ON BODIES FESTIVAL 2026 | DANCEHOUSE LEFKOSIA | 15/5

THE FOLLOWING TICKET IS FOR THE PERFORMANCES ON FRIDAY, 15TH OF MAY.

TO PURCHASE A TICKET FOR SATURDAY, 16TH OF MAY: Here 16/5/2026

TO PURCHASE A TICKET FOR SUNDAY, 17TH OF MAY: Here 17/5/2026

Dance House Lefkosia organizes the On Bodies festival 2026 which will take place from the 15th – 17th of May. The On Bodies festival is one of the most important dance and performance festivals in Cyprus, with recent years focusing on dance’s relation with today’s reality.
Building on last year’s theme of healing and resilience, On Bodies 2026’s focus is ABUNDANCE: the state of plentifulness, richness, and prosperity across personal, social, and environmental dimensions. In a time marked by scarcity, budget cuts, destruction, and conflict both locally and globally, the festival aims to explore what constitutes abundance— whether it is resources, opportunities, community, solidarity, thriving ecosystems, biodiversity, inner peace, and/or optimism. Through performances, workshops, discussions, and party, we seek to explore and interpret abundance artistically, dramaturgically, and socially, highlighting what is needed to create more of what truly sustains us.

How do we attract, how do we seek, how do we manifest for abundance?
What values are now needed the most?
Who and what communities/groups do we want to have beside us?
Abundance of what and for whom?
What is already there for us?

By incorporating various forms of contemporary choreographic performances (stage works, interactive/participatory creations, improvisations, performance lectures, etc) we aim at a critical correlation with the concerns and issues that exist today.
This year’s programme includes proposals from young and established artists from Cyprus and abroad as well as workshops, discussions, party and more.
The festival takes place on the main stage of Dance House Lefkosia. The overall programme was curated by Petros Konnaris and the pieces from the open call were selected together with Arianna Economou, Marios Ktoridis and Diamanto Hadjizacharia.

On Friday 15.5 we begin with a discussion on Arts and Abundance with Petros Konnaris & Elena Agathokleous, part of the ongoing collaboration with MITOS Centre of Performing Arts. We slowly transition to the performance THE MULTIPLICITY OF THE OTHER by Ixchel Mendoza Hernandez (MEX/GER) which explores a body in constant flux, embodying the alterity within and reflecting upon the construction of the other and self. We continue with Jasmina Križaj & Simon Wehrli (SI/CH) with (Shakira, Shakira), the duo through subtle humor and a touch of italo disco transform the stage into a womb and the pelvis as the origin of all movement. Finally, Dimitris Chimonas (CY) with Sprt!, a choreographed lecture-performance that’s partly a game with language, partly a game with the body starting from a Cypriot onomatopoeic word.

On Saturday 16.5 Campos Culture And Arts (CY) opens the evening with the performance My _ _ _ing Body, a physical/performative revisiting of self-reflective questions first approached in 2012 at No_Body Festival, in My Dying Body. We continue with the solo Answered. by Collins Ugo (NG/CY) which is built on four rugs arranged in a 2×2 score: Time, Footwork, Distribution, and Repair. The evening ends with Eevi Tolvanen (FI) and tender, which challenges the stereotypical ideas of what tenderness is supposed to look like. Tender will be the result of a 5-day workshop with local queer and trans people centered around lived histories, intergenerational connection, and care as something personal, political, and collective. The performance transitions to a party.

On Sunday 17.5, Androniki Marathaki (GR) with My heart as an antidote: practices of solidarity, becoming a continuous effort of our Bodies to come closer to each other, this performance invites us to the most intuitive, mysterious, and invisible dimensions of dance and of our existence. We close the festival’s programme with the launch of a new Dance House Lefkosia’ tradition, that of Honorary Members; an act of gratitude, recognition, and allyship that celebrates those who have walked alongside us and whose commitment ensures our vision. In this spirit, DHL’s board warmly welcomes as our first Honorary Members Eleni Mavrou, Anita Michaelides, and Elena Perikleous.

Organizer: Dance House Lefkosia
Institutional Sponsor: Department of Contemporary Performance –
Dep. Ministry of Culture Cyprus
Supporters: Goethe-Institut
Mobility Partner: Center of Performing Arts MITOS
Communication Sponsor: Klik FM

Tickets: €12/ €10* per day

*students, people with disability/disabled people, pensioners, friends of Dance House Lefkosia use coupon REDUCED/OB26 before check-out

Pre – Festival Activities:

This year, as pre-festival activities we have tender, a workshop with Eevie Tolvanen (09.05 – 13.5) & a presentation of the performance THE MULTIPLICITY OF THE OTHER by Ixchel Mendoza Hernandez on 14.5 in Limassol, within the framework of The Waves Crashing, the curatorial project of this year’s VIMA Art Fair curated by Kostas Stasinopoulos.

Festival Activities:
All performances start at 20:00 at Dancehouse Lefkosia, followed by after performance activities.

Friday 15.5
19:00
Discussion on Arts and Abundance with Petros Konnaris & Elena Agathokleous
20:00
Ixchel Mendoza Hernandez – THE MULTIPLICITY OF THE OTHER (30’) with Cypriot Sign Language interpretation (age limit 10+)

Jasmina Križaj & Simon Wehrli – (Shakira, Shakira) (30’)
Dimitris Chimonas – Sprt! (30’) with surtitles (age limit 16+)

Saturday 16.5 | 20:00

Campos Culture And Arts – My _ _ _ing Body (25’) with Cypriot Sign Language interpretation.

Collins Ugo – Answered. (15-20’)
Eevi Tolvanen – tender (30’)

[ After the performances ]
tender transitions to a party where we gather, share and celebrate together.

Sunday 17.5 | 20:00

Androniki Marathaki – My Heart as an Antidote: Practices of Solidarity (50’)

[ After the performance ]
Ceremony of Honorary Members