“Scirocco” (“Death in Venice”/“Bridge of Sighs”)
WINNDance
Teatro Malibran
Venice, Italy
August 01, 2026
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf
“When if not now” (WINN) is the attitude of movers and shakers. Earlier this year, two such movers and shakers, Slava Tutukin (former soloist of the Mikhailovsky Ballet, St. Petersburg, and the Aalto Ballet, Essen) and Marijn Rademaker (choreographer and ex-principal of Stuttgart Ballet and Dutch National Ballet) founded WINNDance, a Stuttgart-based dance company for dancers forty years old and older. It attracted renowned names: People’s Artist of Russia, Diana Vishneva; the late Hans van Manen’s muse, Igone de Jongh; Hamburg Ballet’s Ivan Urban, Silvia Azzoni, and Oleksandr Ryabko; the Royal Ballet’s former principal, Mara Galeazzi; and Polina Semionova (who didn’t perform in Venice). The new enterprise includes an educational platform (WINN&Learn) and an exploratory platform for collaboration with different industries (WINNLab).
Last weekend, WINNDance’s inaugural performance took place at Venice’s Teatro Malibran as part of the Biennale di Venezia 2026. The double bill included Death in Venice (based on Thomas Mann’s eponymous 1911 novel) and Bridge of Sighs (named after a famous Venice bridge that connects the Doge’s Palace to the New Prison across a small canal; the “sighs” belonged to the prisoners glimpsing Venice one last time before confinement). Therefore, there could be no better location for the performance than the lagoon city. Even the torrid, humid, and stagnant weather matched the program’s overriding title, Scirocco (the hot Mediterranean wind originating from the Sahara). Renowned sponsors and patrons supported Scirocco; BOSS designed the costumes. But, for different reasons, both ballets failed.
Death in Venice opened with Javier De Frutos’s black and white video in which Paul Chantry played alternately a TV news anchor of the 50s and Thomas Mann who soliloquized or talked with the novella’s main figure, Gustav von Aschenbach (also played by Chantry). Charles Hagerty contributed English voice acting, which was translated into Italian supertitles. As a news anchor wearing a suit and tie, the mustachioed Chantry looked like Thomas Mann in his late forties, though he spoke with biting sarcasm and, at times, through clenched teeth, undermining his favorite statement, “You can ask me anything.” The casual white outfit he wore while playing Thomas Mann or von Aschenbach gave him a Freddy Mercury appearance. Fading in and out from white like a heat-induced hallucination, Chantry cautioned against the weather and plague and recited passages from the novel with odd, full-body sign language.
I had begun to wonder about the whereabouts of Imre and Marne van Opstal’s, Omar Román De Jesús’s, and Rainer Behr’s joint choreography when the video ended with pedestrians’ chatter and the curtain rose on the first dance section, subtitled Obsession and choreographed by the van Opstals. The five silhouettes that slowly approached in a line from the dark, foggy rear stage surrounded the sacral aura of reverberating ecclesiastical chants. Boxy suits and ties blurred the distinction between men and women except for Kayoko Everhart (a principal from Madrid’s Compañia Nacional de Danza), whose white blazer had a feminine cut. All of them seemed to portray von Aschenbach. They moved composedly and slowly or walked busily, though aimlessly, with hands folded behind their backs or at their hips. Emotions boiled beneath the surface. Rademaker burst into a solo like a valve releasing pressure; Silas Henriksen (a principal of the Norwegian National Ballet) rubbed his chest as if hot from his emotions. His jacket felt too tight, the tie was confining, his feet were restless, and his hands were frantic.
When the noisy electronics quieted briefly, Henriksen left. Right away, thumping rhythms dictated a synchronous routine in front of a yellow backdrop that probably symbolized a sunset at the Lido. Again, sudden silence stopped the pounding feet. Breathing heavily, the dancers stared at the audience as if it were a dangerous beast to carefully retreat from. I couldn’t find a correlation between the choreography and the novella anymore, but I liked the intensity and aesthetic of Henriksen’s and Everhart’s pas de deux. The manner in which Henriksen wiped his hands across the floor indicated that he was still on a sandy beach.
Video and dance sequences continued to alternate. De Jesús’s choreography, Identity, opened with a guitar as searing as Prince’s and jingling bells. It included an intimate pas de trois in which the yearning Gil Roman (former artistic director of the Béjart Ballet Lausanne) was torn between Azzoni and Vishneva, both of whom ditched him. According to the program book, Identity reflects upon the contradiction between a person’s external role and inner truth.
The final dance part, Behr’s Horizon, featured Ryabko as a struggling von Achenbach on his sacred final path. The scene made me think back to John Neumeier’s version of Death in Venice, in which Ryabko used to portray von Aschenbach’s concepts. Eight dancers accompanied him as he walked toward the glaring light reflected from the surf. Although their white costumes resembled nightgowns and pajamas, the group presumably represented angels.
