27th Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival, 30 May – 21 June 2026

Rialto Theatre
14 hours ago
5 min read

The Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with Rialto Theatre, presents the 27th Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival, taking place from 30^th of May until 21st June 2026 at the Rialto Theatre in Limassol and the Nicosia Municipal Theatre.

As the leading contemporary dance institution in Cyprus since 1998, the Festival annually brings pioneering productions from Cyprus and abroad to local audiences, making a significant contribution to the development of the country’s contemporary dance scene.

This year’s edition features a dynamic, high-level programme with companies from Cyprus, England, France, Greece, Belgium, and Finland, showcasing a wide range of contemporary choreographic voices.

International works were selected by the Festival’s Artistic Advisor, choreographer Fotis Nikolaou, through an open call, while the Cypriot participation was chosen from works funded under the “Support Programme for Creation and Research in Contemporary Dance – TERPSICHORE 2025.”

Through diverse artistic approaches, the selected works explore the body as a vessel of memory, experience, and transformation, offering audiences an immediate and vivid encounter with contemporary dance.

All performances begin at 20:30. See the full schedule below.

30 May | Rialto Theatre

BLKDOG – Botis Seva (UNITED KINGDOM) | 65’ | 16+

BLKDOG is a sharp, poetic commentary by Botis Seva on how young people today respond to a world that wasn’t built for them. A hip-hop dance performance full of emotion. The work reveals the violent connection between self-discovery and self-destruction, while also exploring how we struggle with our weaknesses to find a sense of peace.

Director & Choreographer: Botis Seva

Performed by: Far From The Norm Dance Artists

3 June | Rialto Theatre

THE BARBARIAN NIGHTS – Hervé Koubi (FRANCE) | 60’ | 7+

This piece takes root in the awe-inspiring story of our Mediterranean basin. Five years have been lived between France and Algeria, on opposite shores of the Mediterranean- the sea that lies at the origin of these uprooted people, who share a common lineage and fundamental background, and whom we call Mediterraneans. Who were these Barbarians storming in from the North, the mysterious peoples of the sea without knowing who they were or where they came from? Who were these Barbarians of the East—these Persians, Ionians, and Babylonians, the Arabo-Muslims? As the choreographer says/ indicate?, “I have chosen to turn my gaze towards what I feel is the most beautiful: the mixture of cultures and religions over time, allowing me to draw the foundations of a common geography on which we stand today, all too often without knowing”.

Choreography: Hervé Koubi.

Assistant: Fayçal Hamlat.

Performers: Badr Benr Guibi, Giacomo Buffoni, Mohammed Elhilali, Youssef El Kanfoudi, Islam Kunakkulov, Abdelghani Ferradji, Oualid Guennoun, Vladimir Grev, Bendehiba Maamar, Nadjib Meherhera, Houssni Mijem, Ismail Oubbajaddi, Ayoub Rouifi, El Houssaini Zahid.

10 June | Rialto Theatre

SIRENS – Ermira Goro (GREECE) | 37’

Ermira Goro’s dance performance Sirens invites the audience on a sensual and mysterious journey into the world of desire and its social expression. The performers are transformed on stage, unfolding a story of dreams and freedom. The two bodies embrace and reject stereotypical gender roles, creating an idiosyncratic language of self-expression. The original musical composition of the show was created by Jeph

Vanger. Concept – Choreography: Ermira Goro.

Movement material, choreography: in collaboration with the performers.

Performers: Chara Kotsali, Angelos Kolosionis.

13 June | Rialto Theatre

15 Ιουνίου | Nicosia Municipal Theater

ODE – Elena Antoniou (CYPRUS) | 45’ | 16+

ODE is about togetherness, about no woman being alone. About the ways we can find in order to expand the space that is ours as women. A bodily poem that explores the core of female strength through gaze and movement. ODE is an act of embodied poetry—dynamic, melodic, distilled. After LANDSCAPE, Elena Antoniou’s new work follows that path that shifts the gaze, space, time, and the relationship with the spectator. In ODE, the two artists redefine each institutional venue that presents it as a field of attunement and stand where rupture and renewal meet. The gaze determines, seeing with an eroticism that claims the right to draw close, to unite. Vulnerability becomes a passage toward another kind of power. Hierarchies and roles recede. Presence asserts itself and becomes sound, movement becomes vibration, and coexistence becomes a form of claiming. As Audre Lorde says, “Your silence will not protect you.”

18 June | Rialto Theatre

THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER 2.0 – Jan Martens (BELGIUM) | 75’ | 12+

In 2014 The Dog Days Are Over had marked the absolute breakthrough for Jan Martens. In 2025 Martens and GRIP recreated this successful show with a new cast. In the performance the dancer is defined as a pure performer, striving for perfection. Subjected to a complex, mathematical, vigorous and exhausting choreography executed in forced uniformity, the eight dancers ultimately slip up. And then their masks fall. Where does the thin line between art and entertainment lie? Who are we as an audience when we contemplate the suffering of dancers as if it were a bullfight in an arena? Is contemporary dance striptease for the elite? The Dog Days Are Over prompts the viewer to shift their position: from being merely subjected to the experience to actively reflecting on it.

Choreography: Jan Martens.

Repetitor / Artistic assistance: Naomi Gibson.

Artistic assistance / Coaching: Steven Michel, Piet Defrancq.

Performers: Pierre Bastin, Camilla Bundel, Jim Buskens, Zoë Chungong, Simon Lelièvre, Florence Lenon, Elisha Mercelina, Dan Mussett, Pierre Adrien Touret, Zora Westbroek, Maisie Woodford, Paolo Yao.

21 June | Rialto Theatre

TEMPO – Kalle Nio & Fernando Melo (FINLAND) | 60’ | 8+

Tempo marks the first collaboration between magician and visual artist Kalle Nio and choreographer Fernando Melo. It is based on a text by Harry Salmenniemi, as well as wordless scenes built around dance and stage illusions, where time slows down, reverses, and comes to a standstill. Tempo prompts the audience to question how the experience of time is formed and in what ways time can be understood. At the same time, it awakens viewers to their own temporality. The music for the production is composed by Samuli Kosminen. Brazilian choreographer Fernando Melo creates gravity- and time-defying choreography for three outstanding dancers. Slovenian dancer and puppeteer Barbara Kanc, Italian dancer Luigi Sardone, and Swedish dancer-acrobat Winston Reynolds move through a landscape between dance, theatre, and acrobatics. The movements of both the performers and the set approach the limits of the impossible—and go beyond.

Concept: Nio, Melo & Salmenniemi.

Direction: Kalle Nio.

Choreography: Fernando Melo. Text: Harry Salmenniemi.

Performers: Barbara Kanc, Winston Reynolds, Luigi Sardone, Iiro Näkki.

Organised by: Deputy Ministry of Culture and Rialto Theatre

In collaboration with: Limassol Municipality

Media Sponsors: Ο Φιλελεύθερος, ΡΙΚ, Vestnik Kipra, Russian Radio, Lenta, Radio Monte Carlo

Technical Partner: Eventpro

Venue Partner: Nicosia Municipal Theatre

Hospitality Sponsor: Alinea Hotel

Supported by: Εφημερίδα Λεμεσός, Check In, CITY, Limassol Today, Cyprus Butterfly, Cyprus News, Limassol Tourism Board

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