Workshops of Biennale Danza 2026

Emanuel Gat - 19 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop  10 am > 1 pm,  Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
Led by Emanuel Gat
The workshop offers a condensed experience of Emanuel Gat’s practice and approach to dance making, examining notions such as decentralized choreography, distributed networks, decision making, causation, accountability, and the role of the dancer within the creative process.
The dancers will engage with different tasks aimed at raising their awareness and understanding of the choreographic thing, as a way to broaden their perception of the dancer’s place and access to the different layers of the creative process.

Mamela Nyamza - 21 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop 11 am > 12.30 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
Led by Mamela Nyamza
BODY & SOUND
Dance as the genre of performance art enables the Body to become the vocal cord, a tool of expression.
The Workshop will thus explore the dynamic ways of communication with the participants, but using simple body/physical to create movement sound.
The Workshop encourages artists/participants to think in the moment, and not to be confined and conformed to the norm. Participants will also be given the opportunity to engage with Mamela about her work as a Choreographer.

Julia Bentkowska & Julia Litwin  - Biennale College Choreographers - 22 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop 10 am > 1 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
led by Julia Bentkowska e Julia Litwin
Contemporary dance: physicality and choreography
Who is it for?
The workshops are aimed at dance students, semi-professional and advanced dancers who want to develop their contemporary dance technique and learn choreography based on Bentkowska x Litwin movement language.
Workshop Concept:
During the workshops you can expect a focus on preparing the body for work based on physical dance. Participants will work on choreography based on the duo's movement language. The workshops allow for both technique development and creative exploration, encouraging dancers to consciously work on their stage expression. We invite dancers who want to expand their dance skills and develop their physicality.

Bangarra Dance Theatre - 23 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop  11 am > 12.30 pm Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
Led by senior Bangarra Dance Theatre dancers
Bangarra Dance Theatre workshops offer participants a unique opportunity to engage with contemporary dance grounded in the world’s oldest continuing cultures. Led by Bangarra senior artists, each workshop begins with a guided warm-up and progresses into learning movement phrases drawn from Bangarra’s distinctive dance practice. Content is tailored to suit the age, experience, and abilities of each group.
Participants are invited to explore the cultural stories, histories, and creative processes that underpin Bangarra’s work, and to learn repertoire from the company’s current production, Terrain, offering insight into Bangarra’s contemporary artistic practice.
At the beginning of each workshop, artists will outline any relevant cultural protocols and invite participants to engage in the role they feel most comfortable with.
Traditional dance practices within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities may reflect cultural protocols grounded in a binary distinction of gender roles (“male” and “female”). In this context, Bangarra acknowledges and honours these traditions and their associated cultural protocols, while also valuing the contribution of non-binary Elders, artists, and community leaders. The company is further committed to fostering safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environments.

Andrea Salustri - 23 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop  2 pm > 5 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
Led by Andrea Salustri
Choreographing with Objects
A choreographic method based on dialogue between body and objects
What language do objects speak, and what possibilities do they conceal?
In this workshop, we will engage with objects beyond their assigned functions, exploring their textures, weights, and structures to uncover new creative pathways.
Through improvisation and composition, we will attempt to establish a non-verbal dialogue with objects, entering into a choreographic partnership with them.
This workshop offers a toolbox of methodologies for performing arts professionals interested in object manipulation as a source of creative exploration.

Omar Rajeh - 24 July
ADVANCED
workshop 10 am > 1 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
Led by Omar Rajeh
This workshop introduces Maqam, Omar Rajeh’s approach to dance - a practice developed through more than 15 years of research into instant composition and creation in the moment.
Participants work through shifting centers in the body to compose space in real time, activating internal impulses, sensation, timing, and attention. The practice invites dancers to generate movement from within, shaping situations through presence and action. Both physically demanding and sensorially precise, the workshop expands each participant’s capacity to create, respond, and construct space through embodied awareness.
About Maqam - a dance practice of becoming
Maqam is a practice of instant composition and creation in the moment. It is a continuous process of folding, growing, and becoming that organises space through relationships rather than form. Maqam approaches the body as a living constellation of shifting centers and an emerging architecture of internal impulses, interacting to shape space in real time.
It is rooted in a conceptual and physical approach that conceives the body as “multi-bodies” -  a constellation of centers of signification in constant dialogue. Dance moves beyond form and intellect; it expands into a journey of sensorial channels, where movement unfolds outside representation, towards generating situations of urgency and being. The body is constantly organising, accumulating, and becoming.

Elle Sofe Sara - 24 July
ADVANCED
workshop  2 pm > 5 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
Led by Elle Sofe Sara and Anaïs Touret, one of the production’s featured dancers
This workshop offers insight into the creative process behind Láhppon/Lost, created by Elle Sofe Sara and Hlín Hjálmarsdóttir for the Norwegian National Ballet.
The first part of the workshop will be led by Anaïs Touret, one of the production’s featured dancers from the Norwegian National Ballet, who will teach repertoire from an extract of Láhppon/Lost.
In the second half, Elle Sofe Sara will share her artistic working methods, both as a choreographer and a film director. She will also present excerpts from some of her films, offering a broader perspective on her multidisciplinary practice.

