On the night of August 14, 1791, a Vodou ritual took place in Bois-Caïman that became the precursor to a mass uprising against slavery and the birth of Haiti, the world’s first black independent republic. Since then, ceremonies of artistic and religious expression have been a mainstay of Haitian culture and its resistance to external oppression, poverty and natural disaster. Kite Zo A: Leave the Bones is an intoxicating creative and spiritual experience. In this captivating documentary, director Kaveh Nabatian worked closely with local dancers, musicians, fishermen, daredevil rollerbladers and priests to create a sensory immersion in these sacred rituals.

Physical Culture frames rave as a vital human practice in the information age. It invites us to explore physical movement, to discover who we are when we dance and why we do so. It asks universal existential questions and puts them in a refreshingly queer, playful package. It's rave, it's queer, and it's for everyone!

In an old empty paper factory, we follow a woman playing with sculptures made of paper. Inspired by the design of Japanese gardens, #16 by The Paper Ensemble invites you to be receptive to a world made entirely out of the sounds of paper: crackling bushes, ocean waves and singing whales.

We walk. We run. We fall. We hug those whom we love and then we run again. We walk together until the walls move.

A contemporary myth on the genesis of the human body, the film oscillates between two distinct dimensions: an infinite black hole, where bodies exist outside linear space and time; and a labyrinthine house, where a strange decadent gathering takes place. As the dreamlike narrative unfolds, different characters go through experiences of love, enchantment, pain and death.

On her way home from a dance rehearsal, a young woman’s spiraling thoughts begin to blur past and present as she questions her identity and place in the world.

'The Key Is' focuses on the idea of wanting to leave a space before one is ready. We see a dancer wanting to pass through this space but then quickly come to realise that they are not in control of this decision. In order to unlock the door, they have a lesson to learn. They need to embrace their whole self, including the ugly and dark parts. It is not until they honestly welcome a darker sense of themselves that they are allowed to leave. This story is portrayed through contemporary, street dance and krump movement that is brought alive though dancer, Ooshcon.

It is a fairy-tale episode, told with tenderness, gushing with the intense colours of flowers and élan vital. Choreography composed to a suite by Edward Grieg and presented by the artists-dancers of the Polish Dance Theatre takes the audience into the world of flora. It allows to explore a day in the life of a plant from the moment it blooms to the end, drowned in warm nostalgia. We invite you to immerse yourself in the beautiful world of flowers and leaves, in the greens, reds and purples transitioning to the greys and browns of the autumn. And all this told with movement to the rhythm of the dynamic sounds of the suite Peer Gynt op. 1 performed by Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera.

Almost full moon in an arid mountain landscape. A young woman waters her flowering plants. The riverbed is dried out. She is at one with her silence. When sleep enfold her on the broken earth, she is transposed home.

When Sleep Enfolded Her offers a portrait of young woman looking for tenderness in a vaste environment. A deceptively simple, choreographed dance filmed in the heart of an oasis endangered by drought.

This short documentary follows two performers who mix traditional clog dancing from the North West of the UK with choreography for two modified fitness machines based on agricultural yokes. Clog dancing is said to have originated in East Lancashire from the weaving mills of the 19th century, where working women would tap to the rhythm of the machines. The film explores identity and belonging in the context of industrialisation and economic migration and how movement, as a result, has been transformed by it.

Until We Die is a poetic film, set in a devastated world where collective disorder is the precondition for survival. Eloquently moving bodies replace the spoken word and reveal the bruised characters, haunted by a past sweeter than the crumbling world they find themselves in.

This film is part of the online program but accessible only in the Netherlands.

Carried in Silence is an extract of a relation between a mother and a daughter. Through contemporary dance and classical music the film speaks about intergenerational trauma and suppressed emotions, carried in silence. The chain of generations is also reflected in the music of the film, composed by Isabella Leonarda in the 17th century – one of the few female composers of her era.

A gateway, a threshold and a figure pausing, maneuvering his being within a misplaced frame. I dream no more I remember is a palindrome film, a mystical ritual in a magical and archaic place. An homage to the poetry of Lorenzo Calogero.

Phuong is released from prison and returns to her home province. She finds Khang, her childhood sweetheart, but no longer recognizes her village. All the small factories in the province have closed, and the big city suddenly bristled with countless skyscrapers. Urban Genesis questions the place left to love when time passes faster than the clouds.

To be able to live in Bogotá, you need a skin that can adapt, that can turn reptilian when it doesn't stop raining for weeks and that can go soft when the woman in the corner shop gives you a free morning coffee. Thick Skin is a dance film that takes the viewer through the Colombian capital, high above the Andes, with stylized movement that speaks of life in the bustling city.

