Biennale Danza 2025: special preview in London

A press conference was held Today, Monday February 17^th in London, at the Italian Institute of Culture, to present the 2025 Biennale di Venezia – exhibitions, festivals and special projects – with a focus on dance and a special preview announcement of some of the events in the 19^th International Festival of Contemporary Dance (17 July > 2 August). The conference was attended by Francesco Bongarrà, Director of the Italian Institute of Culture in London, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, President of La Biennale di Venezia, and Sir Wayne McGregor, the Artistic Director of the Dance Department.

The full programme of the 19^th International Festival of Contemporary Dance (17 July > 2 August), with the choreographers and companies featured in the live performance section, the young artists participating in special initiatives, the creators of installations, the winners of the Biennale College calls, the conversations and workshops designed for different audiences throughout the festival, will be announced in a dedicated press conference to be held on March 27^th in Venice.

The theme of the 19^th International Festival of Contemporary Dance Myth Makers, to be held in Venice from July 17^th to August 2^nd, looks far to imagine the future through the generative power of art.

“Myths have played a crucial role throughout history – writes Sir McGregor, introducing the theme – by providing a framework for understanding existence, morality, and the cosmos. They help 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”.

“Through their inexplicable creativity quest – continues Sir McGregor – 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”.

Among the companies and artists, who with their works will illuminate and interpret the theme of the 19^th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, we can anticipate:

TWYLA THARP – The legendary American choreographer and dancer is the Festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, which she will receive on July 19^th. Twyla Tharp will inaugurate the Festival on the 17^th and 18^th of July with the magnetic energy of her choreographies: Slacktide, a world premiere, presented along with her famous 1998 choreography, Diabelli. A diptych to celebrate her sixty-years working with her company, Twyla Tharp Dance, in the Diamond Jubilee Tour. Opened on January 26^th in Minneapolis, the tour will travel coast to coast across the United States before coming to La Biennale for the European premiere.
The living, pulsating matter of her dance, the two choreographies unfold along the twin track of the 33 variations for piano composed by Beethoven to the theme of a waltz by Anton Diabelli, and the 9 pieces by Philip Glass, Aguas de Amazonia, each inspired by a river in the rainforest, influenced by the South-American rhythms performed live by the Grammy-award winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion, who play on an amazing set of custom-designed instruments. “You might not normally think of Beethoven as being similar to Glass. Experiencing both composers’ works set to dance by Tharp offered a frame to think of these two composers together. Like Tharp herself, they deconstruct forms and re-assemble them, displaying their mastery in the process” (The Minnesota Star Tribune).
In Venice, Twyla Tharp will also be the special mentor for the 16 dancers and 2 choreographers to be selected for the 2025 edition of Biennale College.

CAROLINA BIANCHI – She is the Festival’s Silver Lion and will receive the award on July 19^th, together with Twyla Tharp.
A leading exponent of the experimental scene in South America, Carolina Bianchi moved to Amsterdam in 2020 and three years later caused a sensation at the Festival d’Avignon for la sposa e Buonanotte Cenerentola, the first chapter in the trilogy Cadela Força (The Bitch Strength in Portuguese), a production she presented on the major stages in Europe, receiving enthusiastic acclaim from the audience and the French critics’ award. A performer, director and writer, in that production Carolina Bianchi explores gender-based violence putting her own body at the centre, in a physical and psychological challenge that situates her within the most extreme experiences of women’s performance art with strong political and social implications. Within a current that runs from Gina Pane to Marina Abramovic, Regina José Galindo, Tania Bruguera, Ana Mendieta and for which Bianchi opens new frontiers.
At the Festival, Carolina Bianchi will present the Italian premiere on July 18^th and 20^th of the second chapter in the trilogy Cadela Força: The Brotherhood, a work centred on masculinity and the male gaze.

