27th Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival (CCDF)
30 May – 21 June 2026
The Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture of Cyprus, in collaboration with Rialto Theatre, presents the 27th Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival. The Festival will take place from 30 May to 21 June 2026, primarily at the Rialto Theatre in Limassol, with one performance hosted at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre.
This year’s edition welcomes contemporary dance groups from England, France, Greece, Belgium, Finland, and Cyprus, bringing a rich spectrum of contemporary dance voices to the stage of the Rialto Theatre. The programme brings together a dynamic selection of works that reflect on the body as a central site of expression and experience. In a rapidly shifting world shaped by complexity, pressure, and constant change, contemporary dance becomes a space where fragility and strength coexist, where movement reveals what cannot always be spoken.
Through diverse choreographic approaches and artistic languages, the Festival explores how the body carries memory, responds to its environment, and resists limitation. Each work contributes to a broader dialogue on presence, endurance, and transformation—offering audiences an encounter with dance that is immediate, human, and deeply alive.
BLKDOG is Botis Seva’s beautifully brutal commentary on how the youth of today are coping in a world not built for them. In an emotionally charged hip-hop dance performance, BLKDOG reveals the vicious connection between self-discovery and self-destruction. Through haunting childhood memories and adult traumas, the work questions how we fight through our vices to find a sense of peace. The music has evolved from a long-standing collaboration with Torben Sylvest and features a mixture of original compositions and spoken word, adding layers of meaning and highlighting the inner workings of the characters on stage. Tom Visser’s lighting creates a dark smog of disillusionment as the choreography delves into the underbelly of life, while the hooded caps and padded costumes by Ryan Dawson-Laight echo the protection and comfort of childhood.
“BLKDOG is for everyone who has dealt with trauma and grief. For anyone who has had to watch family members go through depression or loss. We live in a society where speaking about our emotions may never be understood; I spent my childhood never speaking about my emotions, and now, at the age of 30, I can finally speak up.” Botis Seva
Botis Seva is a unique and seminal choreographic voice rooted in hip-hop dance theatre, yet inspired by a freeform approach to choreography. His work is grounded in real life and captures his own stories, as well as those around him, while drawing on techniques from film, text, visual art, and other dance languages to continuously reinvent his creative approach to the stage. Botis’ passion from a young age was music; he spent time at his local youth club making beats and MCing. At the age of 15, he was introduced to dance at secondary school, and it was there that he decided to pursue a choreographic career outside mainstream educational pathways. At 19, he founded his hip-hop dance theatre company Far From The Norm in Dagenham, London, together with friends who shared his passion for experimenting with the hip-hop form. In his early choreographic years, Botis honed his craft through mentorship and artistic development opportunities with Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells, which gave him the confidence to apply for various platforms and gradually build his artistic language and portfolio. From there, his work gained momentum across stage, outdoor, and dance film circuits, earning numerous awards, including the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production for BLKDOG (2019) and the CHANEL Next Prize (2022).
“Seva is a choreographer on the cusp of a new direction in the shifting sands of British contemporary dance, and one likely to have a significant following in the future.” — Graham Watts
Director & Choreographer: Botis Seva
Music composer: Torben Sylvest
Lighting designer: Tom Visser
Costume designer: Ryan Dawson-Laight
Performed by: Far From The Norm Dance Artists, Sebastian Harry, Penelope Klamert, Margaux Pourpoint, Corey Owens, Victoria Shulungu, Larissa Koopman
Executive producer: Lee Griffiths
Producer: Gabija Cepelyte
Senior production manager: Andy Downie (Velocet)
Production manager & Relighters: Chris Burr, Seth Rook Williams
Tour manager: Ciara Lynch *TBC
Costume makers: Jordan Goertz, Julie Sayers, Kelsey Vickery, Kingsley Hall, Lou Petty, Rosie Whiting
Mix engineer: Pär Carlsson
Research & Development rehearsal director: Ekin Bernay
Contribution artists: Charlotte Clark, Clarissa Shulungu, Ezra Owen, Isaac Ouro-Gnao, Savanah Anais Rowe, Shiloh Seva, Tyrone Isaac-Stuart
Co-produced by: Far From The Norm, Norrlandsoperan and Sadler’s Wells
Supported by: Arts Council England, Kingston University, Laban Theatre, Siobhan Davies Dance and UEL Dance: Urban Practice Department
* Content warning: BLKDOG features loud music, gunshot sounds, haze, and abstract depictions of rape, violence, and depression.]
