The Venice Dance Biennale
The Venice Dance Biennale. Founded in 1999, aka the “International Festival of Contemporary Dance”; it is one of Venice’s main cultural events.
The 18th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, is scheduled to take place between 18th July and 3rd August 2024.
I have retained the information on the 2021 and 2023 Dance festivals, to give you an understanding of the nature and programming of the event.
In 2021, what was the 15th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, was directed by Wayne McGregor, in the first year of his four year appointment. Running from the 23rd July to the 1st August 2021, the program featured 10 days of events; with over 100 artists; all Italian premieres, two World premieres and one European premiere.
For 2023, the 17th International Festival of Contemporary Dance ran from 13 to 29 July 2023, again directed by Wayne McGregor. The programme featured daily events with soloists and international companies as well as the activities of the Biennale College Danza dedicated to specific training projects that were included in the Festival’s programme.
The 18th International Festival of Contemporary Dance – 2024
The Festival will run from 18 July to 3 August 2024, again directed by Wayne McGregor. The programme will feature daily events with soloists and international companies as well as the activities of the Biennale College Danza dedicated to specific training projects that are to be included in the Festival’s programme.
Wayne McGregor CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) is a British choreographer and director whose work encompasses a variety of genres including technology, visual art, film, opera and education. His productions are featured in the repertories of companies around the world, including Paris Opéra, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Ballet, and many others.
Please visit the Biennale website in the links section below, for updates.
The Venice Dance Biennale 2021 – “First Sense“
The 15th International Festival of Contemporary Dance ran from 23 July to 1 August 2021 and was directed by Wayne McGregor; in the first year of his appointment. Stating that “everything that can be done with dance and through dance today“; his intention was to illuminate the complexity, the breadth, the transformability of a discipline, that thrives on renewal and which in its dialogue with the most cutting-edge thinking, advances the development of contemporary art.
The program featured daily events with soloists and international companies, as well as the activities of the Biennale College Danza; dedicated to specific training projects that were included in the Festival’s program.
“First Sense” aspired to touch you, move you, both emotionally and physically – not only in its live performance and installation program; but in public and professional workshops, artist talks and in its film series. Special guest photographer, Mary McCartney, was in residence; capturing the fleeting moments of “touch experiences, interactions, concentrations and joys”. Her work will be exhibited at the next Biennale Danze, in 2022.
The program of the Biennale Danza 2021 was divided into the following aspects:
- live performances with choreographers and companies from around the world
- multilingual installations
- new energy of the Biennale College – dancers/choreographers
- a rich production of films about and featuring dance
- collaborations among the disciplines within La Biennale itself
- conversations with the artists and the commissions for new dance
- 10 days of events with over 100 artists, all Italian premieres, two World premieres and one European premiere.
Note: See end of post, for a Pdf copy of the actual program and a link to the official website pages of the Biennale Danza 2021.
Locations. The events were staged mostly in the Arsenale (sala and theatres), with some scheduled in the Giardini, Ca’ Giustinian and the Teatro Malibran.
Installations
- “Future Self” – Ca’ Giustinian
- “Not Once” – Sala d’Armi E
- “Tom” – Teatro alle Tese (II)
- “Among diverse beings” – Solo Dancers/Choreographers – Arsenale / Giardini.
Film Screenings – Teatro Piccolo Arsenale.
Wayne McGregor, reminded us of the importance of “touch” in his program for the 2021 Biennale Danza.
In 2021, more than a year into the pandemic, in a time of social distancing and enforced restrictions; he powerfully reminded us of the critical importance of “touch” in all our lives. Touch, a fundamental sense we take for granted, has been challenged and compromised. It has taken on a new resonance in our societies and to us all.
Because we have been unable to hold and embrace our loved one’s or friends, we have missed the powerful inter-relationships, that are formed by close contact. The result is a deep and profound loss to our physical, mental and emotional well-being.
