In 2003, a new formula for the performing arts at the Biennale was tested: the Dance, Music and Theatre sections were to be directed every year by a different artist, in charge of a one-year program rather than of the usual four-year period. The artistic director was thus invited to express his or her strong personal vision of contemporariness.

Furthermore, the program was not to present a number of performances during the summer months but rather to take place in a shorter period of time, adopting the Festival format that had been characteristic of the Music and Theatre sections since the 1930s.  

In 2003 then, Frédéric Flamand adopted the term ‘festival’ for the program of the Dance section. Flamand, a Belgian choreographer specifically interested in the dialogue between dance and other disciplines such as art, architecture and music, entitled his festival Body ↔ City and presented a program that was a sort of ‘urban route’ of the body across 15 cities from Charleroi to Kyoto, from Paris to New York and Johannesburg. The program was enriched by an international meeting on the major themes of the festival –body, city, architecture, and technology– and a series of panels entitled Metropolis, where the invited artists had the chance to offer their particular views on cities.

1st International Festival of Contemporary Dance: Body ↔ City

   12-18 June, Teatro alle Tese: CHARLEROI Charleroi Danses – Plan K, Silent Collisions

   13-15 June, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale: KYOTO Dumb Type, Memorandum

   20-21 June, Teatro Fondamenta Nuove: THE HAGUE André Gingras, CYP 17

   21-22 June, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale: AMSTERDAM Hans Hof Ensemble, Bureau

   25-29 June, Teatro alle Tese: PARIS Philippe Jamet Portraits Dansés

   27-28 June, Teatro alle Tese: BRUXELLES Mossoux-Bonté, Light!

   27-28-29 June, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale: LONDON Random Dance Company, Nemesis

   4-5 July, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale: GENT Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, It

   5 July, PalaFenice: BERLIN Sasha Waltz, Zweiland

   5-6 July, Teatro alle Tese: ANTANANARIVO Compagnie Rary, Mpirahlahy Mianala; Dihy Tsy

   11-12 July, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale: BARCELONA Cesc Gelabert / Lydia Azzopardi, Preludis

   11-12-13 July, Teatro alle Tese: MONTREAL Lynda Gaudreau, Encyclopœdia - Document 3

   12 July, PalaFenice: AIX-EN-PROVENCE Angelin Preljocaj, Near Life Experience

   16 July, PalaFenice: NEW YORK Stephen Petronio, Broken Man; Prelude; Strange Attractors part II; City of Twist

   16-17-18 July, Teatro Piccolo Arsenale: JOHANNESBURG Robyn Orlin, We must eat our suckers with the wrappers on…

   17-18 July, Teatro alle Tese: NEW YORK John Jasperse, Giant Empty

 

Venice Arsenale, 14 June to 16 July: METROPOLIS Tokyo, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin, Montreal, New York

a series of 6 panels dedicated to the theme of the city (with Francesco Morace, Tracy Metz, Franco La Cecla and Piero Zanini, Arvo Pärt, Alberto Kurapel, and Eric Drooker)