Photo: Bless, the sound that saved A Witch like me, Benjamin Kahn 

© Bas Czerwinski

Every two years towards the end of summer Luxembourg becomes a meeting place for movement, experimentation and innovation. From 3 to 6 September 2025, the Aerowaves Dance Festival Luxembourg returns for its sixth edition, once again bringing together some of the most promising choreographers from across Europe for 9 exciting performances.

What makes this festival stand out is not only the sheer variety of work on stage but also its mission: Aerowaves is a network dedicated to discovering new voices in dance. Each year it selects around twenty emerging choreographers who are just beginning to shape their international careers, and through performances across Europe, offers them a platform to grow and connect. Here in Luxembourg, thanks to the partnership between TROIS C-L and neimënster, the festival feels like both a laboratory and a celebration – an invitation to step into the unknown.

And that’s exactly what makes Aerowaves exciting, providing a programme that is both intimate and spectacular. You never quite know what you will encounter: intimate solos, fiery duets, abstract puzzles, or raw outpourings of emotion. This year’s programme is no exception, staging performances from Bonnevoie all the way down to the Grund. 

Here is a breakdown of all the performances and what to expect during the festival, when Luxembourg becomes a stage for some of Europe’s most exciting new choreographic talent.

Day 1 – Opening with Intensity

The festival opens with two works that explore memory, revolt, and resilience.

Benjamin Kahn’s Bless the Sound that Saved a Witch Like Me (Belgium) is built around performer Thi May Nguyen, whose voice and body traverse everything from whispered cries to collective screams. It’s a piece that radiates urgency, carrying political weight without losing intimacy. It forms part of Kahn’s trilogy begun with Sorry, But I Feel Slightly Disidentified…

In Born by the Sea (Spain), choreographer Fran Diaz lets two dancers cross paths in a landscape of overlapping memories. Set against the melancholy of Richie Culver’s lyrics, the duet reminds us that memory can either empower or weigh us down – a reflection that feels universally human.

Day 2 – Experiment and Play

The second evening dives into experimentation, pairing political urgency with flamenco fire all while challenging the common structures of a dance performance.

In The Body Symphonic (The Netherlands), Charlie Khalil Prince places the body at the heart of resistance. Inspired by the crisis in Lebanon, this hybrid between dance and concert feels like a ritual of survival and renewal.

Local audiences will be particularly curious about MEGASTRUCTURE by Sarah Baltzinger & Isaiah Wilson (France/Luxembourg). Here, performance itself is questioned: What do we expect from a piece of dance? How is meaning built when music and stage conventions fall away? It’s a living humoristic puzzle that unfolds right before our eyes, dismantling and rebuilding the theatre space in real time.

Closing the evening, Taranto Aleatorio (Spain) by La Chachi is both irreverent and deeply rooted in flamenco tradition. Two women, dancer María del Mar Suárez “La Chachi” and singer Lola Dolores, transform everyday scenes into sudden bursts of cante and baile, with humour slipping in alongside intensity. It’s flamenco – but not as you know it.

Day 3 – Desire, Conflict, and Duality

The third night draws us into the complexities of desire and identity.

Ermira Goro’s SIRENS (Greece) is a sensual, mysterious duet where two dancers embrace and resist each other, creating a poetic language that breaks away from gendered stereotypes. With music by Jeph Vanger, it feels like a dream unfolding on stage.

Luxembourgish dancer and choreographer William Cardoso offers his homegrown creation Baby, a work that speaks to the tension between our inner voices and the social masks we wear. Through the bodies of two dancers, the piece confronts violence in all its forms – whether public, private, or internal – and searches for a fragile kind of freedom.

Day 4 – Closing with Memory and Movement

The final evening spans continents and histories, offering two contrasting works: a solo steeped in the energy of Kuduro, and a collective piece of remembrance.

In Boca Fala Tropa (Portugal), drawing on his Angolan roots, Gio Lourenço builds an autobiographical solo around Kuduro, the energetic dance form born in Angola during the civil war. His body becomes a living archive, carrying both personal and collective memory, reinvented through gesture. This autobiographical piece celebrates resilience and cultural transmission across continents.

Finally, Shiraz (Germany) by Armin Hokmi closes the festival with six performers weaving patterns of movement like shifting constellations. It’s a meditation on the end of a decade of artistic creation, but also a practice of love and renewal – an apt way to conclude four nights of discovery.

Aerowaves: a highlight in the contemporary dance calendar

What lingers after reading through the programme is not just the diversity of styles but the sheer ambition of each of these choreographers. Each piece feels like a door into a different world: sometimes playful, sometimes raw, sometimes unsettling.

That’s what Aerowaves offers – a chance to encounter voices you may not know yet, but who might shape tomorrow’s stages. It is an incubator for ideas and a celebration of risk-taking. Luxembourg, with its international character, provides the perfect space for this dialogue. The biennial festival doesn’t simply present dance; it creates encounters: between artist and audience, between imagination and reality, between tradition and experiment.

And perhaps that’s the beauty of it. In a world often marked by fragmentation, here are four evenings that ask us to pause, watch, and be moved – sometimes in ways we don’t expect or might not be ready for.

Behind the festival

Aerowaves has a rich and long history. Founded in 1996 in London by John Ashford, it began as a small network of programmers and producers who wanted to give visibility to young choreographers often overlooked by established institutions. Nearly three decades later, Aerowaves has grown into a pan-European platform of over 46 partners in 34 countries, the largest of its kind.

Each year, the network receives around 800-900 applications from artists across the continent. A selection panel chooses the “Aerowaves Twenty” – choreographers whose work reflects originality, urgency, and a readiness to tour internationally. Many names now familiar on the European stage first gained recognition through this platform.

The first edition of the festival in Luxembourg was launched in 2015 at TROIS C-L, and since then, the biennial event has become a cultural fixture. 

The local partners driving the festival play a decisive role.

• TROIS C-L – Maison pour la danse has been nurturing contemporary dance in Luxembourg since 1994. Its mission goes beyond production and support: it fosters experimentation, provides residencies for choreographers, and creates opportunities for international collaboration.
• neimënster, the cultural centre located in the historic Neumünster Abbey, adds a unique dimension. Its vaulted spaces and historic setting offer not just a stage but a sense of continuity – a reminder that even the most cutting-edge art can resonate in places filled with centuries of history.

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Reservation is mandatory, so make sure to book your tickets in advance: www.neimenster.lu

For more information, visit danse.lu