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.

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!?

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.

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.

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.