JURY SWISS DANCE DAYS 2024 (from left to right)
Joanna Lesnierowska, curator & visual dramaturg, Grisons
Laurence Perez, curator, Marseille/Lausanne/Zürich
Simone Truong, choreographer, Zürich
Laurence Wagner, curator & director Festival Belluard Bollwerk, Fribourg
Emanuel Rosenberg, choreographer & festival director, Ticino

218 performances 
by 174 companies

and 5 individuals commissioned 
to deliver a selection 
based on a 10-month intense exploration of the last 
2 years of choreographic creation,
a selection to be shared then with international professionals 
as a guide into the rich landscape of dance made in Switzerland. 

When embarking on such an expedition, certainly one may ask for a map. However, we are all fully aware that cartography cannot help us escape the heavy burden of choice. And that maps themselves speak a language that is both aesthetic and political. The challenging practice of mapping also needs to embrace the diversity of individual perspectives, while acknowledging the tense space between private and public aspects of the different sensing-feeling-thinking bodies that choreography situates. With utmost care, we decided to examine and tune in to both - the artist’s works and the reality their work tenderly draws upon. We strongly believe that one of the most exciting features of choreography is its ability to serve as a mirror to the complexity of the world we live in, and therefore lead us to active (self-) reflection. 

Being aware that choreography often serves as a litmus test of people’s moods, struggles, dreams and desires, we invite you to delve into the diverse field of Swiss choreographic practice. To discover what has moved this community over the last two years and what continues to move it, looking back and also looking forward - seeking consolation and remedies, showing possible solutions of arriving at and transforming the future. 

All that has brought us here. To a selection that speaks of our experiences, whether intimate or collective. A heart that bursts, bodies that reveal the complexity of bonds. A selection that evokes the cycles of time and traumatic stories, while dancing our dreams and desires. Internal dialogues, surprising juxtapositions, works shedding light on each other. A transgenerational selection, embracing the complex multiplicity and entanglement of our times. Collaborations at work, (self-) critical and (self-) reflective voices, tales that make us either laugh and/or cry. In short: material that is definitely able to move us. We hope it will also be able to move others when brought further to new landscapes and audiences.

And with that wish in our minds and hearts, what we share with you herewith cannot be read as a fixed map. Take it instead as a collection of signposts - a moving constellation - one of affects, gestures, and spells. A choreographic installation - performative and participatory - composed of the 15 artistic statements woven into a five-day programme with an aim to create the space for exciting and inspiring encounters and exchanges with Swiss choreography and choreographers. 

And last but not least: we invite you all to come together, embracing, enlarging, and reviving the idea of «ensembling» – whether artist or audience, professional or friend or stranger – to think and act and dream. Together.