Lefkosia, Cyprus. On Bodies Festival 2026 will take place from May 15 to 17 at Dance House Lefkosia, presenting choreographic works, improvisations, performance lectures, discussions and parties. The festival’s theme this year is “Abundance,” following last year’s focus on healing and resilience.
Theme and aims
The festival defines “Abundance” as plentifulness, richness and prosperity across personal, social and environmental dimensions. In a context it describes as marked by scarcity, budget cuts, destruction and conflict locally and globally, the programme aims to explore what constitutes abundance, including resources, opportunities, community, solidarity, thriving ecosystems, biodiversity, inner peace and optimism.
Through performances, workshops, discussions and a party, the festival aims to interpret abundance artistically, dramaturgically and socially, and to highlight what is needed to create more of what sustains people.
Programme curation and participants
The programme includes proposals from young and established artists from Cyprus and abroad and will be held on the main stage of Dance House Lefkosia. The overall programme was curated by Petros Konnaris, while open call pieces were selected together with Arianna Economou, Marios Ktoridis and Diamanto Hadjizacharia.
May 15 programme
The festival opens with a discussion on Arts and Abundance with Konnaris and Elena Agathokleous, part of an ongoing collaboration with MITOS Centre of Performing Arts.
The programme then continues with The Multiplicity of the Other by Ixchel Mendoza Hernandez (MEX/GER), described as exploring a body in constant flux and reflecting on the construction of the other and self.
Next, (Shakira, Shakira) by Jasmina Križaj and Simon Wehrli (SI/CH) uses subtle humour and a touch of Italo-disco to transform the stage into a womb and the pelvis into the origin of all movement.
The day concludes with Sprt! by Dimitris Chimonas (CY), a choreographed lecture-performance described as partly a game with language and partly a game with the body, starting from a Cypriot onomatopoeic word.
Saturday programme
Saturday opens with Campos Culture And Arts’ (CY) My _ _ _ing Body, described as a physical and performative revisiting of self-reflective questions first approached in 2012 at No_Body Festival in My Dying Body.
It is followed by Answered. by Collins Ugo (NG/CY), a solo 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 stereotypical ideas of tenderness. tender is described as the result of a five-day workshop with local queer and trans people centred on lived histories, intergenerational connection and care as something personal, political and collective, before transitioning to a party.
Final day programme
The final day opens with Androniki Marathaki (GR) presenting My Heart as an Antidote: Practices of Solidarity, Becoming a Continuous Effort of our Bodies to Come Closer to Each Other, described as inviting viewers to the intuitive, mysterious and invisible dimensions of dance and existence.
Which performance or discussion from the On Bodies Festival 2026 programme are you most interested in attending?
