On Bodies is one of the most significant dance and performance festivals in Cyprus, with various contemporary performance practices that use choreography and the body as a medium of artistic exploration. Through its 17 years of existence, it has given the opportunity to many creators and groups of the island to take their first artistic steps and present their work to a wide audience.
Building on last year’s theme of healing, On Bodies 2025 focuses on RESILIENCE: the ability to adapt—whether as individuals, communities, or interconnected networks— to life’s challenges. This includes maintaining healthy functioning in the face of high-risk situations and enduring trauma, whether personal or environmental. The festival explores various elements, practices, and experiences related to the resilient bodies in personal, collective, communal, and sociocultural contexts, examining how resilience influences our survival mechanisms in these days and times.
By incorporating various forms of contemporary choreographic performances (stage works, interactive/ participatory creations, performance lectures, site-specific performances, long durational works, etc.) we aim at a critical correlation with the concerns and issues that exist today.
10:00 | REHEARSAL – WORKSHOP
Motion Qualia. 120’
Satoshi Kudo (JP/SE)
10:00 | 17:30 |
REHEARSAL – WORKSHOP
Motion Qualia. 120’
Satoshi Kudo (JP/SE)
DANCE HOUSE LEFKOSIA
Συνάντηση
Interference net. (CY)
20:00 |
DANCE HOUSE LEFKOSIA
Ι Feel You Like The Moon
Feels The Earth. 45’
Ahmed El Gendy (EG/NL)
150’
17:00 |
ATHALASSA PARK
Resisting Extinction. 150’
Olive Bieringa (NZ/NOR)
20:00 |
DANCE HOUSE LEFKOSIA
Right In The Center Of The Matter. 15’
Giorgos Bizios (CY)
The Mangonel Project. 30’
Avgoustina Triarou (CY)
Unreliable Narrator. 20’
Satoshi Kudo (JP/SE)
10:00 | & 17:00 |
20:00 |
ATHALASSA PARK
Resisting Extinction. 150’
Olive Bieringa (NZ/NOR)
DANCE HOUSE LEFKOSIA
Side Effects. 30’
Konstantina Skalionta (CY)
How to Hold in One Piece. 21’
Mariia Bakalo (UKR)
Awaken. 30’
Nayia T. Karacosta (CY)
10:00 |
ATHALASSA PARK
Resisting Extinction. 150’
Olive Bieringa (NZ/NOR)
20:00 |
DANCE HOUSE LEFKOSIA
ALL THAT MATTER Or Notes
On Performing Friendship. 45’
arisandmartha (GR)
HA. 40’
Jana Jacuka (LV/NL)
Interference net. comprises site-specific engagements of public learning and practicebased investigations into local matters in Cyprus. With a fluctuating group and varying methods, we interfere and navigate socio-political struggles, entering sites that are often unfamiliar or restricted and asserting scrutiny, insisting that these places remain open, accessible, and contested. These informal engagements combine observation, discussion, and interactive scores, as we attempt to understand, question, and shift our (power)relations to these sites.
Parts of the methodology were first developed during the project LIQUID HOT MESS initiated by Nicola Mitropoulou, Clara Zinecker and Antonia Kattou at the.Yard.Residency.24, MITOS Center of Performing Arts.
Interference net.
The gathering will explore the layered geographies around Dance House Lefkosia, situating it historically, politically, and geographically. Positioned at an intersection of control and excess, near the Buffer Zone, a military camp, and Cyprus’ central prison, it stands in an area that was once a space where the island’s different communities lived side by side. The Buffer Zone has since disrupted previous connections or paths, cutting it off from neighbouring areas like Arab Ahmet, while luxury residences surround it. Through movement and collective spatial exploration, we will navigate these surroundings, questioning how a Dance House, and our presence within it, situates itself.
Credits & Collaborations
Nicola Mitropoulou
Seta Astreou-Karides
Clara Zinecker
The event is implemented within the framework of the artistic residency program theYard. Residency.25, by the Centre of Performing Arts MITOS. Συντελεστές
theYard.Residency.25,
Ahmed El Gendy (1987, Cairo) (they/he) is an Egyptian-Dutch artist who explores themes of agency, togetherness, and entanglement. They often work with the materiality of ropes, water, and large scale objects. Ahmed investigates the idea that the closer/longer we are with one another is a measurement of our relation. Ahmed hold a master’s degree in choreography from Amsterdam University of the Arts. Their work, which spans installations, video, text, and performance, has been previously presented at Mediterranea Biennale, Italy, and at Festifreak International Festival for Independent Cinema, Argentina.
