Venice Biennale Dance 2017

11th International Festival of Contemporary Dance Venice

From 23 June 2017 to 01 July 2017

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Everything is ready for the 2017 Biennale Danza! Venice is preparing to welcome the rich program of the Biennale Danza Venezia which will take place from 23 June to 1 July in several locations in the beautiful lagoon city.

For the first year under the artistic direction of the Canadian dancer and choreographer Marie Chouinard, the Venice Dance Festival will brighten up the city with 9 intense days of shows featuring up to 5 events per day: 15 invited artists for a total of 26 choreographies, among which 9 for their Italian premiere performance and 1 debuting in Europe, with a further 4 creations by the Biennale College.

As in the last editions, the biennale danza 2017 program will give ample space to the Biennale College Dance project. Born in 2013 in order to give young artists the opportunity to work side by side with the great masters of the international scene, this initiative has achieved a great success. College is also present in other areas of the Venice Biennale, and aims to involve and bring together more and more the various activities of the Biennale, taking energies, ideas and innovations from the new generations. The Biennale Danza College 2017 will present the results of two parallel paths, one dedicated to the art of dance and the other to the art of choreography. In particular, the latter will offer three young choreographers the opportunity to work with highly experienced dancers for 6 weeks in order to present their original creations to the festival.

The 11th International Biennale Contemporary Dance Festival ‘First Chapter’, the first to be directed by Marie Chouinard, aims to bring dance to the city to make it come into direct contact with people through shows, meetings, films and conversations. Faithful to the principles that linked her life to dance, considered a sacred art whose performance requires rigor and great respect, Marie Chouinard has called artists, works and authors in which she firmly believes to give dance a new kind of beauty and love. For the Biennale Dance 2017, a rich program of events will engage the spectators, open their mind and show them new expressions of freedom. There will be several open-air performances in Campo Sant’Agnese, aimed at bringing dance into the heart of Venice, while presentations and meetings will aim at providing a direct link between spectator, choreographer and dancer.

On June 23rd American choreographer Lucinda Childs, Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement of 2017 will inaugurate the Contemporary Dance Festival Venice with Katema, Dance II and Dance, the latter produced in collaboration with Sol LeWitt and Philip Glass, presented in Italy for the first time with the black and white film that LeWitt created in 1979.

Alessandro Sciarroni, one of the most revolutionary performers and choreographers in Europe, creates choreography from sports disciplines and circus arts, and will make his Italian premiere performance at the Biennial Dance 2017 with Chroma, Aurora and Folk-s.

In Italy for the first time, Clara Furey will present at the Venice Biennale Dance Festival 2017 her Italian premiere performance, Untied Tales, in collaboration with Slovak dancer and choreographer Peter Jasko.

Returning to the Biennale Dance Venice 2017 will be Louise Lecavalier this time as a choreographer and dancer for So Blue, in a performance with Frédéric Tavernini.

Lisbeth Gruwez presents at the International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Venice her Italian premiere performance We're pretty fuckin’ far from okay, focused on physiological and psychological fear and our primitive emotions.

Soft virtuosity, still humid, on the edge is instead the show presented by director Marie Chouinard... A fascinating journey across the world with an excursus on the many forms of walking.

Ann Van den Broek will enchant the audience of the Biennale Dance Venice Festival with The Black Piece: 5 performers immersed into almost total darkness, pierced by flashes of light orchestrated by Van den Broek to let the space be shaped by the sounds that the spectator perceives.

Silver Lion 2017, as well as one of the personalities that most captures the attention of the international press, Dana Michel will arrive at the Venice Dance Biennial 2017 for the first time with Yellow Towel. Her shows create an empathic bond between artist and spectator thanks to live moments, personal stories, dreams and worries.

Native American father and Dutch mother: Daina Ashbee's roots have always influenced her work, where contemporary dance, tradition and social themes blend into a new consciousness of herself. She will present at the Venice Biennale Dance Festival 2017 Unrelated as her Italian premiere performance and When the ice melts, will we drink the water? as her European premiere.

The great Benoît Lachambre will make his Italian premiere at the Biennale Danza Venezia with Lifeguard, a work that aims to create an intimate space in which the spectator plays an important role that changes depending on the space and the spectators.

La Biennale Danza will reserve space for another important figure, Xavier Le Roy who will present the solo work Self Unfinished, which rejects representational theatre to give birth to an anti-choreography where dance becomes everything in the mind and is expressed in conceptual operations or in ironic gestures.

Robyn Orlin, a controversial and provocative artist who has redesigned South Africa’s choreography, will make his debut in Italy with And so you see… our honorable blue sky and ever enduring sun… can only be consumed slice by slice…

The Venice Biennale 2017 Dance will end with a performance by Mathilde Monnier and La Ribot: Gustavia, the only feminine character played by two women with elements of comedy and irony.