Thomas Mann and the novella remained the main topics of the other two videos. Like poles in a sea of abstract dance, they intermittently anchored the piece. The concept could have worked if the running time had been right. But Death in Venice dragged on for more than an hour. Its disruption by a power outage was unfortunate, but not the reason for its lack of momentum.
Bridge of Sighs, by John Neumeier, is dedicated to his mother and was created for WINNDance for free. Its bridge was a high-folding ladder (the production’s only set element) upon which Rademaker stood. Still a blonde sunny boy, he was the one “falling in love again” about whom Friedrich Hollaender sang. Rademaker’s love interest was Henriksen, but Henriksen embraced Ryabko instead. Ridden with melancholy, Rademaker sat down at the front stage and then clambered about the ladder like a boy on a playground and called for mama. She appeared as de Jongh, whose ankles Rademaker clasped. Both spoke Dutch at times, but for whatever reason, there were no English supertitles.
Whether Rademaker’s infatuation was answered when he hung headlong at Henriksen’s back was unclear. Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 13 suggested a difficult if not depressing romance. In any event, St. Augustine’s quote, “I was not yet in love, but, I was in love with loving (…),” which had inspired Neumeier and played via voiceover, encouraged Rademaker to redirect his fondness toward Vishneva. The little boy, who climbed the other side of the ladder, portrayed their son (in real life, he is Vishneva’s son, Rudolf Selinevich). He left with his mother once Henriksen’s reappearance broke up the couple. But again, Henriksen ignored Rademaker. Kurt Weill’s September, interpreted by Bryan Ferry, heralded an end to the sunny boy-time.
As in previous ballets, Neumeier employed angular, jerky movements often stopping midway like a stutter and worn-out stereotypes. How often have we seen a Neumeier dancer, holding his mouth shut to drown a scream of horror? Most of the time, his dancers moved at a soporific pace, and to express dynamism, they did not quicken their steps but swiveled their lower arms like propellers. I thought of a seniors’ ballet, and that is neither what these dancers deserve nor what does them justice.
| Links: | Website of WINNDance | |
| Biennale Danza 2026 | ||
| Website of the Teatro Malibran | ||
| Scirocco—Teaser 1 Scirocco—Teaser 2 | ||
| Creation of Bridge of Sighs (1) Creation of Bridge of Sighs (2) Creation of Bridge of Sighs (3) | ||
| Photos: | 1. | Marijn Rademaker, Mara Galeazzi, Diana Vishneva, Silas Henriksen, and Kayoko Everhart; “Death in Venice” by Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, and Rainer Behr; WINNDance 2026 |
| 2. | Diana Vishneva and Silas Henriksen, “Death in Venice” by Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, and Rainer Behr; WINNDance 2026 |
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| 3. | Diana Vishneva and Silas Henriksen, “Death in Venice” by Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, and Rainer Behr; WINNDance 2026 | |
| 4. | Ensemble, “Death in Venice” by Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, and Rainer Behr; WINNDance 2026 | |
| 5. | Silas Henriksen and Kayoko Everhart, “Death in Venice” by Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, and Rainer Behr; WINNDance 2026 | |
| 6. | Gil Roman, Silvia Azzoni, and Diana Vishneva; “Death in Venice” by Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, and Rainer Behr; WINNDance 2026 | |
| 7. | Oleksandr Ryabko, “Death in Venice” by Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, and Rainer Behr; WINNDance 2026 | |
| 8. | Ensemble, “Death in Venice” by Imre and Marne van Opstal, Omar Román De Jesús, and Rainer Behr; WINNDance 2026 | |
| 9. | Marijn Rademaker and ensemble, “Bridge of Sighs” by John Neumeier, WINNDance 2026 | |
| 10. | Mara Galeazzi, Igone de Jongh, Silvia Azzoni, Diana Vishneva, Marijn Rademaker, and Silas Henriksen; “Bridge of Sighs” by John Neumeier, WINNDance 2026 | |
| 11. | Silas Henriksen, Marijn Rademaker, and Oleksandr Ryabko; “Bridge of Sighs” by John Neumeier, WINNDance 2026 | |
| 12. | Silvia Azzoni, Oleksandr Ryabko, Igone de Jongh, Diana Vishneva, Mara Galeazzi, Marijn Rademaker, and Silas Henriksen; “Bridge of Sighs” by John Neumeier, WINNDance 2026 | |
| 13. | Marijn Rademaker and Diana Vishneva, “Bridge of Sighs” by John Neumeier, WINNDance 2026 | |
| all photos courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia © Andrea Avezzù | ||
| Editing: | Kayla Kauffman |