Ο Ahmed El Gendy (1987, Κάιρο) (αυτοί/αυτός)
Mediterranea Biennale
Ahmed El Gendy
Over the course of the project Zero Encounters, Ahmed spent a full 24-hours in silence with each of six different strangers consecutively. Allowing each stranger to lead the day, Ahmed quietly accompanied them.
The intention was to set a condition where their relationship evolves through proximity and time rather than verbal exchange, in attempt to become familiar with each other otherwise.
i feel you like the moon feels the earth bridges this intimate journey from memory to this moment of holding space together.
Performance
Ahmed El Gendy
Clotilde Cappelletti
Estéfano Romani
Advisor
Miguel Melgares
Photography
Thomas Lenden
Περφόρμανς
Ahmed El Gendy
Clotilde Cappelletti
Estéfano Romani Σύμβουλος
Miguel Melgares Φωτογραφία
Thomas Lenden
BODIES ON STAGE
Το i feel you like the moon feels the
Olive Bieringa and Otto Ramstad have been collaborating as BodyCartography Project for over twenty seven years. Our artistic practice cultivates approaches to support our collective evolution in this moment of planetary crisis. We engage with the vital materiality of bodies, minds, and the more than human world, co-creating live experiences to generate re-enchantment, relationship, and presence through somatics, dance, choreography and performance. Through workshops, choreographies and performances, films, installations and festivals we create participatory spaces for collective imaginings for diverse publics, often beyond the usual institutional frameworks and spaces of dance production.
Η Olive Bieringa
Otto Ramstad
www.bodycartography.org
BodyCartography Project
Olive Bieringa & Otto Ramstad
Resisting Extinction offers practices for living and dying together on, in and with a damaged Earth. Resisting Extinction invites us to look around and notice what we are losing. Together our bodies live inside this ecological crisis. We must hone our skills, to be receptive, to improvise, to play, to experiment, to grieve, to metabolize, to be together in the unknown and trust we have resources in our bodies to negotiate, survive, and thrive. We invite you for a weather walk, a search through deep time for disappearing beings, and a dying and decomposing practice to prepare for potential climate realities.
Το Resisting Extinction
Made possible with support from Perform Europe, PAHN, Norway and Norwegian Embassy of Athens.
Concept |
Olive Bieringa
BODIES IN THE GARDEN
Direction & Choreography
Olive Bieringa & Otto Ramstad
Co-creating Performers
Sigrid Marie Kittelsaa Vesaas, Ornilia Ubisse, Hanna Filomen Mjåvatn, Kristina Gjems, Otto Ramstad, Olive Bieringa, Nina Wollny, Daniel Persson, Oliver Connew, Uma Ramstad, Laressa Dickey, Kosta Bogoievski, Josie Archer, Rachel Ruckstuhl-Mann, Olivia McGregor, Amit Noy, Maria Lothe, Eline Selgis, Helina Karvak, Laura Kvelstein, Nele Suisalu, Joanna Kalm
Performance in Cyprus
Belinda Papavasiliou, Melissa Garcia Carro, Maria Papageorgiou, Ioli Kaskani, Arianna Economou, Maria Lothe, Otto Ramstad, Olive Bieringa, Vasiliki Tsagkari
Writer |
Olive Bieringa
Writing Assistant
Laressa Dickey
Costume Design
Kristine Gjems
Photography |
Alissa
Giorgos Bizios is a composer and improviser of experimental and contemporary music and an interdisciplinary maker and performer. Driven by the perpetual need to unfold and understand the complexities of the contemporary era, he approaches the performing arts as a way of cultivating spaces for connectivity and change with focus on identity, the earthly in relation to the spiritual and alternative narratives of the human experience. Some of Giorgos' recent works and collaborations have been 'Solar Choir' (with Loizos Olympios in 'WHERE THE SUN NEVER SETS' curated by Dimitris Chimonas, 2024), the solo guitar project 'PSEEHEEKAWN' (2024-) and the choreographic work 'almost definitely present' (2025) co-created with Anthi Kettirou.
BODIES ON STAGE
Giorgos Bizios
As I am approaching the center, the weight of a rock changes form into that of wide wings, and that which felt like a knot unfolds into a tail attached to my body; now I can balance myself and fly - the below has been inverted and air has turned into a new uncharted land. The only proof it exists is either me or the sun.
right in the center of the matter is a performance piece that proposes a process for activating the heart. Combining text, music and physical action the work explores themes such as resilience, collective suffering and the sacrificial nature of love.
