19:30–23:00 (doors open at 19:15)
Each festival day is programmed as one continuous performance: local and international artists share the stage. Stories, performance, dance, music and food gestures overlap. You will be welcomed into a ritualized, collective space.
Share, taste, listen, move, be with us…
A musical invitation. Anastasis Sarakatsanos greets us with an intimate soundscape, inviting us to arrive fully—physically, emotionally, together—as we tune in to each other and the space around us. His music offers a gentle way to ground ourselves before we transition into the unfolding of the day.
A festival opening.Director Natasja van ‘t Westende opens the festival by looking back on 18 years of Dancing on the Edge, a strong legacy. And to mark this moment: our last festival in the form of a ritual to prepare the ground to rest, hold space for togetherness, and to foster the seeds that have been planted throughout all these years.
A moment that invites you to reconnect with nature’s quiet wisdom, an offering of growth in unexpected places. Christian Sleiman will share stories about plants that emerge from barren, disrupted soil, drawing connections to ancestral practices of healing and preservation. The stories will be complemented with a taste, prepared to enrich the experience.
A rhythmic, durational dance. A journey into the womb. In Womb, dancer-choreographer Shaymaa Shoukry collaborates with musician-composer Ahmed Saleh to create a dialogue between music and pelvic movement. Moving -through layers of inherited and contemporary conditioning- back to the space of power manifestation, the familiar ground of the core.
In Three Songs to Re-member: A Tree, A Seed, Lina Issa moves through landscapes of memory and loss, of grief and joy, exploring what it means:
To inherit a tree that you can never touch, to pass on a trauma to your child, and to conserve seeds of people that are being exterminated.
This storytelling performance includes a reading of a letter by the artist Vivien Sansour.
This project hosts the practice, contributions and beautiful souls of Vivien Sansour, CurAmuní, Marlies Winkelmeier, Zohra Jaber Issa, and Luna Venezia Issa.
The Festival Bar will open after the performance program for release, mourning, celebration or comfort.
