Since its first edition in 2013, the Bienal Internacional de Danza de Cali in Colombia has established itself as one of the country's most important cultural projects, bringing together over 4,250 national and international dancers and 224,000 spectators across its six previous editions. In collaboration with the Institut Ramon Llull, this year's edition programmes a Catalan focus featuring five companies and an exhibition.
La Veronal, an internationally renowned company known for its multidisciplinary style and distinctive, unmistakable aesthetic, presents Sonoma, the acclaimed work premiered four years ago inspired by Buñuel. The piece develops further the work that director Marcos Morau created in 2016 for the Ballet de Lorraine, titled Le Surrealisme au service de la Révolution. In Sonoma the atavistic dominates, with hypnotic movements and aesthetics that recall ancient cultures and rituals.
Mal Pelo brings its work Bach to Cali. With artistic co-direction by Pep Ramis and María Muñoz, Bach presents itself as a study of movement, gaze, rhythm, breath and presence in relation to musicality. It's a selection of preludes and fugues from the two books that make up The Well-Tempered Clavier composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in the eighteenth century, in which María Muñoz combines dancing some preludes performed live with the memory of fugues danced in silence.
Another Catalan company on the programme is Aurora Bauzà & Pere Jou, who will perform A BEGINNING #16161D: a piece for five dancers/singers equipped with portable lights, whom we hear breathing, walking and speaking. They explore the relationship between movement, voice and light. This piece separates the singing body from the moving body. Aurora and Pere Jou are a young company, founded in 2021, with a clearly experimental and multidisciplinary philosophy, yet already boasting an extensive international presence and notable prizes and recognition.
Choreographer Àngels Margarit, former director of Barcelona's Mercat de les Flors and one of the most significant and international figures in Catalan dance, will also take part in the Catalan Focus, conducting a transmission workshop for her piece Solo per a habitació d'hotel (Solo for Hotel Room). Margarit will work on the choreography of her solo with performers from Cali, establishing a transcultural dialogue through dance.
Finally, the artistic collective from the Obrador de la companyia Fira Manresa,, led by Pere Seda and comprising Isaac Ballester, Oriol Macià, Eduard Roca and Sònia Serra, will undertake a collaborative transmission project with the Colombian contemporary dance company Incolballet, led by Andrea Bonilla, a celebrated choreographer and dancer. This work takes shape through a shared residency project between the Fira Mediterrània and the Cali Biennial, which begins at the Centre de Creació i Arts Vives Graner, continues with an initial showing of the work at the Fira Mediterrània and culminates with the final presentation at the Biennial.
Visitors will also be able to see the retrospective exhibition dedicated to Núria Font, Ballant amb la càmera (Dancing with the Camera). Núria Font, a Catalan video artist, is a key figure in Catalonia's recent dance history: she has created video dance pieces for some of the territory's leading contemporary dance companies, such as Àngels Margarit/cia Mudances and Mal Pelo, with examples of Font's work with these companies on show. She also founded and directed festivals that fused dance and new technologies, including the Mostra de Videodansa and VAD, the International Video and Digital Arts Festival.
The Cali Dance Biennial will also feature a diverse programme of international quality, with companies from seven guest countries (France, Mexico, Brazil, Switzerland, Germany, Spain and Guadeloupe), and a Regional Focus dedicated to Colombia's indigenous peoples. The repertoire includes contemporary dance, tradition and interdisciplinary creation, with 28 performances, 500 dancers and an extensive programme of workshops, labs and talks.
The Institut Ramon Llull, the main partner for the Catalan Focus at the Cali Biennial, is the organisation responsible for the international projection of the Catalan language, culture and arts. Through partnership agreements and support programmes, it creates networks of cooperation and dialogue across all areas of creativity, literature and translation, Catalan language and Catalan studies, performing arts, film, music, visual arts, design and architecture.
The Fira Mediterrània is the strategic market of the Ministry of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya dedicated to Root Arts and is held annually in Manresa with over 1,000 professionals participating in each edition. The Fira promotes laboratory projects that allow young dancers to experience cross-cultural encounters through dance.