Maker & Performer
Giorgos Bizios
Mentorship
Lia Haraki
Photography & Photo Design
Loucas Stavrou
The title of the work was inspired by the poem 'Maps of Return' written by Kalia Maliali.
Avgoustina Triarou is a dance artist and choreographer from Cyprus, holding a BA in Dance from the University of Nicosia. For the past years she has worked as a performer and creator in Cyprus and abroad. She interned with Konin Dance Theatre in Poland and attended the International Contemporary Dance program at Nuova Officina Della Danza in Turin, where she also choreographed for Nod students. Avgoustina participated in the Erasmus+ “Dance More” exchange program in Sweden and the Next Generation LAB with choreographer Jill Crovisier in Liechtenstein. She also took part in the Nordic Choreographic Platform in Copenhagen and Oslo and is currently completing her MA in Choreography at the Theatre Academy of Uniarts Helsinki.
Nuova Officina Della Danza
We know no more than you. We’ve just landed here unprepared, unstable, and not to be trusted.
We are both atoms and molecules, disorganized, irregular, and confused.
The floor beneath us trembles, Uneven currents and unfamiliar signs.
Propelled bodies following multiple trajectories, Agencies entangled with unpredictable forces.
Bodies that never stop moving,
Caught in a problematic temporality: ephemeral and elusive. Endlessly shifting, always charging, always sinking into desires.
Desires contained, disrupted, and finally sprinkled through our bodies,
This is a shuttle, a floating and suspended vessel, drifting through voids, on the verge of crashing.
Artistic Direction
Avgoustina Triarou
Performed &
Co-created by
Elias Klark
Elisavet Panagiotou
Avgoustina Triarou
Sound Design
Elias Klark
Mentor
Melissa Garcia Carro
Performers in the Photo
Chen Nadler
Maria Chrysostomou
Sointu Saraste
Photography
Daniel Motola
Melissa Garcia Carro
Chen Nadler
Sointu Saraste
Daniel Motola
Satoshi Kudo is a Japanese dancer and choreographer based in Stockholm, Sweden. He trained in gymnastics and martial arts under Sonny Chiba before studying modern dance in New York. Kudo has worked with choreographers like Ohad Naharin and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, contributing to productions such as Sutra and Michael Jackson ONE. In 2002, he founded Company KUDO and developed “Motion Qualia”, a movement theory blending reflexes, gymnastics, and martial arts. He teaches this method worldwide and has served as a rehearsal director for the Royal Swedish Ballet, overseeing works by Mats Ek, Johan Inger, and others. Kudo continues to share his expertise through workshops and performances globally.
Ο Satoshi Kudo
Chiba
Kudo
Satoshi Kudo’s solo dance performance features original music by Louise Magnusson. Unlike traditional choreography, Kudo lets the body express itself first, with the mind following. With 35 years of dance experience, he has archived his movement vocabulary, categorizing expressions, themes, and tools to refine his work without unnecessary additions. His background in gymnastics, martial arts, and theater acting deepens his expressive range. A key focus was how Magnusson’s sine wave sounds could enhance Kudo’s movements. The two have collaborated since 2016, and for this piece, they worked together in Stockholm, supported by Riksteatern’s production residency. Their synergy creates a rich, intricate performance blending sound and movement seamlessly.
Dance & Choreography
Χορός & Χορογραφία
Satoshi Kudo
Sound & Music
Ήχος & Mουσική
Louise Magnusson
Original Lighting Design
Πρωτότυπος Σχεδιασμός Φωτισμού
Björn Eriksson
Photography
Φωτογραφία
Håkan Larsson
Dramaturge
Δραματουργός
Stina O’Connell
Assistant
Βοηθός
Maria Påhls
Supported by Με την υποστήριξη των
Skeppsholmsstudion
Stockholm-Sweden
Riksteatern i Hallunda-Sweden
Konstantina Skalionta is a dance artist who lives and works in Lemesos since 2020. She studied in London at the Central School of Ballet (BA (Hons) in Professional Dance and Performance, 2011) and the London Contemporary Dance School (Master of Arts in Contemporary Dance, 2018). The past five years, her choreographic research and practice, explores the themes of female identity and of body as landscape and visa versa, in dialogue with the dramaturg Rodia Vomvolou. Her performances have been presented as independent productions or as part of platforms, festivals and exhibitions in Cyprus, Italy and the UK, for the past decade. H
Central School of Ballet
(BA (Hons) in Professional Dance and Performance, 2011)
London Contemporary Dance School (Master of Arts in Contemporary Dance, 2018).