Kalle Nio - 25 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop 10 am > 1 pm, Arsenale - Teatro Piccolo Arsenale
led by Kalle Nio, director of Tempo
Time, Light, and Perception.
In this workshop, we explore some of the key techniques from our stage production Tempo. Tempo works with time, and one of the ways we shape the audience’s perception is through light, using montage techniques inspired by Kuleshov’s classic cinematic theory.
Participants are also introduced to other ways of using light to enhance choreographic movement, and we take a peek into the mindset of stage magicians, a craft that requires managing dual realities: the world of the performer and the world perceived by the audience. Understanding this duality highlights the complexity of shaping perception and illusion on stage, offering insights relevant to any form of performance.

Oli Mathiesen - 25 July
ADVANCED
workshop 2 pm > 5 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
Led by Oli Mathiesen
Oli Mathiesen's workshop will invite a sharing of his and his collaborators' practices. Rooted in Aotearoa New Zealand's unique contemporary physicality, his explored movement is a convergence and melting pot of different dance genres. Pulling from his ongoing rave-informed choreography, movements from social dance settings lend themselves to find euphoria, togetherness, and catharsis, accompanied by club soundtracks. With his intrinsic relationship to time and music, complex patterning and polyrhythms are expressed through the body to activate our mind and spatial relations. Insight into the composition and construction of his Venice Biennale Danza work will be shared through repertoire, choreographic tasks, and discussion, encouraging participants to continue exploring the themes of transcendence, structured spiritually, and queerness in their own practices. A promise of sweat, rigour, and inherent joy.

Amine Mazhoud – Biennale College Choreographers - 26 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop 10 am > 1 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
led by Amine Mazhoud
“Some times doing something leads to nothing” - Francis Alÿs

Maxine Doyle - 27 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop 10 am > 1 pm Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
led by Maxine with her associate Paul Zivkovich
How can we unlock an individual language of tension and rhythm to tell stories, reveal characters and charge atmospheres?  How can we work generously as an ensemble player whilst challenging ourselves to go deeper?
This workshop will involve a mix of physical, floor-based warm-up, games, improvisation and set movement phrases from Hubris – the new creation for the Biennale College dancers.

Molissa Fenley - 28 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop 10 am > 1 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G 
Led by Molissa Fenley
Molissa Fenley - This workshop begins with a warm-up technique class of approximately 30 minutes followed by learning phrases from Energizer, Part 3 (1980), a very early work from Fenley's repertoire.  After learning about 5 minutes of the choreographic material, participants then experiment with changing the phrases' spacing and patterning (e.g., linear, circular, on the floor, in the air), finding other qualities in the movement's dynamics, and finding ways to connect with one another in partnerships, trios, and quartets. A reconfiguration of a dance.

Eiko Otake - 29 July
ALL LEVELS
workshop 10 am > 1 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
Led by Eiko Otake
Delicious Movement Workshops are designed for all people who love to move or who want to love to move. You don’t have to be a dancer to enjoy the experience. The workshops are emphatically noncompetitive and appropriate to all levels of training and ability.
Seeing movement intimately and being seen moving are a transformative experience, which brings a new appreciation of how “time is not even and space is not empty.”
In this workshop, the emphasis is placed on communication among people from different backgrounds. Participants are invited to engage with one another’s presence, personal history, and cultural history, exploring how these layers are projected, received, and transformed through the body—with words and without words.

Studio Wayne McGregor - 30 July
ADVANCED
workshop 10 am > 1 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G 
Led by Studio Wayne McGregor
Studio Wayne McGregor presents a masterclass offering a unique insight into Wayne McGregor’s choreographic approach. The session will include a high-energy warm-up, Company Wayne McGregor repertoire, and an exploration of McGregor's choreographic tools used for creation of new works.
 

Adam Linder - 31 July
ADVANCED
workshop 10 am > 1 pm, Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G 
Led by Adam Linder
A Muscle is a Mind
In this class we will focus on three technical drivers: using the floor to calibrate muscularity, freedom of the pelvis and sequencing of the spine.
We will work with unrestricted improvisation, guided scores and learning written material to exercise the cross points between somatic, street and co-defied dance approaches.

WINNDance Company - 1 August
ALL LEVELS
workshop 10 am > 1 pm Arsenale - Sala d’Armi G
led by Silas Henriksen, Kayoko Everhart, and Marijn Rademaker
WINNDance Company offers a workshop focused on movement, creation, and improvisation, combined with selected repertoire from Imre and Marne van Opstal. The workshop is led by Silas Henriksen, Kayoko Everhart, and Marijn Rademaker, who guide participants through a structured yet open environment engaging with physical research, compositional tools, and choreographic processes. Particular attention is given to the development of movement, expression, and emotional depth, supporting dancers in connecting technical precision with artistic intention.
Dance education is a core part of WINNDance’s work through its pillar WINN & Learn, focused on sharing knowledge, supporting artistic growth, and enabling dancers to build long, sustainable careers. Through this approach, the workshop encourages artistic maturity, curiosity, and a deeper connection between technique and individual expression.

Requests are subject to availability. Registration required for attending the workshops.
Aimed at participants aged 18+

Registration form