8-25 June 2006. In his second year as director of Biennale Dance, the Afro-Brazilian choreographer Ismael Ivo focuses on the body in both its physiological and emotional aspects with the spotlight on the dancer who is the preferred field of investigation. The festival is made up of a symposium, workshops, performances and exhibitions, each of which tackle the principal theme of the festival in different ways. The performances, which are almost all concentrated in the spaces at the Arsenale - which the Biennale has revamped and returned to the city as a place for live performance - take place over three weeks. The festival opens on 8 June with the world premiere of Illuminata, Ismael Ivos new creation. The rest of the programme offers highlights such as the radical physical impact of Takao Kawaguchi, who in D.D.D. brings muscle and breath to the stage; the mutant body of the ex colonel, Jin Xing, now a leading choreographer in the new China, in The Closest - The Farthest; the unveiled bodies in search of their freedom and identity by the Turkish choreographer Geyvan McMillen in the diptych Mahrem and Kimlikler; and the special anatomy of the heart of Amu, in which the hyper-technological choreographer Wayne McGregor, thanks to his collaboration with a cardiologist, investigates the multiple physical functions and the infinite symbolic resonance of the heart. Also on the programme are other companies and choreographers from India, Korea, Algeria, China, Italy and the United Kingdom.