rachid Ouramdane with Annie Hanauer, Ruben Sanchez music Jean-Baptiste Julien lighting Stéphane Graillot setting Sylvain Giraudeau executive producer Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse production CCN2 – Centre chorégraphique national de Grenoble, Bonlieu scène nationale Annecy, Théâtre de la Ville – Paris with the support of Dance Reflexions by Van Cleef & Arpels followed by a conversation with the artist |
THURSDAY, JULY 20
| h. 6pm Arsenale – Tese dei Soppalchi | RACHID OURAMDANE (FR) Variation(s) (2019, 60') Italian premiere second performance |
| h. 8pm Teatro Malibran | MICHAEL KEEGAN-DOLAN (IR) MÁM (2019, 90') Italian premiere created by Michael Keegan-Dolan in collaboration with the company with Imogen Alvares, Cormac Begley, Beatriz C. Bidault, Romain Bly, Kim Ceysens, Marlies van Gangelen, Caimin Gilmore, Aki Iwamoto, Zen Jefferson, Mayah Kadish, Timon Koomen, Maaike van der Linde, Amit Noy, Keir Patrick, Ellie Poirier-Dolan, Rachel Poirier, Connor Scott, David Six, James Southward, Latisha Sparks, Carys Staton music Cormac Begley, s t a r g a z e set design Sabine Dargent lighting design Adam Silverman costume design Hyemi Shin live sound design Sandra Ní Mhathúna original sound design Helen Atkinson additional sound design Romain Bly, Jelle Roozenberg music coordinator Romain Bly tour rehearsal directors Rachel Poirier, Mani Obeya co-production Teaċ Daṁsa, Dublin Theatre Festival, Sadler's Wells London, New Zealand Festival of the Arts with support of NASC, NOMAD touring networks – international touring is supported by Culture Ireland funded by an Open Call Award from the Arts Council of Ireland followed by a conversation with the artist |
FRIDAY, JULY 21
| h. 6pm Teatro Piccolo Arsenale | LUNA CENERE (IT) winner of the Biennale Danza 2022-2023 Italian call for a new choreography VANISHING PLACE (2023, 50') World premiere– commission La Biennale di Venezia choreography, concept Luna Cenere with Marina Bertoni, Francesca La Stella, Ilaria Quaglia, Davide Tagliavini, Luca Zanni lighting design Giulia Broggia music Renato Grieco scene Raffaele di Florio technical direction Nicola Mancini production Körper – Centro di produzione Nazionale della Danza, La Biennale di Venezia, Teatro di Napoli – Teatro Nazionale with the support of Hessisches Staatballet, Agora de la danse – résidences de création croisées en danse entre l'Italie et le Québec with CINARS and NID Platform, CID – Centro internazionale della Danza, MIC – Direzione Generale Spettacolo, Istituto Italiano di Cultura – Colonia, Istituto Italiano di Cultura – Montreal followed by a conversation with the artist |
| h. 8pm Teatro Malibran | MICHAEL KEEGAN-DOLAN (IR) MÁM (2019, 90') Italian premiere second performance |
SATURDAY, JULY 22
| h. 6pm Teatro Piccolo Arsenale | LUNA CENERE (IT) winner of the Biennale Danza 2022-2023 Italian call for a new choreography VANISHING PLACE (2023, 50') World premiere– commission La Biennale di Venezia second performance |
| h. 9pm Teatro del Parco – Mestre | LUCY GUERIN/ LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) Split (2017, 45') Italian premiere choreography Lucy Guerin with Ashley McLellan, Lilian Steiner music Scanner sound design Robin Fox lighting design Paul Lim producer Brendan O'Connell production Lucy Guerin Inc followed by a conversation with the artist |
SUNDAY, JULY 23
| h. to be defined Teatro Piccolo Arsenale | A Day of Films featuring our Artists |
| h. 12pm Ca' Giustinian – Sala delle Colonne | TAO DANCE THEATER – SILVER LION Silver Lion award ceremony |
| h. 8pm Teatro del Parco – Mestre | LUCY GUERIN/ LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) Split (2017, 45') Italian premiere second performance |
TUESDAY, JULY 25
| time and place to be defined | BIENNALE COLLEGE DANZA CHOREOGRAPHERS New creations (2023) World premiere with the dancers of Biennale College production La Biennale di Venezia followed by a conversation with the artists |
WEDNESDAY, JULY 26
| time and place to be defined | BIENNALE COLLEGE DANZA CHOREOGRAPHERS New creations (2023) World premiere with the dancers of Biennale College production La Biennale di Venezia followed by a conversation with the artists |