A film about the limits of the aging body and the boundless mind. Rauno's story takes us on a boat trip with his father. A journey of misadventures and his father's new Finnish record in cursing.

In this non-dialogue tale, set along the coast of Vietnam, a mermaid is rescued from the fish market by a fisherman. As the hero carries her back to the ocean they are joined by two seahorses. Upon her awakening on the beach the mermaid performs a sensual dance. But her joy is short-lived: the waves have other plans.

In a dystopian world, freedom comes with ranking. An MMA fighter is about to step on the ring when his social anxiety disorder takes over. The only way he knows how to deal with his fears is to either fight or flight, but this only takes him further away from winning the game.

“Simple is complex and complex is simple.” Choreographer and director Naomi Kats exposes the internal world and the perspective we hold on our thoughts. To which extent do we allow ourselves to choose, and to look in the mirror?

In the process of encountering an abandoned building, multi-disciplinary artist Martijn Klukas playfully tests our perception in a series of parables. Representation, decontextualization, deconstruction and sequentiality in text, image and sound playfully reveal an intuitive body that constantly searches for meaning and expanded connections.

A young Bulgarian man, riding the endless rollercoaster of workouts, anonymous sex, and dopamine, asks how to finally get off in a world where the body is everything. The film explores the obsession of queer men with their bodies as an object of desire, pleasure, and self-confidence and probes how the body is weaponized in fitness, sex, and hookup culture. Collecting footage from video games, 3D scans, online conversations, and archive footage of the ideal male body, the film asks if it is possible to completely detach from our bodies in this supersexual culture.

In the history of the future, lab technicians clone themselves. The temperature rises when a clone emerges that deviates from the norm. A game of mirroring, attraction and repulsion emerges, in which the distinction between the deviation and the standard becomes blurred, and even reversible. In the end, who is the right clone?

The discovery of a dance creature in the elevator of a theater sets in motion a cat and mouse play between performer and camera. Both are looking for the fragile harmony of a dance captured on film.

Twelve world leaders assemble in a war room to play a game on life and death in which they have to dance tango. Last man standing.

This film is part of the online program but is not accessible on the territory of Belgium.

A faceless, genderless body moves in tiny motions; twisting, twitching, stretching; transforming into curious, surreal and intimate shapes. Forming includes dancers with MS and examines the experience of living with a neurological condition. Developed from an artwork by Chloe Rosser and supported by Scottish Ballet.

The human body and its most basic need is the subject of this minimalist film envisioning a water-scarce future. A young man stumbling along a path, hears the sound of water before dropping down in exhaustion. He opens his eyes to find himself in a bare landscape where a bottle of water sits on top of a very high pole.

"In our neighborhood, lives a rooster. In our neighborhood, lives a sadist slaying rooster!" With these first words, Syrian writer and poet Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani recites the journey of a dictator rising to power.

Carmen, has just won a dance competition, she is holding the prize in her hands. She is exhausted, but happy, it has been worth the effort. She walks home, she just wants to show off her prize and let her family know that she has succeeded this time. She is so happy she can't even feel her own feet. But someone is following her. She realizes too late, it's too close. Carmen has to run, hide and defend herself. She'll never get home, she doesn't need to prove anything to anyone, not anymore. "Footsteps" proposes a poetic look at violence against women based on a physical investigation of Argentinean folkloric traditions and their replication in modern times.

Siren is a short story of a curse. The central figure’s heightened state of danger blooms into ecstasy, disgust and rage. What happens when we yield to our fear?

As the Call, So the Echo follows a young woman in conflict with her inner demons. How does she reckon with her unknown self?

Millennial Eva is looking for a way to escape her daily struggles. The nightlife can give her the anonymity she needs to finally surrender to the moment. Will she get carried away by the flow of the beat? Can she disappear into the crowd without losing herself?

Blue Funk charts the physicality of being afraid. As chain reaction, fear settles over its targets, exposing their innate sentient responses of freeze, fight, fawn, and flight. The resulting cacophony evokes the volatility of this moment in time, a mounting pressure edging towards its breaking point.

Sininen (The Blue) is a fairytale fantasy of a bird-like figure in the embrace of the forest. The central character of the film has evolved over the years as Vappu has searched for her power figure through dance and movement. The film depicts gentle strength and magical skills, independence and a self-directed ability to create life, meaning and encounters around her. Each of us has something unique to pass on. The script was written together with the performers and choreographed by Vappu Virkkula.

Branches asks how our lives could differ based on a single decision or encounter. Drawing on director Masumi's experience as a minority and immigrant to the UK, we examine how the environment and society shape us. Exploring neuroses and fears through the multiverse, viewers will ponder how choices in life topple like dominoes. We present opportunities for viewers to reflect on their lives in our post-COVID information-oriented society, which fragments our ideology.

