June 2025
1 Sun 20:30 (90’)
The Dogs
Anestis Azas Ι In collaboration with Athens Festival
Having won over both local and international audiences with the delightfully sharp Baklava Republic, Anestis Azas and his team are back with a bold new production, titled The Dogs. A group of detective dogs appears on stage. Their mission: to uncover the truth behind the abuse and death of a husky in Arachova—a case that recently shocked the Greek public. Which version of events is true? Was the killer human, as initially reported, or did the gentle animal fall victim to a pack of wild dogs, as the official police report claims? Can these canine detectives, who’ve secretly travelled from all corners of the world, discover what really happened?
Based on a real police report, employing the techniques of documentary theatre, and drawing inspiration from film noir and Aristophanic comedy, The Dogs unfolds as a political allegory. At its core is the issue of social violence increasingly directed at the vulnerable. Can dogs deliver justice better than humans? In a dog-governed society, could abused animals finally find vindication?
The Dogs premiered in July 2024 as part of the Grape programme at the Athens Epidaurus Festival and won the Mastercard Audience Award – First Prize.
Cast: Giorgos Katsis, Elena Mavridou, Konstantinos Moraitis, Panayiotis Manouilidis, Maria Petevi, Gary Salomon, Michalis Pitidis
Concept / Directing: Anestis Azas
Text: Michalis Pitidis, Gerasimos Bekas, Anestis Azas
Music: Panayiotis Manouilidis
Sound design: Angelos Kontaxis
Set design: Dido Gogou
Costumes: Vassilia Rozana
Animal Body Training: Konstantinos Moraitis
Lights (tour in Cyprus): Yiorgos Kassakos
Lights (Athens Epidaurus Festival 2024): Eleni Choumou
Assistant director: Michalis Pitidis
Second assistant director: Ioanna Kanellopoulou
Photos: Karol Jarek
In Greek with English surtitles.
Α production of Athens Epidaurus Festival- premiered in July 2024 as part of the grape – Greek Agora of Performance programme at the Athens Epidaurus Festival (a platform dedicated to promoting and exporting Greek performing arts worldwide). The touring of the performance in Cyprus is supported by Athens Epidaurus Festival.
Tickets: € 25 / 20
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4 Wed, 20:30 (55’)
VÉNUS ANATOMIQUE*
SARAH BALTZINGER, France, 14+
In reference to the fascinating wax figures created by the ceroplast Clemente Susini (late 18th century), Vénus Anatomique articulates itself between the macabre and "pulsion de vie". The piece creates an imaginary world that explores the strange, erotic, and biblical nature of these artificial bodies, originally designed to teach anatomy. This work continues a choreographic research around puppeteering and mechanical gestures, revealing the body in a fragmented way. The tension between physical intensity and stillness drives the choreography. Vénus Anatomique presents a collection of female bodies prepared for “labour”, suddenly plunged into survival. These bodies oscillate between human nature and objectified representations. This duality is met with the body’s instinct to reclaim itself. Sarah Baltzinger offers a critical take on the disorder of a world obsessed with superficial simulacra and sexualisation of the female form, turning femininity into a masquerade performed through an absurd and distorted lens. In her choreographic work, Sarah Baltzinger enjoys exploring all possibilities around the puppeteering body. She uses the body, in connection with different materials, as a complex tool of possibilities aimed at transforming the natural approach to movement to create strange worlds, between absurd theatricality and intense physicality.
Sarah Baltzinger, a self-made artist, began contemporary dance at the age of 18. She studied performing arts, art history and cultural industry at university in France. She began her career as a professional dancer and worked with various choreographers and artists in Europe. In 2016, she initiated her own choreographic work and has, to date, several creations to her credit, such as What does not belong to us (2018), Don’t you see it coming (2021 – selection Petites Scènes Ouvertes), and Rouge est une couleur froide (2021). In 2023, she created Vénus Anatomique, inviting five women on stage to question representations of the female body. In 2022, she and Isaiah Wilson began co-directing several projects, including the duet Megastructure, winning multiple awards at RIDCC 2023, including the XL Production Award, which will lead to a new creation for Scapino Ballet Rotterdam in 2025 (GOATS). They also received four partner awards (Nederlands Dans Theater, Skånes Dansteater, Sally Dansgezelschap Maastricht, MAAS Theater En Dans). As Aerowaves Twenty24 artists, they will perform at the Spring Forward Festival.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners, PWD cardholders and dance professionals.
