Biennale College Dancers - Duo (2023, extended) / When I am facing U

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William Forsythe, Duo 2023 extended
Duo (2023, extended) is a structural elaboration on the eponymous work, originally premiered in 1996 with Ballet Frankfurt, at the Frankfurt Opera in Germany.
Originally designed for two women, the work has undergone several iterations, each one emphasizing a different facet of the work’s structure. The version referenced for Duo (2023, extended) was designed for two men, Riley Watts and Brigel Gjoka, specifically for William Forsythe’s full-length work A Quiet Evening of Dance in 2019.
Duo centres around the idea of counterpoint being an organic state of nature, something fundamental to being in the world. The work is conducted by a breath score that not only synchronizes the performers, but also allows them to communicate without visual cues, when necessary. This was the very first of a series of a cappella works produced by Forsythe over the next twenty-five years.
Duo (2023, extended) will ask a small ensemble of dancers to fragment the structure into a distributed contrapuntal gesture that will warp the timings and the spatial configurations of the original work. The outcome will hopefully direct the viewers’ attention to the challenges of producing cohesive, coherent ensemble coordination in novel and interesting ways.

Xie Xin – When I am facing U
When I am facing U is the title of the new creation commissioned by La Biennale di Venezia to Xie Xin for the dancers of Biennale College Danza. A work on stasis in emotional confusion, When I am facing U seeks to embed into the body the feeling that we sometimes have when we stop for a moment in silence.
As Xie Xin writes: “In silence, there is an indefinable feeling which is well remembered by the body. I am facing you, facing myself, facing the problems, facing this moment. Everyone will encounter a moment when there are ripples in your heart, and many words in your mind. Time and memory wash against my cheeks. I stand still and get pulled by something, unable to take a step, let alone say a word ... That is something captured and well-remembered by the body, but there is just no way to express it in words. It is so precious that I want to capture this very moment in my memory...”
For Xie Xin, who infuses every gesture with as much emotion as possible, the creative process is a synonym of participation. Fluid and circular, Xie Xin’s dance arises out of pure movement.
A dancer and choreographer born in Jiangxi, in south-eastern China, Xie Xin trained at the Guangdong Dance School, then began to dance for important national companies such as the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first Chinese modern dance company, and the Tao Dance Theater, winner of this year’s Silver Lion. Xie Xin began to work as a freelance choreographer in 2014, when she founded the Xie Xin Dance Theatre. After her collaboration in 2019 with the BalletBoyz, for whom she choreographed Ripple, Xie Xin created Horizon for the Paris Opera Ballet, a new work played around the illusion generated by natural elements, which will premiere in September 2023.
Xie Xin will also be one of the teachers in the masterclasses open to the public to be held throughout the Festival.