Wayne McGregor introduces La Biennale di Venezia 2025 – Festival of Contemporary Dance

The 19th International Festival of Contemporary Dance at La Biennale di Venezia 2025 runs from 17 July until 2 August, under the direction of choreographer Sir Wayne McGregor. He has called the festival Myth Makers.

This year the festival has commissioned and co-commissioned new work with 8 World premieres (including work by Bianchi, Kratz, Bullyache, Carvalho, Morau, and McGregor – details below), 7 European premieres and 5 Italian premieres. Over 160 artists will be live in Venice, with 75 events across 17 days.

Here, McGregor introduces the 2025 festival.

Myths have played a crucial role throughout history by providing a framework for understanding existence, morality, and the cosmos. They aid us express our fears, aspirations, and the mysteries of life. As societies evolve, so do their myths. In times of turmoil or transition, when traditional beliefs and structures begin to break down, humanity often seeks new narratives to cope with uncertainty and inspire hope. These fresh myths can emerge from various sources—science, philosophy, collective experiences shared across communities, and most vitally, from the vivid realm of art.

Consider the remarkable creative acts of the past: the Nubian pyramids, the ancient cave paintings of Azerbaijan, the mosaics of Iran, the classical texts, music, sculpture, and poetry, as well as the extraordinary performance rituals, dances, and songs that continue to haunt, inspire, evoke, stimulate, challenge, and shake us.

Through their inexplicable creativity quest, artists have always been the mythmakers of their day, and it is in their legacy that we delve into the depths of their/our inner selves while articulating universal truths that resonate across times and cultures. Artists are the mythmakers of our day, too, and it is in their creativity that they craft ancient, speculative and contemporary narratives in mark marking, modelling, writing, and performing to enchant, beguile and endure. In a contemporary society, with rapid technological advancements and global challenges such as climate change and social inequality, there is an urgent need for myths that resonate with the current human experience. These new narratives can foster a sense of connection, belonging, and purpose, guiding individuals and communities through difficult times.

Mythmaking, then, is fundamentally an act of profound and multifaceted creativity, integrating imagination, storytelling, and the exploration of human emotion in both processes. Creativity is both a reason for existence and a way of being. It is ephemeral yet concrete, a process and a practice. It can be random or deliberate, giddy or profound. Creativity serves as both a playground and a well-equipped workshop. It is a continually evolving and deeply personal combination of skills, knowledge, techniques, experiences, inspirations, insights, and intuitions grounded in both the body and mind. This combination can be applied in countless ways. If we think of the body as a constellation of movement patterns suspended in a force field of gravity, then creativity can be seen as a cosmos of movable ideas suspended in a force field of possibility. Creation is a genesis; it suggests and presents a version of reality through attention, perception, cognition, emotion, and communication techniques. This process offers a portal to transcendence, allowing individuals to leave behind their current selves and explore new realms.

For the audience, there is a hope that the impact of creation can evoke a shift, proposing new directions for seeing, being, and understanding, thus propelling their own journey. While fixity has its role—since nothing is made without decision-making—art invites viewers, listeners, readers, and players—each a creative cosmos in their own right—to experience, feel, interpret, and respond. Even seemingly unchanging stone works can escape stasis and shape-shift through this engagement. Although its effects might be alchemical, creativity itself is not some mysterious calling. As humans, we each possess the gift of invention – whether we access it most, some or none of the time is a choice. Imagination is a universal trait. Everybody is born able to access and express unique ideas and conceptions. The urge to create is a powerful drive that compels us to explore and seek without any clear idea of what we might discover. It involves engaging, questioning, flowing, and making. This process allows us to project a piece of our uniqueness, our “you-ness,” into the world. Our contributions can have a ripple effect, nourishing, inspiring, provoking, and generating creative energies that extend far beyond our own – often for epochs.

Through movement, motion and meaning, the dance artists of Biennale Danza 2025 have created transformative modern myths that invite us to glimpse into alternate realities and explore diverse ways of existing. The rhythmic flow of their dance mirrors the complexities of life, allowing us to process emotions and express what often remains unspoken. As dancers embody their stories, they offer audiences a shared space for reflection, healing, and connection, illuminating paths of resilience and inspiration. In this shared experience, as we discuss what we have just seen and compare it to what we have seen before, as we remember, process and project, as we touch the work in a broad range of dimensions and ways, we too become an integral part of the mythmaking. Intoxicating, powerful and alive – we seek an ‘enlargement of our being’ (CS Lewis). In our own way, we, too, are the creative MYTH MAKERS.

The Biennale Danza 2025 will evolve 5 strands: live, installations, collaborations, archive (talks/workshops/films), Biennale College.

CALENDAR – La Biennale di Venezia Festival of Contemporary Dance 2025

FRIDAY, JULY 18

SATURDAY, JULY 19

SUNDAY, JULY 20

MONDAY, JULY 21

TUESDAY, JULY 22

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23

THURSDAY, JULY 24

FRIDAY, JULY 25

SATURDAY, JULY 26

SUNDAY, JULY 27

TUESDAY, JULY 29

WEDNESDAY, JULY 30

THURSDAY, JULY 31

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2

WORKSHOPS

Gramilano Editor

Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.

Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.

He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.