@farfromthenorm
This piece takes root in the awe-inspiring and unavoidable story of our Mediterranean basin. This is a story about a path; it is always about a path... 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. I think it is necessary for everyone to believe in a universal culture that is at once shared, mixed, and interconnected, in order to envision an inevitably common future. Who were these Barbarians storming in from the North, the mysterious peoples of the sea often described in the Bible, chronicles, and ancient monuments—frequently mentioned without truly being defined, 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? From what unknown, forgotten, reworked, assimilated, or erased histories have we inherited? 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. I also want to seize history, open my eyes, and move towards freedom, while remembering that the word ‘Barbarian’ is also expressed as ‘Amazigh’, which signifies the Free Man.
Trained at the École de la Danse, notably under Rosella Hightower, Hervé Koubi began his career as a performer in works by Jean-Christophe Paré and Emilio Calcagno. He subsequently danced with the Centre Chorégraphique National de Nantes under Claude Brumachon and Benjamin Lamarche, then with the Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen under Karine Saporta, and with Compagnie Thor in Brussels under Thierry Smits. In 2000, he decided to develop his own choreographic work. It was first Tradition—and the oral and embodied transmission it carries—that captured his interest: a dance that brings people together, that unites, that forges connections between the balls of the past, rave parties, and today’s collective dance gatherings. In 2009, his artistic path was profoundly impacted by urban dance forms, even though they had already been present, like a foreshadowing echo, in his earlier creations. Since then, he has explored the permeability between techniques as a space for experimentation—one that transcends technical and aesthetic boundaries and affiliations. A choreographer rooted in the field, he also develops numerous community-based projects with his team, grounded in encounters and exchanges between his works, audiences, and diverse practices. These projects question and shape, in subtle ways, the contours of a 21st-century ballet—one that is at once rooted in its history, open, and contemporary. In July 2015, he was awarded the rank of Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Since 2017, he has collaborated on all his creations with Fayçal Hamlat, a dancer and choreographer with whom he shares a common vision.
Fayçal Hamlat, a dancer and choreographer from the urban dance scene, whom Hervé Koubi met while he was the official choreographer of the National Ballet of Algiers, first performed in Koubi’s works and later became his assistant. While Hervé Koubi was influenced by hip-hop dance, Fayçal Hamlat followed the opposite path, becoming, in turn, influenced and enriched by contemporary dance. Since then, Fayçal Hamlat has made a significant contribution and has become an essential collaborator for Hervé Koubi in shaping a hybrid choreographic style.
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
Music: Mozart – Fauré – Wagner – Traditional Algerian music
Music creation: Maxime Bodson
Arrangements: Guillaume Gabriel
Lighting design: Lionel Buzonie
Costumes: Guillaume Gabriel, assisted by Claudine G-Delattre
Props: Esteban Cedres
@hervekoubi
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
Ermira Goro is an innovative artist specialising in movement, dance, and performance. Continuously exploring new forms of expression, she focuses on creating interdisciplinary performances that captivate and inspire audiences. A graduate of the Greek National School of Dance, Ermira furthered her training in New York with scholarships from the Koula Pratsika Foundation and the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY). Ιn New York, she collaborated with renowned international dance companies and began developing her own choreographic works. From 2007 to 2018, she collaborated with the world-renowned DV8 Physical Theatre as a performer, teacher, and research & development/choreography assistant. In 2022, she was nominated for Outstanding Performer at The Bessies – New York Dance and Performance Awards. Beyond creating and performing, Ermira has been invited by international organisations to teach and develop choreographic works. Her work has been widely supported and presented at numerous festivals and venues across Greece and around the world, receiving critical acclaim for its imaginative and distinctive approach.
Concept – Choreography: Ermira Goro
Movement material, choreography: in collaboration with the performers
Performers: Chara Kotsali, Angelos Kolosionis
Original Music: Jeph Vanger
Music performed live: Aliki Leftherioti
Costume design: Venia Polyhronaki
Lighting design: Vangelis Mountrichas
Lighting design assistant: Georgios Tsitsigkos
Choreography consultant: Marianna Kavallieratos
Photography/Video: Archlabyrinth
Production: Removement
Supported by: Hellenic Ministry of Culture
@ermiragoro
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, which for the third year continues to travel to festivals across Europe with the support of the Onassis Stegi Touring Program, 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.”
