Aotearoa Choreographer, Oli Mathiesen, Wins International Commission To Premiere New Work At Venice Biennale Danza 2026
by Biennale Danza · SCOOPAuckland / Venice — [19/12/2025] — Awardwinning queer choreographer and dancer Oli Mathiesen (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Manu) has won the international call for a new choreographic creation at La Biennale di Venezia – Biennale Danza, one of the world’s most prestigious dance platforms. Mathiesen’s new work, Just Between Me and Jesus, will premiere at Venice Biennale Danza in 2026.
Selected by the director Sir Wayne McGregor from a pool of 695applicants, the commission positions Mathiesen alongside a national Italian artist invited to create new works for the Biennale’s Dance programme. The announcement marks a significant moment for Aotearoa New Zealand dance, placing a New Zealand choreographer on one of the most influential stages in the international performing arts calendar. Deemed the “Olympics of Art”, Mathiesen is championing Aotearoa.
Just Between Me and Jesus exaggerates and magnifies the inner guttural toilings of Christian-raised queer kids, and paints in lucid colour the catastrophic feelings of entropy and ecstasy as they abandon religion and adopt queer faith. The interplay between Catholicism and queerness examines how both operate as sites of ritual and devotion. To enter either space is to engage in a kind of performative belief, and the work questions whether the acts that unfold in each are fundamentally different or simply variations of the same human impulse.
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“Being invited to create a new work for the Venice Biennale Danza has been an absolute shock,” says Oli Mathiesen. “It is a dream I hadn’t even dreamt yet. This work has lived loudly inside me for a long time, and to debut it at the Biennale feels both terrifying and deeply aligned with the show's ambition.”
The Venice Biennale Danza is internationally recognised for commissioning bold, futurefacing choreographic voices, with past programmes featuring many of the most influential choreographers of our time. Mathiesen’s selection signals growing international recognition of Aotearoa’s contemporary dance ecology, and the distinctive perspectives emerging from its queer and Māori artists.
“This is a testament to the quality of the incredible artists busying themselves away in the corner of the globe,” Mathiesen adds. “It is my friends, communities, collaborators, teachings, practices, and shows from Aotearoa that have shaped my ever evolving artistic voice.”
The commission builds on Mathiesen’s expanding international profile following acclaimed works including The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave, which has toured Aotearoa, Australia, and Edinburgh, and is part of the Auckland Arts Festival 2026 and further international presentation. Development of Just Between Me and Jesus will take place in the first half of 2026, with it’s world premiere at the 20th International Festival of Contemporary Dance, to be held in Venice from 17 July to 1 August.
Further details about performance dates and collaborators will be announced in due course.
ABOUT OLI MATHIESEN
Oli Mathiesen is a New Zealand choreographer and dancer (Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Manu, Ngāpuhi), working nationally and internationally with some of Aotearoa and Australia’s top companies, including Atamira Dance Company, Black Grace, The New Zealand Dance Company, The Farm, Borderline Arts Ensemble, as well as performing Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite’s ‘10 Duets on a Theme of Rescue’ (2023). Oli’s radical, award-winning show ‘The Butterfly Who Flew Into The Rave’ (2024) has been presented globally, including at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Melbourne’s RISING Festival, Sydney’s Liveworks Festival, Nelson Arts Festival, Christchurch’s Tiny Fest, Auckland Pride Festival, and Wellington’s New Zealand Fringe Festival. The show performed a smash hit season at the esteemed Summerhall in Edinburgh, selling out their final week, being listed as Theatre Weekly’s ‘Best Dance Performance’, and were the inaugural award winners of the ‘Bragi Award for Excellence in Creativity & Performance’. The show was the first-time recipient of the ‘PANNZ - Edinburgh Fringe Festival Summerhall Award’ at the PANNZ Arts Market 2024. Oli also has choreographed works ‘Hullabaloo’ (2024) for Black Grace, ‘Arero Ma’ (2022) for Atamira Dance Company, ‘Still Solo’ (2020) for Tempo Dance Festival, ‘Divine Estate’ (2022) for The Performance Arcade, and ‘Night and Mortar’ (2022) and ‘FOSSE’ (2019) in partnership with Sharvon Mortimer. Oli has also worked with Lucy Guerin Inc, Red Leap Theatre, and Legs On The Wall in residence.
ABOUT BIENNALE DANZA
La Biennale di Venezia is one of the world’s most prestigious international cultural institutions. Biennale Danza commissions and presents leading choreographers and emerging voices from around the globe, shaping contemporary dance discourse through premieres, residencies, and international platforms.
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