Our Special Projects

Together with national and international partners, Gender Bender Festival produce a series of networked projects that will continue even after the end of the festival period. These activities involve artists, cultural organizations, institutions and local communities. 

PON Metro Project 2014-2020

Portici Festival – Heritage meets Creativity

In 2023 the Gender Bender Festival invited the international company Igor x Moreno, Italian choreographer Daniele Ninarello and Dutch/German choreographer Patricia Carolin Mai to Bologna to produce three dance performances. The works were the result of an all-inclusive collaborative creation workshop project with three groups of people from Bologna and the surrounding area of all ages, with and without dance experience.
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International Project

Crisol

5 dance artists from 4 countries (Italy, Macao/Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore) will work together to address topics related to gender issues through the language of contemporary dance. They will share their work and research, considering all of it as part of their personal background and cultural environment. The project consists of several work sessions across the different countries in which the dance artists will share their opinions and experiences. The project’s first stop will take place in Bologna as part of the 20th edition of the Gender Bender Festival.
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European Project

Performing Gender – Dancing in your shoes

Performing Gender strongly believes that gender, sexuality and LGBTQ+ identities can be explored through the language of dance, also thanks to the engagement of local communities. The second edition of the European project involved 225 people from their respective local communities in a comprehensive training process in the field of artistic production, that aims at putting the spotlight on the marginal voices of their communities. We wanted to highlight issues such as inequality, ethnicity, class, disability, environment and economy, with an intersectional perspective. 
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Network Project

Teatro Arcobaleno

Teatro Arcobaleno is a network project that has been using the languages of the performing arts to teach about diversity since 2014. Each year, this project offers workshops, theater and dance performances to children, teenagers, teachers, families, college students, educators, and social workers. Teatro Arcobaleno wants to make a contribution to building a society that is richer and more welcoming in human, social and cultural terms; a society in which diversity, particularly the one related to gender identities and sexual orientation, is recognized as an important value for everyone.
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Network Project

Swans Never Die

Swans Never Die is a project that invites 10 young choreographers to reinterpret, in a contemporary key, the classical repertoire of The Death of the Swan, originally choreographed by Michel Fokine for Anna Pavlova in 1905 and considered a seminal piece of art of the 20th-century dance history.
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Network Project

DNAppunti coreografici

DNAppunti coreografici is a project, whose purpose is to support young choreographers under 35 years old. The project involves several stages in which the participant will do their research and start their creation process: they will collect their ideas, examine the results of their research, and participate in creative residencies. The initiative stems from a collaborative work throughout Italy between a network of partners. Thanks to the DNAppunti call, the work of a young artist is selected, supported and produced every year.
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Corpi Elettrici

Corpi Elettrici is a special project by Gender Bender for the year 2020, produced together with the G.B. Martini Conservatory of Bologna. It is an educational and creative process that gave the students of the Conservatory the chance to collaborate with the members of Collettivo MINE, combining the languages of dance and music together. Through the collaboration between performers and musicians, 20 micro-choreographies on video and a live performance were created as part of the 18th edition of the Gender Bender Festival. 
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