Esch2022, European Capital of Culture has launched the Esch2022Moves programme

Esch2022 invites everyone to celebrate the diversity of movements to make the land of the Red Rocks dance

Professional and amateur dancers and lovers of dance, all those who love to move, you are invited to join us!

As part of the REMIX Festival and the REMIX Opening of Esch2022, the initiative Esch2022Moves was launched. Children, young people, senior citizens, amateurs, professionals, people with disabilities, everyone is invited to come and share their best dance moves on social media by January 20, 2022. Esch2022 will highlight the wealth and variety of movements in the widest sense of the word, whether as part of physical theatre, circus or freestyle, it is up to the participants to show us their creativity.

The slogan of Esch2022Moves is “Let`s get our region moving”. A dedicated platform (esch2022moves.lu) proposes four themes: water, fire, air and earth from which professional and amateur dancers as well as dance lovers can draw their inspiration. Once they have selected their profile, participants can choose from two levels of difficulty. Several professional coaches will then accompany them via the site's videos as they learn new dance steps.

Once dance lovers have filmed and uploaded their own dance movements on Instagram or TikTok by using the hash tag #esch2022dancechallenge, they can compete for a prize in one of the following categories: best solo dancer, best duo dancers, best professional dance group and best advanced dancer. Prizes include, amongst others, entry tickets to all the exhibitions, concerts and shows organised by Esch2022, entry tickets for a Black Eyed Peas or Imagine Dragons concert or for the Francofolies. The most courageous participants could use this opportunity to appear live in front of thousands of people on several occasions, during, for example the REMIX Opening, the opening ceremony, on Saturday 26 February 2022.

The REMIX Festival, in which active audience participation is the common thread, brings together several workshops, round tables, special events and competitions, such as Esch2022Moves. As part of this event, the European Capital of Culture's box office will be taking reservations for the free tickets of the REMIX Opening. The official opening will be a series of interactive experiences in various locations in Esch-Centre and Esch-Beval. Live music, DJs, dance, video mappings, light installations and a wide range of spectacular and unusual events will be on offer in different urban settings, on stages and on street corners.

But Esch2022Moves does not stop there...

The public's active participation will continue as part of the Esch2022 programme and dance lovers are invited to participate in various events that focus on the moving body and encourage you to be carried away by frenzied rhythms or to dance until you have run out of breath.

And so, the participatory festival “DifferDanceDays”, organised by LUCODA (Luxembourg Collective of Dance) will be proposing a series of danced artistic events and meetings that are mostly organised for and by amateur and professional dancers. Five concepts spelled out in the year of the European Capital of Culture. There is, for example, the “MoveZone” project that involves local associations in offering free workshops, sessions and training courses for various different communities. There will be five workshops between January and May 2022. DANCEMOBILE will put together spontaneous dance events in various in-town locations, such as churches, swimming pools, stadiums where the LUCODA dancers will open with improvised dances inviting passers-by to join in.

The internationally known artist Cecilia Bengolea will be giving two live performances on 14 and 15 May 2022: one on the foundations of Blast Furnace C, now known as “Socle C”, at Esch-Belval and the other in the Great Hall of the Museum for Contemporary Art, the Mudam, in Luxemburg Town. She brings together dance, sculpture and a video installation to investigate the issue of fire and metals and their effect on the human body.

Cross-border and European collaboration and projects

In the summer of 2022, the Plancher des Coulées in the Haut Fourneau A, just across the road from the Rockal in Esch-Belval, will be become the stage for three dance projects phares.

The first, “A l'Aplomb du vide” (“Suspended in mid-air”), will be brought by the CHOR’A CORPS Association from Audun-Le-Tiche in June 2022. This weightless show will bring together professional and amateur dancers.

The second, “Choreochroma” is part of LUCODA's Tandem project together with Pavle Beljanski Museum in Novi Sad in Serbia. In July 2022, they will bring a show that mixes contemporary dance and visual arts.

The third and last show, “Tribune Dance Yourself” will be brough by 3CL, a Luxemburg choreographic center, together with the Lithuanian Dance Information Center and the Kauno Kulturos Centras in Kaunas (Lithuania). They will organise open workshops for amateurs and professionals in August 2022 and show 6 contemporary dance pieces.

Other high points in the dance programme are the “Point invisible” (a pun on “invisible point” and “totally invisible”) shown by the association Altercadance, “La Roda” organised by the Capoeira Team Luxembourg, “ARTraverse-FLAMENCOtre” brought by the Circulo Culuturally Recreativo Espanol “Antonio Machado” and “Identity” brought by the KnowEdge association.

So throughout 2022, dance lovers will be able to discover and explore different styles, such as African dance, the Capoeira, flamenco or Urban Dance.