Every two years, Lyon turns into an open-air stage. Here I am, standing on the pavement, squeezed between a giant balloon and a brass band that insists on being heard three blocks away, watching the inevitable Défilé de la Biennale.

In an evening highlighting the transmission of legacy within the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company, this year’s Romaeuropa festival – Rome’s largest international performing arts festival – presented Undertainment by William Forsythe and Lisa by Ioannis Mandafounis.

This summer, Teatro di Roma launched the first edition of the Teatro Ostia Antica Festival (23–26 July 2025), renewing its collaboration with the open-air Roman theatre of Ancient Ostia.

During the summer months, Vienna was brought to life by Impulstanz, one of the most important European festivals, offering an extensive, month-long programme. It featured a range of world-renowned names, among which Canadian choreographer, contemporary dance icon, and regular festival guest Marie Chouinard shone brightly.

What to do in a sunless summer? You warm up. Leading Austrian choreographer, director, and performance artist Florentina Holzinger does it in her usual — and perhaps more radical than ever — way: with an orgy, a surgical operation, female bodies dancing, crashing, and rising again.

As you might expect from one of the world’s busiest dance capitals, there is always lots to see in London. In this Letter from London, I bring you just a flavour of what has been happening here in the spring and early summer of 2025.

In their hometown of Estoril, Portuguese Companhia Paulo Ribeiro presented an adaptation of Maurice Accompagné—the first part of a period-inspired trilogy of contemporary dance designed to guide audiences through the early 20th century (with following parts focusing on the 1960s and the present day).