| h. 9pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | PONTUS LIDBERG (SE) On the nature of Rabbits (2023, 60') World premiere – commission La Biennale di Venezia choreography Pontus Lidberg dramaturgy Adrian Guo-Silver projections Jason Carpenter rabbit costume Rachel Quarmby-Spadaccini production La Biennale di Venezia, Works & Process – Guggenheim, New York followed by a conversation with the artist |
THRUSDAY, JULY 27
| h. 4pm and 6pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | LUCY GUERIN/ LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) PENDULUM (2021, 40') European premiere second performance |
| h. 9pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | PONTUS LIDBERG (SE) On the nature of Rabbits (2023, 60') World premiere – commission La Biennale di Venezia second performance |
FRIDAY, JULY 28
| h. 4pm Teatro Piccolo Arsenale | BIENNALE COLLEGE DANZA Duo2015 (extended) choreography William Forsythe (USA) arranged and stage by Riley Watts, Brigel Gjoka New creations (2023) World premiere – commission La Biennale di Venezia choreography Xie Xin (CN) with the dancers of Biennale College production La Biennale di Venezia |
| h. 4pm and 6pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | LUCY GUERIN/ LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) PENDULUM (2021, 40') European premiere second performance |
| h. 8pm Teatro Malibran | TAO Dance Theatre (CN) 11 (2021, 65') Italian premiere choreography Tao Ye with Huang Qiqi, Yan Yulin, Xu Fujin, Tong Yusheng, Li Siyu, Liu Yiren, Sun Leirui, Wu Zhenkai, Li Jiayu, Cheng Leting, Wan Lu composer Xiao He lighting Design Ma Yue, Tao Ye costume designer Duan Ni, DNTY producer, project director Jun Jun |
SATURDAY, JULY 29
| h. 4pm Arsenale – Teatro alle Tese | BIENNALE COLLEGE DANZA Duo2015 (extended) coreography William Forsythe (USA) arranged and stage by Riley Watts, Brigel Gjoka New creations (2023) World premiere – commission La Biennale di Venezia choreography Xie Xin (CN) second performance |
| h. 4pm and 6pm Teatro Piccolo Arsenale | LUCY GUERIN/ LUCY GUERIN INC. (AUS) PENDULUM (2021, 40') European premiere second performance |
| h. 8pm Teatro Malibran | TAO Dance Theater (CN) 13 (2023, 30') European premiere coreography Tao Ye with Huang Qiqi, Yan Yulin, Xu Fujin, Tong Yusheng, Li Siyu, Liu Yiren, Sun Leirui, Wu Zhenkai, Li Jiayu, Cheng Leting, Wan Lu, Lu Wenchao composer Xiao He lighting design Ma Yue, Tao Ye costumes Duan Ni, DNTY producer, project director Jun Jun 14 (2023, 30') European premiere choreography, sound conception Tao Ye with Huang Qiqi, Yan Yulin, Xu Fujin, Tong Yusheng, Li Siyu, Liu Yiren, Sun Leirui, Wu Zhenkai, Li Jiayu, Cheng Leting, Wan Lu, Lu Wenchao lighting design Ma Yue, Tao Ye costumes Duan Ni producer, project director Jun Jun |
WORKSHOPS
| FRIDAY, JULY 14 h. 10am > 1pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Oona Doherty |
| SATURDAY, JULY 15 h. 10am > 13am Teatro del Parco, Mestre | workshop Far From the Norm Botis Seva's dance company |
| SUNDAY, JULY 16 h. 10am > 1pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Acosta Danza |
| TUESDAY, JULY 18 h. 10am > 1pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Andrea Peña |
| WEDNESDAY, JULY 19 10am > 13pm Teatro del Parco, Mestre | workshop Far From the Norm Botis Seva's dance company |
| THURSDAY, JULY 20 h. 10am > 1pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Rachid Ouramdane's dance company |
| FRIDAY, JULY 21 h. 10am > 1pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Rachid Ouramdane's dance company |
| SUNDAY, JULY 23 h. 5pm > 6.30pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Tao Ye |
| TUESDAY, JULY 25 h. 10am > 1pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G h. 3pm > 6pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Luna Cenere workshop Michael Keegan-Dolan |
| WEDNESDAY, JULY 26 h. 10am > 11.30am Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Xie Xin |
| THURSDAY, JULY 27 h. 10am > 1pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Lucy Guerin |
| FRIDAY, JULY 28 h. 10am > 1pm Arsenale – Sala d'Armi G | workshop Pontus Lidberg |
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
