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The Festival

Bolzano Danza is a leading festival of contemporary dance, both nationally and internationally. Organised by the Haydn Foundation, it brings its contagious energy to the city every July, attracting a diverse and enthusiastic audience. Inclusion, participation and sustainability are key to the festival. It is open to societal diversity and ready to capture our world in a state of flux – through the universal language of dance.

The performances, which showcase the best contemporary choreographers and dancers and encompass a wide range of genres and languages, are centred around the Teatro Comunale, from which they radiate out to a number of prominent venues throughout the city, reshaping its perception thanks to projects involving artivism and social interaction. Alongside the performances, the festival also offers dance workshops of all styles organised by the Südtiroler Kulturinstitut.

History
of the Festival

1985

Bolzano Danza is born as a spin-off of Bolzano Estate’s classical dance section. The new festival, comprising both performances and dance workshops, is organised by the city and province of Bolzano. Loredana Furno is the first artistic director; Ulrich Roehm is responsible for the workshops.

1989

Ulrich Roehm and Giuseppe Carbone are named co-artistic directors of the festival. They invite leading European ballet schools as guests. The Roland Petit Evening, with Alessandra Ferri and the Ballet National de Marseille, is a great success.

1994

Lanfranco Cis is appointed artistic director and remains supported by Ulrich Roehm until 1996. The festival makes a decisive turn towards contemporary dance, becoming a bridge between Central European and Mediterranean culture. Bill T. Jones, an icon of African-American dance, is amongst the guest artists this year.

1995

Angelin Preljocaj and Carolyn Carlson make their first appearance at Bolzano Danza; they will return on several occasions.

1996

The festival and dance workshops are reorganised: the former is coordinated by the province’s Department for Italian culture, the latter by the Department for German culture. The individual editions of Bolzano Danza become thematic.

1997

Maguy Marin presents her masterpiece May B at the festival.

2001

Bolzano Danza is handed over to the Nuovo Teatro Comunale – Auditorium Provinciale Bolzano foundation. The Teatro Comunale di Bolzano becomes the main festival venue, the festival itself is is recognised by the Italian Ministry of Culture. Italian debut of Red Giselle with the Eifman Ballet.

2005

The festival celebrates its twentieth anniversary with Trisha Brown, Marie Chouinard and Germaine Acogny. From this edition onwards, the festival will increasingly give space to female choreographers.

2006

Manfred Schweigkofler becomes artistic director of the festival. Bolzano Danza expands under his leadership. Alongside the performances in the theatre there are various free open-air events in the city and in spectacular venues such as Sigmundskron Castle.

2009

Shen Wei presents the European premiere of Re–Parts I, II & III at the festival.

2011

Bolzano Danza is becoming a “Festival 2.0” with an increasingly inclusive nature, reaching the urban public space with its new outdoor section and implementing various projects that involve the local community.

2013

Emanuele Masi is appointed artistic director for the Dance and Opera departments of the Teatro Comunale di Bolzano, thus also for the festival. Bolzano Danza hosts the Italian premiere of Tragédie by Olivier Dubois, which will be followed by a long series of premieres in Bolzano by the French artist.

2015

Organisation of Bolzano Danza passes to the Haydn Foundation with Emanuele Masi becoming the festival’s artistic director. The festival is revamped under his leadership, with a focus on social inclusion, sustainability and interactivity. Each edition is entrusted to an external guest curator. Rachid Ouramdane participates in Bolzano Danza for the first time with Tenir les temps; he will subsequently become an associate artist and return on several occasions.

2018

Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart, which has participated in Bolzano Danza before, becomes an Associate Company of the festival for the period 2018 to 2022. Michele di Stefano is appointed Guest Curator of the festival’s Outdoor section for 2018.

2020

The festival reinvents itself with EDEN – Danza per uno spettatore (Dance for One Spectator), an innovative response to the pandemic: each performance in the theatre has only one spectator and one dancer, a symbolic encounter between two “primordial” human beings in search of lost perfection. The project receives the Danza&Danza prize from the Italian critics.

2022

A three-year collaboration commences with the Ballet national de Marseille, led by the (La)Horde collective, which becomes an Associate Company of Bolzano Danza for the years 2022 to 2024. The German company Gauthier Dance//Theaterhaus Stuttgart is named Principal Guest Company until 2024.

2025

The artistic direction is led by the French duo of cultural manager Anouk Aspisi and choreographer-dancer Olivier Dubois.

The festival
in figures

602

Events

310

Premieres

421

Choreographers

65

Locations

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Artistic Direction

Anouk
Aspisi

A seasoned cultural manager with years of work in France and Italy, Anouk Aspisi (Montpellier, 1968) read Political Sciences at the University of Montpellier and then went on to obtain a Master’s degree in Communication and Media from the Audiencia Business School in Nantes. Her twenty-five years of work featured collaborations with prestigious public administrations and private entities. Aspisi has created numerous projects, focusing on conversations with the public and audience development. She has collaborated with the Romaeuropa Festival advising them on international relations (2000-2004), with the François Pinault Foundation in Venice (2008-2010), with the Institut français Italia as cultural attaché (2012-2017) – where she created the multidisciplinary La Francia in Scena –, as the General Secretary of the Fondazione Nuovi Mecenati (2013-2018), as the Head of Communication at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (2017-2018) and as the General Secretary of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon (2018-2022). She was also a consultant for artistic creation between 2022 and 2024 to French Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, on matters such as live performances, festivals, music, and the visual arts.

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Artistic Direction

Olivier
Dubois

After his exceptional international career as a dancer, Olivier Dubois (Colmar, 1972) has been giving space to his creative endeavours since 2006. His first work, Pour tout l’or du monde, won him the Prix Jardin d’Europe in Vienna, which is a European Prize for Emerging Choreography. His oeuvre features Faune(s), made for the 2008 Avignon Festival, Spectre, made for the 2010 Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo, and L’homme de l’Atlantique, a duet for the Biennale de la Danse in Lyon. In 2009, he started the Étude critique pour un trompe-l’œil trilogy with Révolution, followed by the Rouge and Tragédie solos in 2011 and 2012 respectively. When Marseille was chosen as 2013 European Capital of Culture, he staged the Élégie for the Ballet National de Marseille; he staged Come out for the Ballet de Lorraine in 2019. In 2013, he won the Italian critics’ Danza&Danza Prize, and in 2014 he was appointed Director of the Ballet du Nord-Centre Chorégraphique National de Roubaix by the French Ministry of Culture. He was also awarded the Prix Fedora Van Cleef & Arpels and, in 2019, was nominated Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Dubois is no stranger at Bolzano Danza, having been invited as a guest to numerous editions. Indeed, he created choreographies for the festival such as Les Mémoires d’un seigneur (2015), Swan Blast (2019), and For Gods Only/Sacre #3 (2024).

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Organising body

Haydn
Foundation

The Haydn Foundation of Bolzano and Trento is one of the most eminent centres of artistic innovation in Trentino-Alto Adige. Its mission is to support high-quality symphonic music, opera and dance, promoting intercultural dialogue and encouraging social and personal growth. Since 2015 it has been organising Bolzano Danza, a festival that has developed its own strong identity by focussing on inclusion, sustainability and experiments with various styles and languages.

Past Years

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Green Festival

In sync with the environment, taking responsibility for the planet. At Bolzano Danza we pay attention to ecological sustainability in all its forms: from supporting social inclusion to numerous Going Green initiatives to reduce the festival’s carbon footprint. At performances, for example, we encourage sustainable mobility and efficient energy use, and distribute reusable water bottles to avoid unnecessary waste.