Little Movement is a short dance film in which six patients with Huntington's disease are portrayed in a dream-like space where time is suspended. An intimate choreography shows us their positive energy, zest for life and resilience in their vulnerable and fragile existence.

Ngày Mới’ (A new day has come), is a poetic visual response to the new track “Ngày Mới” of Vietnam-based electronic band Tiny Giant. The film depicts a world in constant motion that opens up when we slumber. Cavernous darkness is a habitat of transit, between worlds and the axis of time. In the heart of this motion, memories, knowledge, sadness and joy will leave their residues without completely disappearing: perhaps they have fallen into another place, another turning of time. The moment of transit in the cave doubles as both childhood and adulthood come to the surface in sync, where we bend closer in proximity to the inner child, the taste of a spoonful of innocence lingering on the tongue. Deity-like characters also appear in the video. They are gods of the filmmaker’s own world turned into images, as any person can have their own interpretation of a god. In this film, God is understood as a provider of support and company, and trust is a form of custody. We trust in the things that can protect and guide us. The eyeless horses, then, appear as mascots and attachment figures that walk with the children towards the world.

Part of the choreography was initially inspired by the ‘Kitsune Wedding’ scene in ‘Dreams’ – a film by Akira Kurosawa, in combination with experimental hip hop moves and the krumping stomps, choreographed and performed by Saigon-based dancer Kim from La Différence Saigon and Hanoi-based dancer Quay Trần from Abnormal Conceptz.

Whether it's running a marathon, climbing a mountain, or simply making it through a difficult day, endurance is what enables people to persist and succeed. A film about the power of perseverance and resilience and a testament to the idea that with hard work, determination, and the inherent drive to keep going despite adversity, anything is possible.

Mimeisthai is an experimental screendance that responds to Walter Benjamin’s concept of the ‘mimetic faculty’, which is, the ability to perceive and/or reproduce similarity. This generic skill is possessed by all living things and finds expression on various levels, from the biological to the behavioral; such as in reproduction or camouflage, to the myriad ways that creatures communicate.

In Mimeisthai movements are shared, copied and repeated between performers both on and off-screen, and then amplified across multiple frames. Through duplication, repetition, and layering multiple exposures, this work explores the mimetic faculty of dance and digital video.

A park. Two bodies dance looking for the exit. Through the tour they find fantastic and real situations. The movement will carry them forward into the next age. A labyrinthine passage from Dance in the Park.

Around its own axis showcases the infinite, repetitive rhythm of the automated Dutch agricultural landscape. Machines perform a dance, while choreographer Pauline Roelants, in the language of her profession, guides the viewer through the scenes. Thus, the silences and tranquility of the landscapes, interacting with the impulsive actions and mistakes of the machine, become an integral part of the choreography.

Faces of Passing Love is a film that mourns for past lovers through obsolete technology: a repeatedly projected slideshow, where eyes open, mouths whisper, tears linger.

A figure transitions between two realities: An external material one - in which they are subjected to increasing levels of social interaction - picking up ‘human’ traits as they go. And an internal fluid one - in which they are able to seek refuge to be and feel themselves.

EXT. is centred around the experience of someone trying to figure out what it is to be ‘human’. The film is a reference to our experiences as social animals and the often absurd evolution we go through, to adapt to society.

It also references gender exploration - the journey of an initially gender neutral character, that is increasingly nudged to conform to a binary - in order to fit in - and their escape to a fluid space, devoid of expectations and norms.

The film uses movement instead of dialogue as a means of expression and follows the protagonist on their awkward journey through different surroundings, like an avatar in a computer game.

Rowin, a 22-year-old fisherman from Banda Abou (Curaçao) has little luck catching fish at his fishing spot. He goes there everyday despite the disapproval of his mother. One day, on the coastline where he fishes daily, he encounters a mysterious young man who will change everything.

This film is part of the online program but accessible only in the Netherlands and until the 25th March.

Two bodies emerge, one of flesh and one of metal. Both are cautious of, yet compelled towards each other. This evolves into a game of hide and seek. Can friendship truly form or will we always be stuck in a limbo of a human vs machine narrative? ?!%$&#@$^()}!@#|%>? is a cry to connect, to be seen by each other and come together. Singaporean filmmaker Clare Chong and movement artist Sonia Kwek are working for the first time with the Bolt, a high-speed camera robot.

On a 5-day hike from the Seriana to the Brembana Valley in Italy, a character is in search of answers but doesn’t pose any questions. A speculative dance documentary reflecting on the relationship between human and mountain, as material entity and as idea.

Four dancers, one choreographic score, one poem, one camera, one angle, three takes and no edits. Dog Cloud explores the subtle interplay between structure, chance and the human desire for finding patterns and stories.

