Sulle sponde is an adaptation developed especially for the German Pavilion at the 18th Biennale di Venezia, in which the choreographic material of Sulle sponde del lago – On the Shores of the Lake, a collaborative dance production between Forward Dance Company by Lofft – Das Theater, the Artistic Project Director Gustavo Fijalkow and the choreographer Alessandro Schiattarella, has been arranged in a new and site-specific way.

Sulle Sponde thereby seeks dialogue with its surroundings at the Giardini della Biennale and, in the spirit of the curators of the German Pavilion, opens up spaces of perception and care, repair and renewal, fragility and perfection: spaces in which our ideas of norms, narratives and nations can meet in new ways. Drawing on the classical ballet Swan Lake (1877, Music by Pjotr lljitsch Tschaikowski), the performance dismantles the established canon and subversively reassembles the piece in inclusive and diverse ways, while claiming its place in the long genealogy of stagings of this famous ballet. The Forward Dance Company is the only mixed-abled dance company in Germany working permanently at an independent production house, based in Leipzig at Lofft – Das Theater. It is artistically dedicated to themes that negotiate issues of canon and norm, history and form, belonging and nation.

Alessandro Schiattarella is an independent disabled choreographer based in Basel. He has had a career as a professional dancer and has been choreographing for several years. He defines his work as a form of resistance to able-istic perspectives.

Sulle sponde is an initiative of the Goethe-Institut and the Forward Dance Company by Lofft – Das Theater in collaboration with choreographer Alessandro Schiattarella and Cinquantatré Basel, in co-production with Roxy Birsfelden and euro-scene Leipzig.

The Forward Dance Company is supported by Tanzpakt Stadt-Land-Bund with funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, by the City of Leipzig –Cultural Office and by the Saxon State Ministry for Science, Culture and Tourism. This institution is co-financed by tax funds on the basis of the budget passed by the Saxon State Parliament. Supported by Bureau Ritter/Tanzpakt Reconnect, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of the initiative Neustart Kultur, Aid Programme Dance. Supported by the Fachausschuss Tanz & Theater BS/BL, by the Jaqueline Spengler Stiftung, the Schweizerische Interpretenstiftung SIS, the Ernst Göhner Stiftung, the Corymbo Stiftung and the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.