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6 Fri 20:30 (55’)
The Love Behind My Eyes*
ALI CHAHROUR, Lebanon, 14+
The Love Behind My Eyes touches upon the fading away of love — violent endings to forbidden stories, where lovers die with gaping eyes, wide open, staring into the killer’s gaze that had once given them their reason to be. The performance is part of a new triptych entitled Love and addresses the different myths of love and passion based on Arab heritage. It is anchored in the stories, legends, and lyric poetry (ghazal) of the Arab patrimony, and their relation to the concept of love and the different ways it is expressed in contemporary societies. The performance also examines lyric poetry — an art form sung in highly musical verse to convey powerful feelings. Lyric poetry, always spoken in the first person, is but one genre of Arab sung poetry, yet perhaps the one that most closely reflects its propensity to provoke emotion. Here, it expresses love in all its complexities, and the emotions of lovers. Throughout the performance, we see how these intricate feelings are reflected in the soul and the body, and how these in turn affect the body’s presence and movement. All of society and its taboos are interwoven in the forbidden stories of love referred to in this performance. Many are untold stories from the Arab legacy, such as that of Bin Daoud and his lover Bin Jamea, who lived in socially and religiously intense contexts. Others come from our contemporary societies, shaped by social norms and political or religious structures. We examine together how all these complexities have affected the path of these relationships and their intimacy. Consequently, we hope to understand the place of the body — and its role — in and through these stories, narrated from Arab memory.
Born in Beirut, choreographer and dancer Ali Chahrour invents a gesture, freed from Western codes and models, which acts as a reflection of his culture and the political, social, and religious context in which he has evolved. In a previous series of shows, part of his trilogy Death - Fatmeh (2014), Leila’s Death (2015) and May he Rise and smell the fragrance (2017), he evoked funeral liturgies, blending tradition with sharp modernity. He then embarked on a second series of performances devoted to Love, beginning with Night (2019), followed by Told by my Mother (2021), The Love Behind My Eyes — which won the ZKB Patronage Prize at the 2022 Zurich Theater Spektakel — and concluding with Iza Hawa (2023). Combining lyrical poetry, raw emotion, and tangled bodies, Ali Chahrour’s corpus of work weaves a vivid tapestry of human connection. His performances have been presented at the Avignon Festival in 2016, 2018 and 2022 and at numerous festivals worldwide. He is currently developing a new trilogy centred on the theme of fear.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners, PWD cardholders and dance professionals.
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11 Wed 20:30 (60’)
Full Moon*
JOSEF NADJ, France
In the framework of the Festival the performance will be presented at Nicosia Municipal Theatre on 8th of June, at 20:30.
Full Moon is the continuation of Josef Nadj’s previous work, Omma (2020), a project exploring the origins of dance and movement with African dancers. Seven of the original eight performers reunite here, encouraged by Nadj to explore their personal histories, memories, and cultural roots. The work draws from the energies of nature and tradition, affirming the dancers’ individual identities. In addition to this introspective research, Nadj delves into African-American jazz, especially from the late 1950s to early 1980s—a pivotal era of musical and social revolution. He investigates its essence, especially free jazz, seeking a dance language that resonates with its spirit. Full Moon pays tribute to artists like Charles Mingus and Cecil Taylor. Another key figure is the puppet, a recurring symbol in Nadj’s work. Bridging the animate and inanimate, it reflects imperfection and the idea that creation always remains incomplete—open to play, transformation, and the unknown.