We are transported into a dream-like state in which we do not run, but dance. The original music composed by Echo Collective takes us on a journey through landscapes where time disappears and we are drawn into nature.

A building is in constant development, it’s enlivened, used, worn out, decaying. Bodies leave traces in buildings. Buildings leave their mark on us. Decay does not necessarily end in dust that we gently sweep away. In and so I'll go the carpet of an old furniture showroom becomes the grid of various accumulative micro plots and intimate dances.

Who are these entities of abandonment? They have never seen the light and a simple lightning strike awakens the hope of escaping from confinement.

Noora is a dance short film that follows Noora's movement. She is a dancer. Her body's impulses are generated in the moment from contact with different environments. Noora has congenital bone fragility, osteogenesis imperfecta. She uses a wheelchair as a dancing aid. In it, she can move widely, but feels isolated. On the ground, she feels the ground against her skin. In the water she can let go of her wheelchair. Noora's toes sink into the mud bottom, which pulsates with her steps. The water supports her fragile body with its pressure and surrounded by it she dares to move more freely, her body is more elastic, her expressions and range of motion are greater. In water she finds ways to move as independently as other dancers on land.

We may imagine ourselves unaffected by the changes of contemporaneity, but the organic and the synthetic have fused. In Dark Field Analysis, we take a dive into the disconcerting strangeness of the inner self, of what often remains hidden – anatomically, psychologically and spiritually. The film speaks about the complexity of living in this world, incorporating animal forces, desire, instinct and technology.

A bird called Memory has forgotten how to come back home. Lua, a trans woman, searches for Memory in the streets, where she finds the city to be a hostile place.

Mathilde is a short film based in parts of the 19th century novel 'A Love Story' by Dutch author Lodewijk van Deyssel. Mathilde is estranged from herself and her surroundings by a long-term illness. She is advised to go and live in the countryside for a while. One evening she comes out of her lethargy and has a breakthrough.

Through a feminist lens, Wiaam from Syria and Orian from Israel seek to examine alternative methods of protest against occupation, racism and violence in current Israel. They grapple with the decision of whether to leave or stay, take action or remain home.

The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet, nurturing and developing exceptional young talent and shaping the future generation of leading dancers, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. A celebratory documentary about a crucial platform for the development of young and ambitious dancers.

Inspired by hydrofeminist theories and wearing a vessel suit, full of leaking water, artist Elisabeth Raymond tells an otherworldly story about sorrow, the plastic in our oceans and how our borders are fluid.

Bart shares his experiences of living in Moerwijk-Oost, a working-class neighborhood in The Hague. The many empty buildings merge the world of a group of inhabiting creatives with the daily antics of five children living down the street. Shot with a hand-held 16mm and super 8 camera and accompanied by a photo series by Nas Hosen and soundtrack by Unit Nine.

Inei, meaning darkness in Japanese, is a poetic exploration of the unfixed time system known as futeijihō. The dance film unfolds against the breathtaking backdrop of Mount Yufu and is a visual and emotional feast for the senses. From the blue hues of sunrise to the dusky shadows of sunset, the film captures the shifting atmospheres and moods that accompany the passing of time.

Lucid Dreaming tells the story of a girl in a train, who loses herself in the world of another passenger. As she falls deeper in his emotions and sensations, the train and its passengers become part of the world she encounters through him. During this non-verbal encounter between strangers, she experiences how imagination and empathy are both powerful and vulnerable at the same time.

This film is part of the online program but accessible only in the Netherlands.

Bull Rider merges meditations on dance from choreographer Martha Graham, music by composer Philip Glass and featuring bull rider in action Ouncie Mitchell.

Shot in a single take in a long industrial tunnel, within its strict time, choreographic and spatial framework ‘100m’ underlines uniqueness of the experience of going through stages of grief.

Whilst driving, a woman attempts to reconcile with her past and the scars it left behind.

Parades is an initiation to a mysterious pagan feast made by powerful images between fantasy and allegory. Director and choreographer Alan Lake depict a universe that is as alluring as it is disturbing.

There is a couple. Two bodies. Two beings. 1+1. Sometimes it feels like only one. This film piece wants to explore aspects of a relationship through movement, through the bodies of the performers. The unfathomable distance between two people. Broke but never broken

The unfathomable distance between two people. Broke but never broken

Tales of Freedoom explores the possibility of movement through recycled materials and wild thoughts. Like a magnifying glass that reveals what’s hidden in the evident, the main character embarks on a journey through the city and a world of sensations. A naively intuitive research, exposing fear, poetry, frustration, freedom and its restrictions.

