Lugano Dance Project was born with the aim of producing every two years new dance performances, created by established talents on the contemporary international scene, who take up the challenge to thoroughly develop a main theme, suggested by the territory hosting the festival.
After exploring the relationship that exists between art, body and movement - suggested by the history of the [early 20th century Utopian] Monte Verità community - Lugano Dance Project has decided to further examine the relationship between the human body and architectural structures, by entrusting the creation of five totally new works to the same number of contemporary choreographers: Rhodnie Désir from Canada, Swiss/Belgian Cindy Van Acker, Ioannis Mandafounis, of Greek origin but based in Switzerland, the new artistic director of the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, Christos Papadopoulos also from Greece, and Nicola Galli from Italy.
The festival programme is enriched by an evening dedicated to Tanzfaktor, focusing on the younger generation active on the Swiss choreographic scene and a series of site-specific performances, featuring Maria Hassabi, Michele Di Stefano/mk, and Tiziana Arnaboldi.
The festival is also conceived as a special moment of exchange among all the participants. It aims to encourage dialogue between artists, experts and scholars coming from different fields on the role of dance, art and culture in our time. A review of art short films on the theme of “dance and architecture” curated by the Canadian choreographer Édouard Lock is one of the novelties of this second edition.