CHUNKY MOVE – The Australian company directed by Antony Hamilton will present the European premiere of a new creation, U>N>I>T>E>D, on the opening days of the festival on July 17^th and 18^th.
This is the company that introduced the magic of algorithms, in a perfect alchemy between performance, visual art, electronic sound and installation (such as the very intense high-tech solo Glow, performed at Biennale Danza 2010), and which speaks today of the “mysticism of machines”, the persistence of a spiritual yearning.
Set in a post-industrial digital era, U>N>I>T>E>D transforms six extraordinary dancers – from Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia – into post-human cyborgs, the centaurs of a mythological era. Armed with robotic exoskeletons, “artificial muscle” that multiplies its power, agility and speed thanks to the most advanced animatronics by the global leaders Creature Technology Co., the dancers move to techno sounds infused with gamelan and inspired by the Javanese trance of the Indonesian duo Gabber Modus Operandi (which worked with Bjork on Fossora) bringing to the stage a universe both barbaric and science-fiction at the same time, like an archaeology of the future. In the words of the company director Antony Hamilton, the production is based on “the notion that tools and machines are not just utilitarian, but are also sacred art objects that represent our self-awareness, our creative intellect and our spiritual nature as a species.”

TAO YE AND DUAN NI / TAO DANCE THEATRE – Winners of the Silver Lion at Biennale Danza 2024, Tao Ye and Duan Ni return to Venice on July 25^th and 26^th with the European premiere of 16 and 17, the two new works co-commissioned by La Biennale which continue the Numerical Series they are famous for. A series that, production after production, develops their innovative approach to movement, through the technique known as the Circular Movement System, a dance marked by the ritualistic repetition of the body’s natural movements, which focuses the viewer’s attention to a gesture devoid of all ornamentation.
Conceived on the basis of a simple creative concept and a pure aesthetic of the body, the two new pieces in the series focus, in 16, on all the movements of the head, which in its most hidden and least visible areas becomes the linchpin of movement; and in 17 explore the relationship between the shape of sound and the movement of the body, of what choreographers call “a kinaesthetic imagining of sound”.
All the pieces in the long collection of the Numerical Series, writes Wayne McGregor, “showcase pure dance and ravishing experiments that delve deeper into body movement, further enhancing the richness of the Circular Movement Technique while exploring the practice of Eastern somaesthetics. Inspired by the concept of following its inertia, the works create endless possibilities for instant flow”.

BULLYACHE – The duo Courtney Garratt and Jacob Samuel won the international call that Biennale Danza launches every year to foreign artists for the development of new choreographies, a long-term project of commissions and co-commissions to support the new generations of artists. A Good Man is Hard to Find is the choreographic project by Bullyache that will have its world premiere at Biennale Danza on July 24^th.
A Good Man is Hard to Find is inspired by the 2008 financial crisis and focuses on the mythology of power. “Bullyache (Courtney Garratt and Jacob Samuel) – writes Sir Wayne McGregor – choreograph, direct, score and conceptualise spectacular original works. They layer, contrast, and move between dance theatre, performance, and live music to construct fresh and unforgettable sequences of images in movement. Our Biennale Danza commission and world premiere, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, is a momentous mix of music, cinematic imagery, songs, and stories that explore institutional exploitation. How can we exist and find/ touch humanity in a world such as this, filled with consumerism, race riots, worldwide governmental oppression, war, and financial cuts?”. Trained at the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance, and winner of first prize at the International Diaghilev Competition of Choreographic Art, Garratt’s roots trace back to dance halls and Latin-American dances, establishing his reputation as a musician and filmmaker as well. Samuel is a multidisciplinary artist with an academic education in visual anthropology at Goldsmiths University of London. Their work analyses class representation by bringing the iconography of pop culture to the stage. Together they founded the multidisciplinary project Bullyache in 2020, as both a dance company and musical duo that explores the queer and working-class identities of its two founding members in performances that merge dance, music and theatre.

NUOVO BALLETTO DI TOSCANA – Philippe Kratz, the newly-appointed artistic director of the historical Italian company founded by Cristina Bozzolini and recently renamed Nuovo Balletto di Toscana, like Bullyache is part of Biennale Danza’s long-term programme of commissions and co-commissions. Winner of the Italian call for an original choreography, it will make its debut at Biennale Danza with the world premiere on July 31^st of Sisifo felice / Smiling Sisyphus, created with choreographer Pablo Girolami. The diptych draws inspiration “from the 1950s Theatre of the Absurd, influenced by writers such as Sartre, Genet, Ionesco, and Beckett. The title of the evening refers to Albert Camus’ 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus, in which he famously writes, ‘One must imagine Sisyphus happy’. This existential reflection on a doomed identity choosing happiness informs the two independent but interconnected works, exploring the dizzying absurdity of life along with the power of personal choice and resilience” (from the project presentation).
The German choreographer Philippe Kratz, born in 1985 and based in Italy, comes to direct the Nuovo Balletto di Toscana following prestigious collaborations with the Teatro alla Scala, the Vienna Opera and Aterballetto. Kratz had previously worked with the Nuovo Balletto di Toscana in 2022 and in 2023, and now creates Sisifo felice / Smiling Sisyphus in collaboration with Pablo Girolami, the Italian-Spanish choreographer based in Italy and artistic director of Ivona, born in 1994, who has choreographed for Oper Graz, the Jerusalem Dance Theater, Club Guy&Roni (Poetic Disaster Club), EgriBianco Danza, The LabCollective, TanzWerk101 Zürich.