From the depths of the Earth to the dunes of an unknown desert, a group of women embark on an initiatory journey. A pagan mass, a quest, or a common elevation, The Goddam Milky Way celebrates femininity in all its roughness and complexity.

Based on a live duet between Ali Kenner Brodsky and Jenna Pollack, to be near you. honors the memory of those that we have lost, collapses distance by energizing the spaces between, and demonstrates how people can find connection through physical separation. to be near you. pushes at the boundaries of time to create a feeling of reconnecting with something, or someone, who is gone.

In a remote gas station in the heart of winter, a place where time stands still, three strangers cross paths and reshape time in their own way.

Heartache deploys tensely expressive movement in a darkly playful take on the dynamics of seeing and being seen. Dark humor, sarcastic imagery and expressive choreography conveyed a unique atmosphere to color the interactions between the dancers and their setting.

A woman walks slowly through a dark, untouched forest. She is following someone in the distance, someone she can’t quite make out. Or is the other actually following her? Too late, the woman regrets a desperate attempt to escape her pursuer. As she starts to understand and approaches the point of no return, she is lured into making a dire decision.

Through unique female circus and movement art, Branché traverses time and Quebec's lush natural landscapes. While diminishing resources and livable land are causing existential collapse, the performers' bold three-high formations and breathtaking falls remind us that a oneness of nature and humanity is undoubtedly worth preserving.

Set in the flooded villages of Java, Indonesia, this dance film attempts to come to terms with the despair that surrounds a disappearing home. Leleb is dedicated to those who endure.

Saba, an Iranian girl, is a dancer. She wants to be indifferent to her surroundings and manifests this self-being and freedom with her body. She is in love with the art of dancing, the art of letting go and living away from conventional bonds. But this art of being is forbidden in an ultimately religious state that ignores the very basic human rights. The film is an honest portrait of the daily oppression women have to deal with in Iran towards the path to freedom.

This film is part of the online program but accessible only in the Netherlands.

Ampe is a high-energy game played by girls in Ghana. It includes jumping, clapping, and an all-around cheer as two teams select a stepping pattern and face off. The innate joy and competitive edge of ampe discloses the desire of girls to be set free unconditionally and feel a range of emotions without judgment.

Anna sees Jasmine, her former bully from school, after years when she brings her daughter to dance class. Anna and Jasmine try to behave nicely, but something is bubbling beneath the surface. And then things get out of hand.

Far from homogenizing parameters, flamenco uses the subversive power of art to enhance the diversity of bodies on stage. Disability is no longer a limit, but a creative starting point.

A lonely traveler embarks on a journey to find relief for a hidden yearning. Her restless longing spreads around and forces fellow passengers to face their own desires and disappointments.

This film is part of the online program but accessible only in the Netherlands.

When a video of kids dancing in the rain goes viral, it brings global attention to an unlikely ballet school outside Lagos, Nigeria. Now, Daniel Ajala -- who learned ballet over YouTube -- is training students to perform on the world stage.

Overworked office workers decide to take action against the company director. An absurd, wordless choreographed office comedy, with a bizarre conclusion.

There she stands, confidently, like a goddess of technological junk, surrounded by endless mountains of rubbish, plastic, stench and rare earth minerals. An angry appeal to the world to take responsibility for the consequences of capitalism, colonialism and environmental destruction in Africa.

An allegorical film based on the news photos of refugees. Reality is often more absurd and bitter than you could have ever imagined. We are inundated with images that make us jaded in a certain way and our conscience has become a casual phenomenon of our time: today it is here, tomorrow it is gone.

The film is accompanied by a performance by artist Miloushka Bokma.

This short portrait takes an inside look at the artistic inspiration and motivations of Takano Yonen, a Japanese soloist member of the Hong Kong Ballet. As he dances through urban and natural surroundings, he meditates on the influence of his cultural background and his approach to the ritual and language of dance.

In a barren treeless landscape which could either be a future vision of earth or another planet, a group of people struggle through the inhospitable environment, harvesting air, the new gold. They plant trees on a deserted black beach, hoping to repopulate the planet with its source of oxygen. A contemplation on the importance of trees and a timely metaphor of a world turned upside down by our disregard for nature and the planet.

In Atopias: The Homeless Wanderer, a black woman embarks on a meditative journey through the wild Caribbean landscapes, confronting dreamlike memories and traumatic experiences. This exploration of migration, transgenerational memory and trauma reshapes her voyage, taking her deep into her subconscious, where she encounters her inner child and ventures into ancestral realms.

In an arresting procession, a group of non-conforming people – from musicians, artists and poets to anti-military activists, environmentalists and diasporic, queer and trans people – carry a coffin through the ruins of an abandoned resort on Jeju island in South Korea. By performing a burial, they come together to undo a world order built upon hierarchy and division. By performing this ritual, time and place begin to lose their stability as mythical Dokkaebi deities pass through the building and heavy rain and wind blow through its cavities.