During this period, we have replaced this personal contact with the remote interaction of computer and phone communications. McGregor’s contention, is that we are desperate to re-connect to the world through and with our bodies and we are ready to be exhilarated; by a return to our fullest embodied existence.
Dance, the greatest of “First Touch” art forms, through McGregor’s direction; was poised to inspire such a spectacular revival. His program, celebrated the diversity and dynamism of many exceptional artistic voices that express their truths; through the breath-taking instrument of the human form.
Two relevant and supportive quotes were made by:
Matthew Fulkerson – “It is through touch that we are able to interact directly with the world; it is our primary conduit of both pleasure and pain. Touch may be our most immediate and powerful sense – “the first sense” because of the central role it plays in experience”.
Susan Sontag – “The longing to touch/be touched. I feel gratitude when I touch someone-as well as affection etc. The person has allowed me proof that I have a body- and that there are bodies in the world”
The Awards Ceremony took place in the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale on Saturday 24th July.
Germaine Acogny, was the winner of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. A pioneer of contemporary African dance, she presented “Somewhere at the Beginning” – a solo in which she comes to terms with her own past; the roots that are the starting points for our entire lives, embodied in the archaic figures that accompany her.
Having left Africa, lived in exile in Europe and then returned to her native land, Acogny’s work, is also a dialogue between the West and the African continent; about the search for identity, that is never something granted or acquired.
Oona Doherty, a new name in European dance and the Silver Lion recipient of this year’s Festival; brought to Venice “Hard to be Soft – A Belfast Prayer” – a dance that was informal in its themes and its modes. She chose to portray the cross-section of a community – her childhood community in Belfast, with its horizons limited by cultural, social and religious constraints. Doherty captured the daily-life dimension of the working classes, which are virtually absent from the dance stage; their violence and vulnerability, their quirks, stereotypes and vices, as well as their courage, strength and energy.
The Venice Dance Biennale – 2023
Biennale College. This is an experience that since 2012 integrates all the Departments of La Biennale di Venezia – Art, Architecture, Cinema, Dance, Music, Theatre, ASAC – to promote young talents, offering them the opportunity to work in close contact with mentors to develop creations that will become part of the artistic programmes. Biennale College, organized by La Biennale di Venezia, enjoys the support of the Ministry of the Cultural Heritage and Activities – General Directorate for the Performing Arts and the Regione del Veneto.
Danza 2023. Started on Wednesday February 22nd– and through Wednesday March 22nd, new international calls were launched respectively for dancers and choreographers for the third edition of Biennale College Danza under the mentorship of the director Wayne McGregor.
Conceived to promote a new generation of dance artists, the intensive study and learning programme of Biennale College Danza 2023 selected 16 dancers (between the ages of 18 and 28) and 2 choreographers; for a real experience in the field during a three-month residency in Venice.From May 8th to July 29th the selected young artists, will work daily in the Sale d’Armi of the Arsenale; attending classes in classical and contemporary technique held by internationally renowned teachers and workshops focused on repertory, the creative process, improvisation and new creations. Theoretical and practical experiences, both as a group and with individual mentoring, included:
- a re-staging of a historic work by Simone Forti, the pioneer of Postmodern dance and Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of Biennale Danza 2023
- exploration and development of a work by William Forsythe, master of contemporary choreography
- participation in a new creation commissioned by Programme of the Third Edition.
Programme of the third Edition. The 17th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, was held in Venice from July13th to 29th, was a place of critical and creative exchange for the dancers and choreographers of Biennale College. They presented their works at the close of their training process, but also had the opportunity to attend all the shows of the festival and participate in lectures and mini-residencies with the invited artists.
LINKS (internal – external)
Biennale Danza 2024-English | Biennale Danza 2024: We Humans (labiennale.org)
My posts in the category Festivals-Regattas-Events
“Venice – Calendar of Events 2024”
The Venice Architecture Biennale
The Venice Dance Biennale The Venice Dance Biennale The Venice Dance Biennale
The Venice Dance Biennale The Venice Dance Biennale The Venice Dance Biennale