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.
For 2025, the 19th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, is scheduled to take place between 17th July to 2nd August.
I have retained the information on the 2021 and 2023 Dance Festivals, to give you a better understanding of the nature and programming of the event; espcially since the 2025 program is not available.
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 19th International Festival of Contemporary Dance – 2025
The 19th International Festival of Contemporary Dance) will take place in Venice from 17 July to 2 August 2025. The festival will be directed by Wayne McGregor, the renowned British choreographer.
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.
The program will feature daily events with soloists and international companies, as well as activities from the Biennale College Danza, which focuses on specific training projects. The festival will also include awards such as the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and the Silver Lion for emerging personalities in contemporary dance.
Please visit the Biennale website for program updates not yet announced. Biennale Danza 2025 | Homepage 2025
Workshop Activities and Interactive Initiatives are addressed to all kinds of audiences, with special attention to the young and very young, and to the world of schools and families; they are based on an approach that stimulates creativity and the ability to re-elaborate content. They consist of: digital and multidisciplinary workshops, to explore the languages of art, music, theatre and dance; scientific, theoretical and practical workshops, to stimulate creativity with playful activities and interactive stories for schools and families. Educational Programme Link
Note. The program has yet to be announced.
THEATRES
CA’ GIUSTINIAN – SALA DELLE COLONNE – LABORATORIO DELLE ARTI
Services for the public: Bar Ombra del Leone.
Overlooking the San Marco Basin, the head office of La Biennale di Venezia is an historical palace among the most representative of the Venetian late Gothic style. The palace, originally called “dei Giustinian”, was built around 1471 and is the result of the union of two different buildings: Giustinian and Badoer-Tiepolo. It has been the subject of important renovations between 2008 and 2009.
ARSENALE – TEATRO PICCOLO ARSENALE – TEATRO ALLE TESE – SALE D’ARMI NORTH AND SOUTH. Following a restoration process started in 2000, the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale – formerly a cinema -, the Teatro alle Tese, located at the Tese Cinquecentesche, and the Sale d’Armi have become the venues for the shows of the Dance, Music and Theatre Departments. These suggestive spaces are equipped with the most advanced stage technologies to allow the performers to express themselves at best and the public to comfortably attend the performances.
Services for the public: Bar alla Cisterna (Teatro alle Tese)
CONTACT DETAILS
Dance Department
Ca’ Giustinian, San Marco 1364/A
30124 Venice
Tel. +39 041 5218898
Fax +39 041 5218843
E-mail [email protected]
Ticket Info
Tel. +39 041 5218828
Group Bookings
[email protected]
Mon > Fri 10:00 am > 1:30 pm / 2:30 pm > 5:30 pm
Sat 10:00 am > 1:30 pm
Tickets Venues / Services for the public / How to get there / Contact us / Press Website: Biennale Danza 2025 | Information
The Venice Dance Biennale – Previous Festivals
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.
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 worldmultilingual 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.
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)
Encouraging young talents, offering them the opportunity to work side by side with the masters to develop “creations” that will be part of our Artistic Programs: this is the spirit of the Biennale College, a well-fitted bridge that allows young people who wish to engage in one of the arts to do so under the finest conditions that an international institution can offer.
University students can improve their training through the internship experience of the Biennale College – Internships. Link to Biennale-College
Video YouTube – Biennale Danza 2020 – Day #1/#2 (College Danzatori, La Ribot)
Venice – Calendar of Events 2025.
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