Scirocco: Death in Venice, Bridge of Sighs

Venice as an inner landscape
Scirocco will have its world premiere at Biennale Danza 2026 in Venice and receives its Dutch premiere at Amare this December. The performance brings two chapters into dialogue: Death in Venice and Bridge of Sighs. The title refers to the Scirocco, the warm wind that rises from the Sahara and moves across the Mediterranean towards Venice. A wind full of dust, salt and oppressive heat, laying a veil over the city and seeming to stir skin, thought and heartbeat. In this performance, the Scirocco becomes an inner landscape: a source of longing, unrest and creative tension.

Death in Venice draws on the central themes of Thomas Mann’s 1912 novella. The ageing writer Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice and becomes caught in an existential crisis. The dance work stages an imagined dialogue between Thomas Mann and his protagonist, in which memory, desire and self-control slowly begin to shift. The films by Javier De Frutos provide the narrative framework, while choreographers Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús and Rainer Behr translate the inner tension into a physical, charged movement language.

Farewell, longing and form
In Bridge of Sighs, choreographer John Neumeier draws inspiration from the history of the Bridge of Sighs, a reflection on love by Augustine of Hippo and the dark, mysterious sound world of Dmitri Shostakovich. The bridge, which leads in only one direction, evokes images of a final glimpse, an irrevocable farewell and the aching longing for what can no longer return. The dancers turn these images into an emotional landscape in which past and future touch.

The costume design by high end fashion brand Boss forms an essential part of the artistic language of Scirocco. The costumes give each chapter its own presence while connecting the works to one another. Through Boss’s modern, refined signature, a visual line emerges that helps shape the atmosphere of the evening: stylish, layered and sharply defined.

WINNDance: experience as strength
WINNDance (When If Not Now) is a new dance company and creative platform based in Stuttgart, founded by Slava Tutukin and Marijn Rademaker. The company brings together an exceptional world-class ensemble: internationally renowned dancers over the age of 40, whose careers have helped shape ballet and contemporary dance. Their physical knowledge, interpretative depth and artistic maturity form the starting point for a new perspective on dance. With Scirocco, WINNDance shows how age, experience and beauty can be seen anew: as sources of expression, freedom and the future.