Who decides how a body should move?

If you want to make it in the breaking scene, you need skill, strength and self-confidence. Yet even here, gender norms determine who is taken seriously on the dance floor. In B-Girl Battles, Pia Ringel, Azuka Angulo and Ida Winter take a close look at sexism and injustices within hip-hop culture. Their bodies whirl, circle and slam onto the floor – revealing that it’s not just about spectacular moves, but also about who is allowed to take up how much space. Personal experiences become physical statements; the battle turns into a fight for different rules of the game.

5 November 2026 | Garage Wetzikon

Taking up space also means being allowed to be present with one’s own body without having to constantly adapt. But what if that body is in pain and doesn’t function as expected? Collective Rhythms of Pain places chronic pain at the centre and combines lived experiences with artistic practice and creative accessibility. As a ‘Relaxed Performance’, the project creates space for diverse perceptions and ways of moving. Rather than overcoming or hiding the pain, it gives it its own rhythm. An invitation to reflect on what community might look like when not all bodies set the same pace.

6 November 2026 | Tanzhaus Zürich

Bodies are constrained not only by social norms, but also by the stories we tell time and again. Carmen, for example, is regarded as the epitome of a free woman – yet she is ultimately murdered by a man because she refuses to be possessed. With strike, Wu Tsang, in collaboration with Moved by the Motion, takes on this well-known myth and reimagines it through flamenco, live improvisation, sound and video. A ‘strike’ can be a blow, a rhythmic accent or a strike: three forms of resistance that shed light on the Carmen narrative from a different perspective. What changes when we no longer portray a woman’s freedom as a tragic seduction, but instead focus on the violence?

17 November 26 | Gessnerallee, Zurich

And what happens when care itself becomes a question of freedom? In his reinterpretation of Igor Stravinsky’s L’Oiseau de feu, Edouard Hue transports us to a fantastical world somewhere between reality and fairy tale. At the heart of this is the relationship between parents and children: how much protection is necessary, and when does care become a restriction? Through his contemporary movement language, Hue combines musical tradition with new perspectives on growing up. This brings us full circle: whether on the breaking stage, in the aching body, in Carmen’s story or in the fairy tale – it is always about who controls bodies and how much freedom is granted to them.

11 November 26 | Kurtheater Baden