DIRECTORS’ CHOICE
SUN, 24.05.2026 15:30
CATSBARK (Iran, Syria, Germany)
Ava comes home to find her partner Paul—transformed into a cat. She, too, can no longer remain human. The more they embrace the transformation and distance themselves from the outside world, the more their relationship becomes a rebellion against societal expectations. Can we create a community that welcomes the strange, the animalistic, and the non-normative?
Directed by: Pariya Bakhshi & Nils Ramme
Performed & Choreographed by: Benze C. Werner, Lujain Mustafa, Melanie Geldner, Luke Venatier & Klara Günther
IN VIADI (Switzerland)
IN VIADI is a journey back to oneself - an intimate yet profound act of reconnection. Sophie (they/them) moves through mountain scenery as fractured as their inner world. Marked by dualities - heritage and belonging, constraint and release - Sophie climbs the rugged terrain, each step a reckoning, each breath a quiet revolution. The mountains bear witness to the journey, the sculpture as guidance to Sophie's inner peace. Five dancers echo the unrevealed conflicts, giving shape to what words cannot, their movement mirroring the unspoken tensions within. Amidst the raw beauty of the Swiss Alps, from the shifting continental plates of the Tectonic Arena Sardona to the walk-in sculpture OGNA, IN VIADI unfolds a poetic exploration of authenticity. More than a film, IN VIADI is an experience - an invocation, a visceral journey that invites the audience not just to watch, but to pause, listen and feel.
Directed by: Alun Meyerhans & Ellen Wooolf
IN VIADI is a journey back to oneself - an intimate yet profound act of reconnection. Sophie (they/them) moves through mountain scenery as fractured as their inner world. Marked by dualities - heritage and belonging, constraint and release - Sophie climbs the rugged terrain, each step a reckoning, each breath a quiet revolution. The mountains bear witness to the journey, the sculpture as guidance to Sophie's inner peace. Five dancers echo the unrevealed conflicts, giving shape to what words cannot, their movement mirroring the unspoken tensions within.Amidst the raw beauty of the Swiss Alps, from the shifting continental plates of the Tectonic Arena Sardona to the walk-in sculpture OGNA, IN VIADI unfolds a poetic exploration of authenticity. More than a film, IN VIADI is an experience - an invocation, a visceral journey that invites the audience not just to watch, but to pause, listen and fee
SULPHUR EDGES (Germany, USA, Belgium)
Sulphur Edges is a choreographic encounter shaped with and through place. Created during Forum Dança’s PACAP 8/Mystery School residency, this one-hour film unfolds across São Miguel’s thermal sites, ocean-edge pools, the traces of a mine, and the shell of an abandoned hotel. These locations act not as backdrop but as co-agents, sensing and listening.
Guided by Meg Stuart’s direction, performers respond intuitively to each site’s elemental conditions. Movement arises from relation – to temperature, texture, invisible forces, and one another. Bodies waver between stillness and trembling, containment and release, public space and private reflection. Edges of architecture, voice, and presence remain permeable. Fantasy flickers in the in-between, where a pool becomes a portal and a ruin becomes a score. The camera moves as a choreographic partner, tracing tensions between body, site, and atmosphere. What remains is a record of relations – provisional, porous, alive.
Directed and Choreographed by: Meg Stuart
Dance Company: Damaged Goods