Text by Irem Erkin
The 19th International Festival of Contemporary Dance will take place from July 17 to August 2, 2025, under the artistic direction of Wayne McGregor. Past themes have focused on the uniqueness of our physical intelligence, including Touch, Interaction, Interoception (the chemical self), and Sensation. This year’s edition continues La Biennale’s commitment to artistic innovation and critical exploration, with a strong emphasis on the intersection of body, technology, and choreography.
This edition’s theme, MYTH MAKERS, will focus on the fluency that unites these discrete elements in a creative exchange, telling both linear and non-linear narratives… how we utilise creativity to tell stories in a multitude of ways. Writes Wayne McGregor. A myth maker creates, invents, or reimagines the symbolic stories that shape our understanding of culture, nature, identity, and meaning, building immersive worlds and symbolic narratives that were once unimaginable. From the earliest storytellers who spoke around fires to today’s digital visionaries, myth-making remains a vital act of cultural creation. It is a journey through old myths retold in new dialects, spoken not just in words, but in dance and digital code.
Myths have played a crucial role throughout history, writes artistic director Wayne 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 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 innerselves while articulating universal truths that resonate across times and cultures.
Wayne McGregor interrogates the present and envisions the future simultaneously through a native language of dance. Myth Makers are those bold enough to provoke and delve deep into the world we live in, representing the essence of life and creating an aspiration and understanding for a better future. The incorporation of technology into forming new narratives acts as a tool to evoke a sensorial feast. This year, McGregor presents On The Other Earth, the world’s first post-cinematic choreographic installation, which transforms, refracts, and reimagines the very essence of dance performance. Inspired by McGregor’s recent stage work DEEPSTARIA, it reinterprets and evolves the work’s conceptual DNA into a strikingly original new form of language. With choreography by McGregor and the integration of digital imaging, multimodal sensing, AI, and spatialised sound, On The Other Earth offers a bold exploration of interactive technology, immersing audiences in a powerful, otherworldly language that forges an emotional connection within a digital realm.
Biennale Danza 2025 has always brought together both emerging and established voices in contemporary dance through a dynamic programme of performances and installations. Under the artistic direction of Wayne McGregor, it has built and strengthened a network dedicated to supporting future creativity by engaging with its most innovative voices through open calls, residencies, co-commissions, and co-productions. Last year, a national and an international call for new choreographic works received a total of 361 submissions from over 40 countries. Two winning projects from these calls will premiere at this year’s edition, alongside eight world premieres, seven European premieres, and five Italian premieres over 17 days. Bullyache won the international call and will debut A Good Man is Hard to Find. Nuovo Balletto di Toscana won the national call with Sisifo felice, a new piece created by the company’s artistic director, Philippe Kratz, in collaboration with choreographer Pablo Girolami.
Between May and July, sixteen dancers and two choreographers selected for the Biennale College’s intensive training program were immersed in both theory and practice, attending coursework and developing original works. Their work focuses on two major projects, each set to premiere during The Biennale Danza. The first, The Herds, a large-scale public art project, highlights the global climate crisis as a unique site-specific piece serving as a festival preview on June 17. From April to August 2025, life-sized puppet animals will journey from Kinshasa to the northernmost reaches of Norway along a 20,000-kilometre path, symbolising a migration caused by environmental destruction. In Venice, Biennale College Danza will engage with The Herds, and acclaimed hip-hop artist Anthony Matsena will create a special choreographic response for the event. The second focus is on the work of Sasha Waltz, known for her distinctive choreographic language that reveals new layers in the structure of music through movement. College participants collaborate with Waltz and her team, both in the studio and in an adaptation of In C by Terry Riley. This immersive experience for the young artists will also be shaped by their performances of the two original choreographic works created through the Biennale College program.
From Italian premieres, four caught our attention: Friends of Forsythe, Songs of the Bulbul, Simulacro and La Mort i la Primavera. Friends of Forsythe celebrates the richness of diverse dance cultures and the unifying, transformative power of movement. The performance brings together William Forsythe and a group of collaborators, including Rauf “RubberLegz” Yasit, Matt Luck, Riley Watts, Brigel Gjoka, and the JA Collective (Aidan Carberry & Jordan Johnson).
Songs of the Bulbul is a journey into Sufi spirituality expressed through the intricate rhythms of Islamic verse and performed in the refined Kathak tradition by the Aakash Odedra Company. Aakash Odedra, trained in both kathak and Bharatanatyam, is guided in this piece by choreographer Rani Khanam, known for infusing kathak with a deeply personal interpretation of Sufi wisdom. The music is composed by Rushil Ranjan, who reimagines the energy of Sufi music through rich orchestral arrangements. Simulacro, created by the Madrid-based collective Kor’sia, explores human identity in the digital age, offering an immersive, interdisciplinary experience that blurs the line between reality and virtuality. Marcos Morau is the mastermind behind La Mort i la Primavera. Inspired by the universal myth of death and rebirth, as well as Mercè Rodoreda’s posthumous novel, the piece explores themes of transformation and renewal.
The Australian company Chunky Move brings its innovative fusion of performance, visual art, electronic sound, and installation to Venice with U>N>I>T>E>D. Set in a futuristic post-industrial world, six dancer-cyborgs perform wearing robotic exoskeletons—“artificial musculature” designed to enhance strength, agility, and speed. The result is a compelling vision that is both futuristic and primal.
This year’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement honours one of the most influential figures in contemporary dance: Legendary American choreographer and dancer Twyla Tharp, who will open the Festival on July 17. Her signature energy will be on full display in Slacktide, a new creation, presented alongside her acclaimed 1998 work Diabelli. This diptych marks sixty years of Twyla Tharp Dance and is part of the company’s Diamond Jubilee Tour, which began on January 26 in Minneapolis and is touring across the United States before its European premiere at the Biennale.
The Silver Lion recognises Carolina Bianchi, a leading force in South America’s experimental performance scene. Bianchi will present Cadela Força: The Brotherhood—the second part of her powerful trilogy. Her work, grounded in feminist performance art with strong political and social themes, follows in the footsteps of pioneers such as Gina Pane, Marina Abramović, Regina José Galindo, Tania Bruguera, and Ana Mendieta. Bianchi opens new paths with a deeply charged exploration of masculinity and the male gaze.
Old myths will be honoured, and new ones will be born in Biennale Danza through the unspoken yet universal language of the body. Here, movement becomes myth, and the stage a space where timeless stories are retold and reimagined in the rhythms of the present. Once again, Biennale Danza serves as a platform for artistic experiments at the intersection of dance, art, and technology.