Josef Nadj, born in Kanjiža (Serbia) into a Magyar-speaking family, trained in Fine Arts in Budapest before moving to Paris. There, he studied Mime, Tai Chi, Butoh, and Contemporary Dance with prominent figures such as Sidonie Rochon and François Verret. A choreographer, dancer, visual artist, and photographer, Nadj blends disciplines to create a poetic and exploratory vision of humanity. Since his breakthrough piece titled Canard Pékinois (1987), his work has combined artistic rigour with freedom, inspired by European history and literature (Beckett, Kafka, Michaux) and collaborations with musicians and painters. From 1995 to 2016, he directed the National Choreographic Centre of Orléans, then founded Atelier 3+1 in Paris to give more space to his visual practice. A Chevalier and later Officer of Arts and Letters, his creations—over thirty—have toured nearly 50 countries. Recent works such as Mnémosyne, OMMA, and Full Moon reaffirm his commitment to dance and interdisciplinary exploration.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners, PWD cardholders and dance professionals.
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12 Thu 20:30 (45’)
ERRONEOUS ENCOUNTERS*PANAYIOTIS TOFI, Cyprus
Erroneous Encounters is an experimental choreographic work that intertwines movement, live electronic music, and poetic text. The piece explores the fragmentation of the self caused by post-traumatic experiences, embodied by three male performers as they navigate fractured phrases of their semi-malfunctioning bodies. Alongside them, a live electronic composer and an actress delivering sections of poetic text, further amplify the exploration of physical and emotional distance. Reflecting on the loss of autonomy and the rising disconnection in contemporary reality, the work challenges perceptions of the body’s fragility and the erosion of empathy through its haunting aesthetics.
Panayiotis Tofi is a choreographer whose research delves into themes of dispossession, decentralisation, and concealment. His work highlights the beauty and exhaustion of the human body, emphasising the uncanny presence of the unfamiliar. Known for his subtle minimalism, poetic text, elements of romanticism, and intense physicality, Panayiotis has developed a distinguished body of contemporary dance work. Originally trained as a visual designer, Panayiotis graduated from Trinity Laban with a First Class Bachelor of Contemporary Dance and a Diploma in Dance Studies. He is an experienced theatre movement designer and director, awarded as ‘Creator of the Year’ by Cyprus Theatre Organisation in 2018 for his artistic versatility, imagination and bold approach towards experimentation. Based on his choreographic research and evolving movement vocabulary, Panayiotis has led workshops in Stockholm, Naples, Athens, Ermoupolis, Limassol and Nicosia, sharing his innovative approaches with dancers and performers across diverse international stages.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners, PWD cardholders and dance professionals.
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14 Sat 20:30 (45')
CUIR*
ARNO FERRERA & GILLES POLET, Belgium
CUIR is a duet on the notions of traction and attraction. In a powerful body-to-body confrontation, two harnessed men play at manipulating each other’s bodies. The cautious pleasure they take in transforming each other into an instrument, an apparatus, a playground or a battlefield engages them in a struggle with mutual consent. Between traction and attraction, they do not aim for power over the other, but rather power with the other.
Arno Ferrera graduated in Physical Theatre from the Scuola Teatro Dimitri in Switzerland, after practising gymnastics for ten years and studying Baroque music for six years at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana (CSI). He chose Brussels as his base and enriched his physical training with contemporary dance in the Belgian capital. He took part in the European tour of Holiday on Stage by Martin Schick and Damir Todorovic. He then participated in the creation of the Swiss company Opera Retablo’s production Vanity: I Hate This Job. Since 2018, he has been the artistic director of the Belgian company Kind Bull, alongside Amaury Vanderborght. Their work focuses on creating artistic projects within closed environments, such as psychiatric hospitals and prisons. He has developed research around instinctive movement, combined with an analysis of animal motor skills. In 2015, he joined the company Un Loup pour l’Homme, performing in the show Face Nord and later contributing to the creation of Rare Birds. In 2018, he began developing the new project Cuir. In 2023, Cuir left the company Un Loup pour l’Homme to join Les Halles de Schaerbeek in Brussels, where Arno Ferrera is an associate artist from 2023 to 2028.