For Broadway performer Randi, birthing her son felt triumphant until the doctors explained that Moses was profoundly disabled and faced a tenuous future. Randi fell into a well of grief before unearthing a new language with which she could learn to love her son. The film illuminates the often invisible story of the caregiver and helps shift the shame narrative around the stunning challenges and surprising gifts that come with the birth of a child with a disability.

Five perfect strangers meet in the middle of the night and break into an abandoned house. Are they occupiers? Vandals? Far from it! They are in need to free themselves from the shackles of everyday life. It is not a break-in, but a break-out! And so it begins. The five withdraw and start their individual ritual. Their lust can be felt, their power is contagious. No one can stop what has been unleashed.

Four professional figure skaters, accustomed to gliding only on perfectly groomed artificial ice, return to the origin of ice; naturally frozen water. This experience of nature is central in the film and shows what we are gradually losing due to climate change.

A figure of a black Tito appears in the big and empty underground structure of a former silo in Tamale, Ghana. He visits the people of the country by plane and rickshaw to spread his message and joins the Parliament of Ghosts in session. An artistic interaction between NAM – Non Aligned Movement by Christian Guerematchi and the Parliament of Ghosts by Ibrahim Mahama. Both works speak about forgotten histories and the contemporary echoes of the cultural connections from the time of the Non-Aligned Movement between Ghana and Yugoslavia – Nkrumah and Tito.

Under the Sky of Fetishes responds to the complexity of colonial archives. It reinvents the specters of a haunting gaze to tell the story of Mauritian sega – a cultural practice born during colonization and slavery, now mainly seen in tourism. How do we project, literally bring out of ourselves, the narrative of the oppressor? Mixing fiction and ethnography, the film sanctifies the power of the projection as a mental as well as intimate enigma to release ghostly and alienated bodies, including our own.

In the wake of the loss of her mother, documentary filmmaker Nyasha Laing travels into the heart of the Jamaican countryside to research the ancestral ritual of Kumina. “Once you beat that drum, you have called the ancestors”, says Imogene “Queenie” Kennedy. Queenie was a contemporary priestess in post-colonial Jamaica, who catapulted her African spiritual practice into renown. Her mysterious world reveals a divergent pathway to freedom, healing, and transformation. Interwoven with Queenie’s life story are the personal journeys of a generation of cultural icons of Jamaican heritage who unearth their roots and examine their identities. Versed in dance, music and cosmology, they open up a portal to the past, as well as a glimpse into the future.

We don't know what happened but dancer 1 and dancer 2 need to take a break, smoke a cigarette and just vent to each other. The conversation heats more and more until the movie itself becomes a dance following the words we can't hear. Winner of La Danza in 1 minuto, presented in collaboration with Coorpi Turin.

Gimp Gait is a solo for two – surrogates to one another. It includes an exploration of the subjects' private and public lives and how the perspective of the viewer may attempt to control or shape who they are. The title of the film discloses its origin: 'gimp', a slur meant to mark a weak or handicapped person and 'gait', the manner or style of a person's walk. Can you notice every part of their bodies – both the similarities and differences?

D3C05 is a sci-fi love letter to Miami’s Art Deco architecture. The film takes the idea of optimistic futurism and reimagines the concept within a neo-human world, where the boundaries between human, nature, and object coalesce; a world where synesthetic communication and performative rituals reign.

HOW TO: Oh, look at me features four femmes of color. Two dancers and two poets interact with one another through words and movement, seeking reprieve from the constructs of our current reality. Revolving around a deconstructed playground, an installation designed by director and multidisciplinary artist GeoVanna Gonzalez.

A collaboration between Icelandic multi-instrumentalist Ólafur Arnalds and filmmaker Vincent Moon, When We Are Born is a journey about rituals, relationships and our inner landscapes. Filmed in Iceland in the summer of 2020 and based partly on Ólafur’s life, the work ultimately focuses on how we all move forward; a theme made especially potent in the times of disconnection and isolation it emerged from. The music of the film was recorded live on location and interpreted by choreographer Erna Ómarsdóttir and the Iceland Dance Company.

Q5 is inspired by the energy, feeling and expressiveness of Waacking; also known as Whacking or Punking. A dance form that emerged in the 1970s as an expression of oppression in the Latin and African-American LGBTQI+ underground clubs of Los Angeles. Through the sounds and movement language of Waacking, the 5 performers in the film dive into the 5th dimension. They explore different colors, portals, perspectives and worlds within worlds. All in search of the essence: The Quintessentials! The original theater performance and tour of '21 was canceled due to Covid and transformed into a 5-episode Waacking movie series that festively closes Cinedans FEST '24!