After the presentation of her work LANDSCAPE at Dance Umbrella 2025, a performance that “isn't a game of gazes, nor an invitation to gaze or desire: it's a protest” (Vito De Biasi, “Harper’s Bazaar Italy”), and having received reviews for her work as a whole, Elena Antoniou returns with ODE, this time to seek the tender core of female power. As Eoin Fenton [“A young(ish) perspective”] notes in his review, “If anyone is to carry on that fine tradition of ‘dance from the vagina,’ as Martha Graham put it, it just might be Elena Antoniou.
Concept, Choreography, Performance: Elena Antoniou
Performance: Anna Papathanasiou
Music: Maria Spivak
Dramaturgy: Odysseas I. Konstantinou
Art direction: Christos Kyriakides
Lighting design: Vasilis Petinaris
Styling coordination: Philippe G. Missas
Photography & Graphics: Saint
Production Coordination (Internationally): Alex Papasimakopoulou
Production Coordination (Cyprus): Loukia Vassiliou
With the support of the NEON Organisation for Culture and Development & ONASSIS STEGI Touring Programme.
The premiere of the work took place in Cyprus, as part of the "Terpsichore 2025" programme of the Department of Contemporary Culture, Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture.
@elenantoniou_
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, which for the third year continues to travel to festivals across Europe with the support of the Onassis Stegi Touring Program, 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.”
After the presentation of her work LANDSCAPE at Dance Umbrella 2025, a performance that “isn't a game of gazes, nor an invitation to gaze or desire: it's a protest” (Vito De Biasi, “Harper’s Bazaar Italy”), and having received reviews for her work as a whole, Elena Antoniou returns with ODE, this time to seek the tender core of female power. As Eoin Fenton [“A young(ish) perspective”] notes in his review, “If anyone is to carry on that fine tradition of ‘dance from the vagina,’ as Martha Graham put it, it just might be Elena Antoniou.
Concept, Choreography, Performance: Elena Antoniou
Performance: Anna Papathanasiou
Music: Maria Spivak
Dramaturgy: Odysseas I. Konstantinou
Art direction: Christos Kyriakides
Lighting design: Vasilis Petinaris
Styling coordination: Philippe G. Missas
Photography & Graphics: Saint
Production Coordination (Internationally): Alex Papasimakopoulou
Production Coordination (Cyprus): Loukia Vassiliou
With the support of the NEON Organisation for Culture and Development & ONASSIS STEGI Touring Programme.
The premiere of the work took place in Cyprus, as part of the "Terpsichore 2025" programme of the Department of Contemporary Culture, Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Culture.
@elenantoniou_
“Open all pores to this gem. And above all, don't forget to breathe,” wrote Nieuwsblad in 2014 about The Dog Days Are Over. The reviews back then did not lie: this production marked the absolute breakthrough for Jan Martens, with an extensive international tour of more than 100 performances. In 2025, Jan Martens and GRIP recreated this successful show with a new cast.
The American photographer Philippe Halsman once said: “When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.” With The Dog Days Are Over, Jan Martens took this statement as a starting point and, through the act of jumping, exposed the person behind the dancer.
In The Dog Days Are Over, 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.
Thanks to its radical choreographic form, The Dog Days Are Over revealed the audience’s perception of dancers, choreographers, spectators and the cultural policy of the time. Ten years on, these questions remain highly relevant given current political and social trends: 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.
Jan Martens (1984, Belgium) studied at the Fontys Dance Academy in Tilburg and graduated in 2006 from the dance department of the Artesis Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. Since 2010, he has been creating his own choreographic work, which over the years has been presented with increasing regularity to both national and international audiences. Jan Martens’ work is nurtured by the belief that every body can communicate and that every body has something to say. This direct communication expresses itself in transparent forms. His work functions as a sanctuary in which the notion of time becomes tangible once again, and where there is space for observation and emotion, as well as reflection. To achieve this, he does not so much develop a movement language of his own, but rather reshapes and recontextualises existing idioms, allowing new ideas to emerge. In each new work, he seeks to redefine the relationship between audience and performer. Jan Martens was awarded the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Prize for North Brabant (2014) and the prestigious Charlotte Köhler Prize (2015) for his work. In France, he was made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He is an associated artist at DE SINGEL Antwerp, La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand SN, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Maison de la danse Lyon, and the Lyon Dance Biennale.
