txt: www.labiennale.org - 7th Venice International Festival of Contemporary Dance
This year’s Festival takes a close look at a wide geographic area, with two focuses on Canada and Quebec, Australia and New Zealand, together with other new projects from Italy and elsewhere. Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal contend the primacy in dance with such cities as New York thanks to their major events that have been held for some years, such as the Festival International de Nouvelle Danse and the more recent BC Scéne, Festival TransAmériques, Push Festival, and through the ferment and variety of choreographic offering. Australia too offers more than 60 official dance companies, hundreds of independent artists and 21 universities offering institutional courses dedicated to dance, which all lead to this discipline gaining in breadth. But what is interesting above all is the cultural uniqueness of New Zealand, which blends an indigenous culture and 200 different nationalities. [...] Marathon of the Unexpected (June 12, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale) is the space dedicated to novelty that the Biennale has created within the Festival: all the pieces are new and lightning-fast – not more than 5 minutes each – and selected via a competition to try and provide visibility for works that would otherwise have little exposure. Go&Go Dance Party (June 12, Tese delle Vergini) will instead be an evening of shared festivity to celebrate the joy and beauty of dance and so crown the Festival.