A woman enters a Synagogue and is transported to the parallel universe of all her ancestors who do not let her leave until she participates in their dances and rituals. The film is inspired by Gabri Christa’s first time visiting the Neve Shalom in 2000 where she was overwhelmed by the building and the emotions it brought to her. It spurred her into researching her Surinamese father’s lineage, which revealed that she had indeed also Jewish ancestors. As the famous Surinamese writer Cynthia McCleod says “when you shake your family trees, a few Jews fall out”.

When memories from his childhood come to the surface, Derik Lynch, a Yankunytjatjara man, escapes white city life in Adelaide to return back home to his remote Anangu Community (Aputula) to perform on sacred Inma ground. Inma is a traditional form of visual, verbal, and physical storytelling. It is how the Anangu have been passing down stories connected to the land, dreams and myths for over 60,000+ years from generation to generation.

She faces endless rehabilitation; her body keeps recalling the injury; she wishes to appease, yet she fell……Three dancers who have confronted injuries filled the visual with strain on the body. The film ponders how to co-exist with the trauma and keep going after one’s world falls apart.

Based on the legendary Chinese folktale Kua-fu Chases the Sun in the scripture of Mountain and Sea from 4th century BC. As in the legend, the film, employing the language of dance, tells the wondrous story of a modern man on a daring quest to chase the sun. When the enigmatic creatures depicted in the book begin to infiltrate his dreams, he suspects that he has crossed paths with them.

With the China’s reform and opening up which began in 1979, it became big differences among areas’ economic development level. The population migration occurred with accelerated urbanization process, like birds. The cognition of hometown and native place has changed qualitatively. As the impact of modern technology on chicken in chicken coop, no one could escape. They are all domesticated. City is like a modern chicken coop, and people are like the domesticated chicken. Imagining human beings returning to an original state and conventional rules ae no longer apply. Imagining human beings are objectified and the next dominating species have a completely different social system - what would the world be like? Whenever we observe and approach other creatures, they are observing and approaching us at the same time.

Three performers, Kawamura Mikiko, Kawaguchi Takao and Matsuoka Dai, studied three pieces of choreography by Butoh legends – Ohno Kazuo, Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Yoshito to replicate their works not by imitation but responded to the spirit of Butoh in contemporary ways.

Created with virtual bodies found online, Flying Low is part of Freya Björg Olafson’s ‘Keystroke Choreographies’ series. Each of the videos in the series are compositional studies that use popular contemporary dance techniques as a framework for virtual choreography. Flying Low is a movement technique developed by David Zambrano that focuses on the dancers’ relationship with the floor. Movement patterns involving breath, speed, and release are used to activate the relationship between a dancer’s core and joints, as they move into and away from the ground with efficiency.

A minimalist dance film by Alexander Ekman, Being Being follows a man through a series of expressive motions, portraying the ups and downs of existence. Navigating between moments of strength and vulnerability, the performer reflects the resilience inherent in the human spirit.

Table for One, Please is a short film that emerges from rehearsals for the dance theater piece I Should Have a Party for All the Thoughts I Didn’t Say by director Samantha Shay. Exploring the social awkwardness of grief, and inspired by the writing of Anton Chekhov, the project gathers current and former artists of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, as well as the Grotowski Institute-based physical theater company Teatr ZAR, as a reflection on the lineages of Polish Jerzy Grotowski and German Pina Bausch, their relationship and how their work resonates today.

It takes 6 weeks to come off antidepressants. A man tries to dance his way through it, armed only with a boombox and a sign inviting people to join him. From over 100 hours of footage shot on the streets of Bristol and London, this film documents a journey from isolation to connection.

Denni is a tunneller and Einar a farmer in the countryside of Iceland. They both practice wrestling but must keep their relationship a secret from the inner world of Iceland's national and very macho sport.

Feminism for beginners – and for everyone else who needs to shake up their habitual thinking! A lively discussion club of a film that tests the many theories in practice through social experiments and performative interventions. Feminism WTF reflects on current debates and analyzes the potential of intersectional feminism to profoundly change our future societies. In the film speakers from different disciplines, from biology and linguistics to political and educational sciences, as well as dance artists, contribute to a comprehensive picture on gender equality in our society. Experts such as sociologist Laura Wiesböck, gender scientist Maisha Auma, political scientist Nikita Dhawa, men's researcher Christoph May, sexologist Rona Torenz, and sociologist Paula Villa Braslavsky have their say.