Gilles Polet (1984) first trained as an actor at the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven before moving to Leeds to study at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. He graduated from P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels in 2008. Since graduating, his work has ranged from opera — with Deborah Warner at La Monnaie in Brussels — to short films with directors Dimitri Karakatsanis, Andrew Ly, and Kevin Calero. His solo Jack-in-the-Box has been performed worldwide, at venues in Hong Kong, Tehran, Berlin, and beyond. While travelling through Iran, Gilles Polet encountered Sufism, which inspired his next solo, Simurgh, exploring the intricate links between Sufi culture in Iran and Western club culture. He collaborated for ten years with Troubleyn/Jan Fabre, including in the re-enactments This is Theatre Like It Was to Be Expected and Foreseen and The Power of Theatrical Madness, in which he played the role of the emperor. He also performed in Mount Olympus: To Glorify the Cult of Tragedy, a 24h Performance by Troubleyn/Jan Fabre. In 2020, he focused on his career as a yoga teacher and created his own outdoor yoga app, YOGING. He joined the team of CUIR in June 2021.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners, PWD cardholders and dance professionals.
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16 Mon 20:30 (50’)
FOLKLORE DYNAMICS*
VIDAVÈ Company / Noemi Dalla Vecchia & Matteo Vignali, Italy
“A language is a dialect with an army and a flag.”
With this formula, first the sociolinguist Weinreich and later Quirk described the influence of a country’s socio-political situation on smaller communities. Similarly, Folklore Dynamics, through its research on Italian dialects — metaphors for values that seem to be vanishing in today’s society — amplifies the voices of choreographers in protest against political power. Instinct, humility, passion, and hard work all converge in a country’s folklore, where diverse identities foster a powerful sense of collectiveness. Five performers square up to a dominant voice that seeks only approval and unquestioned consensus, reminding them what it means to have no chance at resistance. Yet these identities endure. The choreography captures their sincere expressions and emotions, their astute codes of communication, and underscores their anti-conformist political intent.
In 2019, Matteo Vignali and Noemi Dalla Vecchia founded VIDAVÈ, and they have been working nationally and internationally on productions that emphasise a consistent, contaminated movement style and rich micro-dramaturgical choreographies. They attended the NGC Course of AterBalletto and the Pioneer Project of Korzo from 2021 to 2023. With Another With You, produced by DanceHausPIÚ and DanceGallery, they won WhatWeAre and Prospettiva Danza Teatro 2021, making their debut at the National Theatre of Vicenza and, on the European stage, at TanzArt OstWest in Giessen. In 2022, in collaboration with Scenario Pubblico, they created Hansel&Gretel Alteration, which premiered at the National Theatre Fontana in Milan, and was performed at festivals such as Istanbul Fringe Festival and 10Sentidos, earning awards including Linkage, SoloTanz, and Tanzplattform Bern. In 2023, they created Spoken Dance, divided into two pieces: Choreographic Figures, winner of the Residanza Award 2023, which premiered at Teatro Mercadante, and Stimmung, supported by Centro Coreográfico Canal and Festival Primavera dei Teatri. In 2024, they won the Biennale Danza Award with Folklore Dynamics.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners, PWD cardholders and dance professionals.
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18 Wed 20:30 (60’)
He aquí un acto romántico (Behold a romantic act)*
RICHARD MASCHERIN, Spain
What ends, and what begins, with an accident? What hurts more — a punch in the nose or a kiss on the lips? Is hating another way of loving? Do you want me to give myself to you? Would you still love me if I didn’t need you? Can I fall over with you? What is a romantic act? The piece works with both physical and emotional falls to create a map of uprooted bodies thrown into the void. Displaying a tense physicality and a cinematic atmosphere, the piece revolves around three victims who assume — in a ceremonial mood — a spiral of violent situations, turning accidents and provocations, attachments and detachments into a sacred rite of passage toward transcendence. Their passionate surrender has two sides: on the one hand, it intoxicates and endangers; on the other, it strengthens and vivifies — as no one can rise from the ground without first having fallen into it. Behold the statement of an unbroken soul. Behold a heroic resistance. Behold a romantic act.
