The programme also includes: skating for families (4 and 11 February); skating sessions for the public (from 3-11 February); four workshops aimed at skating schools.
La Biennale -
“Murmuration” by Le Patin Libre: special preview of the Biennale Danza 2024
From 1-11 February at the Arcobaleno ice rink at Parco Albanese in Mestre. Online reservations for the public are available.
Murmuration
Murmuration, by the Canadian company Le Patin Libre, is the show on ice presented by the Biennale Danza as a special anticipation of the next edition (18 July > 3 August 2024). An unusual and exceptional opening show that will be featured within the programme of activities dedicated to the Carnival by La Biennale di Venezia. Murmuration will take place from February 1st to 11th at the Arcobaleno Skating Rink in the Parco Albanese in Mestre, transformed for the occasion into an ice-skating rink.
Tickets may be purchased online and onsite as long as places are available. € 8 full price, € 5 concession for students and/or under 26. Free admission for children under 6.
Workshops and ice-dancing parties
Following the lines of the Educational programmes organized by the Promotion Department of La Biennale di Venezia for Carnival, Le Patin Libre, on the occasion of the Murmuration show, will present a dense programme of workshops and ice-dancing parties open to everyone.
The public may access the ice rink as long as places are available. Wearing gloves is compulsory. Observing the regulations published on www.labiennale.org compulsory. Children under 11 must be accompanied.
Statement by Wayne McGregor
“We are thrilled – states Wayne McGregor, Director of the Biennale Danza – to present the magical Le Patin Libre in a short Winter Biennale Danza 2024. This extraordinary performance art company are renowned for their high-speed choreography (unbelievably fast because it is on ice) and will perform their hypnotic new show Murmuration in a specially adapted ice rink in Mestre. At the same time, a dazzling curated programme of creative ice-skating lessons, experiences and parties will unfold to share the thrill of dancing on ice with the public and make accessible this incredible art form to many.”
Le Patin Libre
Performing in Italy for the first time, Le Patin Libre is a Canadian company that has reinvented ice shows by opening a heretofore unexplored territory of contemporary dance, successfully blending the rigour of artistic ice skating with the abstraction of choreography, and transforming ice skating rinks into new spaces for the enjoyment of live performing arts.
Founded in Montréal in 2005, Le Patin Libre – directed by Alexandre Hamel – creates new choreographic landscapes that are now known and acclaimed around the world, opening dance to kinesthetic experiments characterised by rapid and fluid motion, unlike any other.
As of today, the company includes 15 members from 7 different countries (France, Great Britain, United States, Canada, Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway): all professional skaters, some of them in competitive sports, but others with expertise in other disciplines based on skill, speed, physical attributes, such as the circus arts or ice sports, such as hockey.
The Guardian has written about them: “This is a group doing something that no one else is, and who make you look afresh and with wonder at bodies moving”.
Murmuration
Murmuration, the show presented by Le Patin Libre, is inspired by one of Nature’s most spectacular events: the aerial choreographies of starlings, when they gather in flocks before migrating South.
Murmuration is the precise term that indicates the sound, similar to an intense murmur, produced by the flapping wings of these quite common yet incredible birds during their inscrutable swirls. Like in a good-luck ritual before a departure, these flocks of birds trace trajectories as they fly high across the skies, weaving fantastic patterns as they swoop downwards before veering abruptly and regaining altitude in a flutter of wings. A hypnotic spectacle for anyone watching, which the 15 extraordinary dancers of Le Patin Libre renew on the ice composing complex dynamics of perfectly synchronised movement and, as if the movement spread from one to the next just like it does in a flock, they seem literally to take flight sliding fluidly across the ice at supersonic speed. This is a show not to be missed.
On the ice with Alexander Hamel, will be the co-founders and co-choreographers of the company Pascale Jodoin and Samory Ba, to be joined by the new soloist David Billiau. The special soundtrack for the show is created by the group member Jasmin Boivin, working for this show in collaboration with Philippe Le Bon.