WAYNE MCGREGOR x JEFFREY SHAW – On the Other Earth is an installation that will premiere on July 18^th and remain on display for the entire duration of the Festival.
On the Other Earth signals the collaboration between British choreographer Sir Wayne McGregor, artist Jeffrey Shaw, film-maker Ravi Deepres and lighting artist Theresa Baumgartner. Dance, choreography, digital imaging, multi-modal sensing, artificial intelligence and spatialised sound converge in this immersive and interactive installation co-produced by Studio Wayne McGregor, Hong Kong Ballet and Jeffrey Shaw’s Future Cinema Systems.
On the Other Earth envelops the audience in the new nVis installation, the first cinematic screen in the world with 360-degree sensing technology: a cylindrical architecture eight metres wide and four meters tall, composed of 400 LED panels for a total of 26 million pixels and a 32.4-channel surround sound system. A unique and unexpected way to experience dance. The nVis screen’s innovative sensing technologies – from tracking the direction of the viewer’s gaze, to voice recognition, tracing positions, movements and gestures – allows the public to interact with the audiovisual environment. A “mixed reality” platform informed by artificial intelligence, in which the inhabitants of the real and virtual world mutually interact and together create an emerging “co-evolving narrative”.

The 16 dancers and 2 choreographers selected from around the world for the intensive theoretical-practical programme of Biennale College are brought every year onto an international stage where leading figures in dance and choreography become exceptional mentors: Alessandra Ferri, Carlos Acosta, Sabuto Teshigawara, Cristina Caprioli and Carolyn Carlson will be succeeded this year by Twyla Tharp, the Festival’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Over the course of a three-month residency in Venice, Biennale College develops a dedicated programme of artistic apprenticeship that is an opportunity both for the transmission of knowledge, and for participants to assess and consolidate their own experiences and personal creativity. This is an intensive programme divided between study and experience in the field, in which the young artists participate in daily classes in classical and contemporary techniques and workshops dedicated to studying the repertory, the creative process and improvisation, with the aim of developing new choreographic projects as part of the 19th Festival.

This year the focus will be on Sasha Waltz, an author with a highly personal choreographic imagination, whose dance illuminates the structure of music casting it under a new light. The young artists in the College will work with Sasha Waltz and her team on the study and adaptation of In C by Terry Riley, an iconic work of American minimalism. Intentionally designed not to be a fixed stage performance, In C is an experimental system of 53 choreographic figures for a structured improvisation with clear rules and laws: a dynamic, modular piece that examines the dialogue between dance, music and space. The work will be presented on a single evening during the 19th Festival with music performed live.

Furthermore, the experience of the selected young artists will intersect with and nurture the realisation of the two original choreographic projects that won the Biennale College call, performed by the dancers themselves. Two new creations that premiere as part of the 19th International Festival of Contemporary Dance.

As Sir McGregor writes: “Biennale College has been a highlight of all the iterations of Biennale Danza, with a programme that has evolved and sharpened since its inception. Our ambition to connect our burgeoning young talent with unrivalled learning, training, mentoring, and creative opportunities has been fortified by the excellent teaching and mentoring we have experienced through internationally respected artists like Pite, Forsythe, Xie Xin, Teshigawara, Forti, McGregor, Caprioli, and others. Each season we reflect on and revise our offer, working towards a gold standard in dance training in the context of this wonderful international series of Biennale festivals”.

The two calls of Biennale College addressed to new choreographers and dancers are available on labiennale.org through March 6^th.