Biennale College Danza 2025

In his fifth year as Director of Biennale Danza, Wayne McGregor will be leading the Biennale College Danza. This unique training programme is designed to equip 16 young dancers with new skills, knowledge and abilities in their chosen career path; nurtured by inspiring world-class teachers, coaches, choreographers and industry professionals. Through high quality technical, creative, improvisatory, performance and audience experiences the 2025 cohort will immerse themselves in an intensive three-month programme:

In an introductory residency, McGregor and his team will concentrate on exploring evolved Physical Thinking through choreographic and performance practices. This intensive program will enhance the group’s collaborative skills in preparation for creating work together, while also sharing techniques for generating dance material and composition.

Renowned choreographer Sasha Waltz will present an evening of dance with Biennale College Danza, showcasing her adaptation of Terry Riley's iconic work, In C. Created as a variable dance interpretation of this piece, intentionally designed not to be a fixed stage performance, this is an experimental system of 53 choreographic figures for a structured improvisation with clear rules and laws: In C is a dynamic, modular piece that examines the dialogue between dance, music and space, both digitally and in real life.

In a unique site-specific project THE HERDS, Biennale College will collaborate on an unprecedented large-scale public art and climate change initiative. As Herds of life-size puppet animals invade city centres from Kinshasa to the furthest edge of Norway, fleeing the depredation of their environment due to climate change – Biennale College Danza will encounter The Herds in Venice creating a bespoke choreographic intervention by hip hop star Anthony Matsena.

Continuing our ambition to have the greatest living dance artists in dialogue and collaboration with Biennale College (past years have included Alessandra Ferri, Carlos Acosta, Saburo Teshigawara, Cristina Caprioli, Carolyn Carlson and more), our participants will have our 2025 Golden Lion superstar polymath Twyla Tharp as guest speaker.

Biennale College dancers will also collaborate with 2 emerging choreographers (see separate call out) who will each present their own short creations during the 19th International Festival of Contemporary Dance of La Biennale di Venezia.

Dancers selected for this programme will have access to individual mentoring, masterclasses and talks and will attend the international performances by companies invited to Biennale Dance 2025.

The project will take place from May 15th to August 2nd, 2025.

Each day will begin with a technique class in ballet or contemporary, led by world class teachers from McGregor’s network, followed by workshop sessions that will focus on repertoire, process, improvisation and the new commissions.

Performances
As part of the 19^th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, the Biennale College will present work in a range of contexts, for example sharings on stage to site specific events and open rehearsals.

Selection
The selection is open to participants from all over the world. We are looking for young dancers (+18 > 28 years on the closing date of the call) with at least three years vocational (or equivalent) training in dance at a high technical level and as importantly, who are creatively curious, daring and open-minded.

The selection will be made at the complete discretion of the Director of the Dance Department of La Biennale, Wayne McGregor.

Attendance for the whole programme is mandatory for participation in the project.

La Biennale di Venezia will organize and pay the following:
· Travel to/from Venice
· Accommodation in Venice (shared apartments)
· Working day lunches for the selected dancers

Each participant will receive a Biennale fee for performances of: € 1,000 gross.
There are no fees for the application.

Selected dancers (only) will be required to pay a registration fee in the amount of € 80.00 (VAT included, non-refundable) to be paid exclusively by credit card following the announcement of their acceptance, and no later than the date that will be specified in due time.

NB: Applicants may ONLY apply for either the dancer project, OR the choreographer project.
Applications for both projects will not be accepted. 

Applicants must register by filling out the online form
and submit the following material by the deadline of March 6^th 2025:

1. Recent CV in english (the video links indicated below must also be included in the CV)
2. Recent photo
3. Link to video of motivation in english (up to five minutes)
4. Link to showreel/video clip of you dancing

Incomplete applications will be automatically excluded.

La Biennale di Venezia reserves the right in any case to modify, cancel or interrupt the initiative described above, in that the announcement or the selection do not constitute a binding contract for the same, nor do they entail the right to the reimbursement of any expense other than those specified above.

The integral acceptance of the conditions of the Biennale College Dance Call makes the application eligible.

INFO:
college-danza@labiennale.org

Video: 2023 Edition of the Biennale College →