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
Original cast: Piet Defrancq, Naomi Gibson, Nelle Hens, Julien Josse, Kimmy Ligtvoet, Cherish Menzo, Steven Michel, Laura Vanborm and/or Morgane Ribbens, Ilse Ghekiere, Victor Dumont, Connor Schumacher, Caspar Knops, Amerigo Delli Bove, Daniel Barkan
Dramaturgy: Renée Copraij
Lighting design: Jan Fedinger
Costume styling 2025: Sofie Durnez
Tour technicians: Michel Spang, Elke Verachtert, Nele Verreyken
Graphic design: Nick Mattan
Graphic design internship: Joëlle Desmet
Physiotherapy and osteopathy: Fourward Gent, Inge Haeyaert, Lode Verreyen
Production: GRIP (Francisca Alves, Hanne Doms, Anneleen Hermans, Rudi Meulemans, Klaartje Oerlemans, Jennifer Piasecki, Sylvie Svanberg, Nele Verreyken, Kato Wilms)
International distribution: A propic / Line Rousseau, Marion Gauvent
Partners 2023–2027: La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand SN, Maison de la danse / Pôle européen de création, en soutien à la Biennale de Lyon
Dog days 2014 coproduction: Frascati Producties, SPRING Performing Arts Festival, DansBrabant, La Briqueterie CDC du Val-de-Marne, tanzhaus nrw and TAKT Dommelhof
Dog days 2025 coproduction: Theater Rotterdam, DE SINGEL, Le Carreau – Scène nationale de Forbach et de l’Est Mosellan, Perpodium
Dog days 2014 with the financial support of: The Government of Flanders and Performing Arts Fund NL
Dog days 2025 with the financial support of: The Flemish Government, Tax Shelter of the Belgian Federal Government via Cronos Invest, bpost’s Star4U fund
Dog days 2014 with the support of: workspacebrussels and wpZimmer
Dog days 2014 thanks to: Dansateliers, Conny Janssen Danst, JAN and ICKamsterdam
Dog days 2025 thanks to: Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, c o r s o
With the support of: Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels
www.grip.house | www.apropic.com
FB: @grip.artists @jan.martens.5249
IG: @grip.artists | @apropic_agency | @janmartenss
The stage production Tempo explores time, the sensation of time, and its acceleration, deceleration, and cessation. At its core lies a seemingly insignificant event that takes on vast dimensions, revealing the fragility of life. 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. This is the second collaboration between Nio, Salmenniemi, and Kosminen. Their previous stage production, Nopeussokeus, premiered at Kiasma Theatre in 2010 and was subsequently performed in twelve theatres across seven countries and in five languages. Nio and Salmenniemi have also collaborated on the film installation Yö, presented at Mänttä Art Festival in 2022. Sweden-based Brazilian choreographer Fernando Melo, who works internationally, 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. Tempo is an international co-production. In Finland, it is produced by WHS in collaboration with Helsinki Festival. In Slovenia, the production partner is LGL, the National Puppet Theatre. The project is supported by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation.
Kalle Nio (1982) is a Finnish stage director, visual artist, and magician renowned for blending visual theatre, experimental film, contemporary circus, and new magic. His group, WHS, has performed in more than 200 theatres across over 40 countries, earning international acclaim. A Master of Fine Arts graduate of the University of the Arts Helsinki, Nio has collaborated with prestigious institutions such as Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Helsinki Festival, and Théâtre de la Cité internationale in Paris.
Brazilian-born Fernando Melo has built a distinguished career in Europe, creating choreography for leading dance companies such as Göteborgs Operans Danskompani, Skånes Dansteater, and Ballet Hispánico New York. His works often incorporate magic and stage illusion, enriching productions in both dance and opera, including collaborations with La Monnaie in Brussels and the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. Known for his innovative and interdisciplinary approach, Melo continues to shape the global dance and opera scenes.
Concept: Nio, Melo & Salmenniemi
Direction: Kalle Nio
Choreography: Fernando Melo
Text: Harry Salmenniemi
Performers: Barbara Kanc, Winston Reynolds, Luigi Sardone, Iiro Näkki
Music & Sound design: Samuli Kosminen
Costume design: Georgina Spencer
Lighting design: Johannes Hallikas
Stage manager / Rigger: Hedda Liukkala
Head of lighting: June Horton-White
Tour technician: Emilie Largier
Tour booking & Management: Yellow Everything
Photography & Trailer: Kalle Nio
Production: WHS / Kalle Nio
Co-production: Helsinki Festival, Lutkovno Gledališče Ljubljana, Slovenia
Supported by: Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Saastamoinen Foundation
@kallenio
@fernando_melo_