Richard Mascherin is a Spanish artist focusing on contemporary performing arts and audiovisuals. He graduated in Madrid in Contemporary Dance, General Film Direction, and Film and TV Stunts. As a dancer, he has worked with various companies such as Sharon Fridman and La Veronal, among others. In some way, the concept of falling has been present throughout his career — both as a performer and as a creator — since 2015. He leads his own project, which branches out into different forms and stage proposals, where the inevitability of the fall is the core concept of his research and creative process. The project explores and connects various media: dance, performance, video, and photography. Richard has choreographed several works, including Caer, Caer, Caer (Fall, fall, fall), Vacío Espiritual (Spiritual Void), and He Aquí Un Acto Romántico (Behold a Romantic Act), which have been presented at major festivals in Spain, as well as in Italy and Bulgaria.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners, PWD cardholders and dance professionals.
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20 Fri 20:30 (45’)
BIRDBOY*
EMMA MARTIN / UNITED FALL, Ireland
Birdboy is a tribute to all the weird kids left on the sidelines. Using the metaphor of a bird and its perceived freedom, the piece burrows into the chaotic and vivid inner world of someone who doesn’t fit in. Seen through a child’s eyes and combining dance, sound, and objects, Birdboy is a journey through a frenzied and sometimes beautiful landscape of fear, isolation, fantasy, and letting go, performed by dancer Kévin Coquelard. Birdboy is the first work Emma has created for both young and adult audiences.
Emma Martin started out as a ballet dancer. She creates multidisciplinary work that has expanded into film, installation, opera, and theatre. Her work is sweaty, messy, music-heavy, and human — exploring the friction between rawness and delicacy, high art and popular culture, past and future, order and chaos, homage and intent. She graduated from the John Cranko School in Stuttgart and holds a BA in Russian and Drama & Theatre Studies from Trinity College Dublin. As a choreographer, she created her first show in 2010 and has been producing work through her company United Fall since 2018. Her previous performance works include King/Shrine, Night Dances, Birdboy, Orfeo ed Euridice, Girl Song, Dancehall, and Tundra. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally, touring throughout Europe and the UK. Emma is an associate artist at the Visual Centre for Contemporary Art and Dance Ireland, and an Aerowaves 2023 selected artist. United Fall is based in County Carlow and is funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, with international touring generously supported by Culture Ireland.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners, PWD cardholders and dance professionals.
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22 Sun 20:30 (75’)
SONOMA*
MARCOS MORAU / LA VERONAL, Spain
The word Sonoma does not officially exist in Spanish, but it could stem from the Greek soma (body) or the Latin sonum (sound): the sound of the body, or the body of sound. Today, history moves so fast we can barely follow it; we fall into it, shouting as if on a roller coaster. Sonoma is the sound of the body falling — the human rage to stay alive and awake. Marcos Morau revisits ideas from his 2016 piece Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution, inspired by Buñuel, whose life bridged medieval Calanda and cosmopolitan Paris, faith and surrealist freedom. Sonoma represents a return to the body, to organic matter, journeying through dreams and fiction, where the familiar becomes strange and meaning dissolves. In an indigenous language, Sonoma means "valley of the moon" — a place of drums and cries that soothe rather than overwhelm. It is a scream at the limits of existence.
Marcos Morau (Valencia, 1982) trained in photography, movement, and theatre between Valencia, Barcelona, and New York. He creates imaginary worlds and landscapes with a sharp, lucid vision of contemporaneity. In 2004, he founded La Veronal, now one of Europe's leading dance companies. La Veronal has toured in more than 30 countries, performing at prestigious venues such as the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, the Festival d’Avignon, and Sadler’s Wells in London. Morau received Spain’s National Dance Prize in 2013, was named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture, and was selected as Choreographer of the Year 2023 by Tanz magazine. Beyond his work with La Veronal, he collaborates with renowned companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater and the Ballet de l'Opéra de Lyon. Since 2023, he has been an associate artist at Staatsballett Berlin, pursuing new dialogues between dance, opera, and physical theatre.
Tickets: €8 (€30 for all performances)
Free entrance to students, soldiers, pensioners, PWD cardholders and dance professionals.
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*Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival 2025
Organised by: Deputy Ministry of Culture (Department of Contemporary Culture) and Rialto Theatre.