Dance Biennale Venezia 2017 Program

Friday, June 23rd

• 11.30 am - Campo Sant'Agnese - Katema (1978 - rev. 2013, 6'), choreography Lucinda Childs
  following
  Dance II (from Dance, 1979 - rev. 2010, 16 '), choreography by Lucinda Childs
• 17.30 – Sala delle Colonne at Ca 'Giustinian - meeting with Lucinda Childs
• 21.30 - Teatro alle Tese - Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Ceremony to Lucinda Childs
  Followed by:
  Dance (1979, 60') Italian premiere performance, choreography Lucinda Childs

Saturday, June 24th

• 11.30 am – Campo Sant'Agnese - Biennale College Danza
• 17.00 - Teatro alle Tese - Chroma (2017, 45 'ca.) Italian premiere, invention, performance Alessandro Sciarronia
  Followed by:
  Aurora, a creation course (2015, 60'), documentary film by Cosimo Terlizzi on Aurora by Alessandro Sciarroni
• 19.00 – Sale d’Armi – United Tales (2015, 60’) Italian debit, created and choreographed by Clara Furey and Peter Jaskoa
  following
  Meeting with Clara Furey
  21.30 – Teatro Piccolo Arsenale - So Blue (2012, 60'), designed and choreographed by Louise Lecavaliera
  Following
  Meeting with Louise Lecavalier

Sunday 25th June

• 11.30 am - Campo Sant'Agnese - Biennale College Danza
• 17.00 - Teatro alle Tese - Aurora (2015, 60'), by Alessandro Sciarroni
• 19.00 – Tese dei Soppalchi - We're Pretty Fuckin’ Far From Okay (2016, 60') Italian premiere performance, created and choreographed by Lisbeth Gruwez; music, sound design and collaboration Maarten Van Cauwenberghea
  Followed by:
  Meeting with Lisbeth Gruwez
• 21.30 - Teatro alle Tese - Folk-S (2012, roughly 90'), invention, dramaturgy by Alessandro Sciarronia
  Following
  Meeting with Alessandro Sciarroni

Monday 26th June

• 11.30 am - Campo Sant’Agnese - Stahvin Mahvin (2017, 20' roughly), Dana Michel (CDN)
• 15.00 - Teatro alle Tese - The Co(Te)Lette Film (2010, 58') by Mike Figgis, directed and choreographed by Ann Van den Broek
• 16.30 - Teatro alle Tese - meeting with Elisa Guzzo Vaccarino
• 17.00>19.00 - Campo Sant'Agnese - In Museum V2 (2012, 120') Italian premiere, installation and performance, creation by Marie Chouinard
• 18.00 - Sale D'Armi - Biennale College Danza
  Followed by:
  Nuova Creazione (2017), the result of the workshop That choreographs Us, choreography by Benoît Lachambre
  Following
  Meeting with Benoît Lachambre
• 21.30 – Teatro Piccolo Arsenale - The Black Piece (2014, 80'), created and choreographed by Ann Van den Broek
  Followed by:
  Meeting with Ann Van den Broek

Tuesday 27th June

• 16.00 - Teatro alle Tese - Marie Chouinard: Le Sacre du Printemps (2013, 50'), film by Mario Rouleau with Marie Chouinard; Carol Prieur danseuse/dancer Compagnie Marie Chouinard (2015, 16'), a film by Isabelle Hébert
• 17.30 - Teatro alle Tese - meeting with Marie Chouinard
• 19.00 - Tese dei Soppalchi- Yellow Towel (2013, 70') Italian premiere performance, Silver Lion Dana Michela
  Followed by:
  Silver Lion ceremony
  Following
  Meeting with Dana Michel
• 21.30 pm - Teatro alle Tese - Soft Virtuosity, Still Humid, On The Edge (2015, 50'), choreography, video by Marie Chouinarda
  Followed by:
  Meeting with Marie Chouinard

Wednesday 28th June

• 17.30 - Teatro alle Tese - meeting with Daina Ashbee
• 21.30 - Teatro Piccolo Arsenale - Biennale College Danza
  Followed by:
  meeting with Irina Baldini, Chloe Chignell, Joaquín Collado Parreño

Thursday July 29th

• 11.30 am - Campo Sant'Agnese - Benoît Lachambre (CDN)
• 16.00 pm - Teatro alla Tese - Mr Gaga (2015, 100'), Tomer Heymann's documentary film on Ohad Naharin
• 19.00 - Tese dei Soppalchi - When The Ice Melts, Will We Drink the Water? (2016, 45') European premiere, creation, choreography, set design and lighting by Daina Ashbee
• 21.30 – Teatro alle Tese - Unrelated (2014, 60') Italian premiere, design, choreography, scenography and lights by Daina Ashbee

Wednesday 30th June

• 18.30 – Sale d’Armi with three-part entry (18.30, 19.00, 19.15) - Lifeguard (2016, 120') Italian premiere, choreography and performance by Benoît Lachambre
  Followed by:
  Meeting with Benoit Lachambre
• 9.30 pm – Teatro Piccolo Arsenale - Self Unfinished (1998 , 50'), created by Xavier Le Roya's
  Followed by:
  Meeting with Xavier Le Roy

Saturday 1st July

• 16.00 - Teatro alle Tese - Ten Meter Tower (2016, 16'), a film by Maximilien Van Aertryck and Axel Danielson; Your Girl (2007, 25'), Alessandro Sciarroni
• 17.30 - Teatro alle Tese - meeting with Robyn Orlin
• 19.00 – Tese dei Soppalchi - And You See ... Our Honorable Blue Sky And Ever Enduring Sun ... Can Only Be Consumed Slice By Slice ... (2016, 75') Italian premiere, created byRobyn Orlin
• 21.30 - Teatro alla Tese - Gustavia (2008, 60'), created and interpreted by Mathilde Monnier, La Ribot
  Followed by:
  Meeting with Mathilde Monnier and La Ribot

Venice Biennale of Contemporary Dance: do not miss the 11th edition of one of the most prestigious and multicultural events on the world stage! From 23 June to 1 July the Biennale Danza Venezia will be attended by great directors, musicians and contemporary choreographers!