Follow the fascinating evolution of jazz dance from its origins in Africa, through to its modern-day interpretations which reveal the political and social influences affecting the dance form today. Through this celebration of the art form, with special appearances from industry stars such as Debbie Allen, George Faison, Chita Rivera, Camille A. Brown and Thomas F. DeFrantz, a spellbinding story of triumph over adversity, oppression, and privilege is uncovered.

In her new video work, choreographer Meg Stuart explores the Vorklinik, a modernist building erected in 1971-76 for the University of Graz’s medical faculty, that has meanwhile been demolished, as it was considered too dysfunctional for further use. Together with two dancers, Stuart attempts to mark this brutal transition through a sensorial processing of the building’s vast, empty spaces. Like the modernist project, the attempt to fit their bodies into the architecture of the Vorklinik is slated to fail. With tenderness and sensuality, they connect past and future, dream and decay.

Obsessed with Light is not a bio-pic of pioneer Loïe Fuller, but rather an insightful examination of the artistry and incredible impact her work still has on contemporary culture, including artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers, Taylor Swift and Shakira. The American creator of modern dance, Fuller (1862-1928), created a completely new kind of spectacle which combined dance, fabric and movement. She propelled herself into swirling abstractions which made audiences gasp and she immediately understood the importance of copyright and protecting the ownership of innovations. Creating a dialogue between the past and the present, artists such as Robert Wilson, Bill T. Jones, Iris van Herpen, William Kentridge, Trajal Harrell and Studio Drift speak about her influence in their own work. ​

A young black woman grapples with the histories of her ancestors and the present-day violence ravaging her community. She begins to imagine what her future looks like through dance.

Using his trademark assemblage of esoteric costume and visual metaphors, Congolese-Belgian hitmaker and filmmaker Baloji explores the practice of skin lightening in black communities. Euphemistically described as ‘brightening’ or ‘toning’, skin bleaching takes many innocuous forms, such as creams, buffs and soaps to deal with hyperpigmentation, but is more often used by women to emulate Eurocentric beauty standards.

Q5 is inspired by the energy, feeling and expressiveness of Waacking; also known as Whacking or Punking. A dance form that emerged in the 1970s as an expression of oppression in the Latin and African-American LGBTQI+ underground clubs of Los Angeles. Through the sounds and movement language of Waacking, the 5 performers in the film dive into the 5th dimension. They explore different colors, portals, perspectives and worlds within worlds. All in search of the essence: The Quintessentials! The original theater performance and tour of '21 was canceled due to Covid and transformed into a 5-episode Waacking movie series that festively closes Cinedans FEST '24!

The Purple Episode is the last episode of the series and includes a Theater Scene and the Beyond The Whack - Behind the scenes content, as well as the performers' Mission Statement and the last historical chapter, exploring what is the essence, and how can we preserve and protect that to take to our future dream visions for the dance, culture, community & BEYOND!?

This is what freedom feels like, baby.” The uncompromising words of musician and writer Mykki Blanco echo over a transcendental parade of a group of empowered queer dancers. A film about the French black queer community taking pride in who they are, what they have achieved, and embracing the bodies they are in. Tajabone takes its name from a unique tradition in Senegal, where in addition to singing and dancing through the streets everyone practices cross dressing through the night.

How far are you willing to go for your hustle? A young Kenyan visual artist comes up with a sly plan to take over the art world abroad. Will it work? This One Went to Market is part of the mini-series by The Nest Collective, in partnership with Forum Syd, dedicated to the city of Nairobi and its citizens – trying to live to see another day, to get that cash, to get home, to get a job.

To celebrate half a century of SNDO - School for New Dance Development of the Amsterdam University of the Arts, as a laboratory for dance and performance, a trajectory of public events is unfolding from January 2024 and on. Cinedans proudly joins with the co-production and presentation of a documentary honoring Ria Higler’s legacy. Ria Higler can be considered a 'mother-spirit' of SNDO. A graduate of the first student cohort of Moderne Dans Opleiding, as SNDO was called back in 1976, she transitioned into teaching in 1980. From 1989 to 1998, she served as the co-director of the school alongside Trude Cone, continuing as a core team member, mentor, and teacher until April 2024, when she passed away. Drawing from Higler’s personal archive, which includes hours of footage from her travels in India and Indonesia, as well as recordings of her performances and interviews with those who worked and studied alongside her, this documentary aims to activate the archive and ensure her teachings, spirit and legacy remain visible and accessible for further generations. The film serves as a visual ode celebrating the life and work of one of SNDO's longest-standing and profoundly impactful educators.

A group of people emerges from the water. They try to work against the current of the river and the crowd of people in the city, but surrender to the flow and are washed ashore. Going with the flow or against it, resistance and devotion manifest as a basic instinct. A strategy of survival.

Retelling of the classic myth of Circe and Odysseus. Circe overcomes the deception of an unanswered love and lets him go.