Belgium is a country where dance thrives in unexpected corners. Every month brings opportunities to experience movement in new forms, whether through avant-garde performances, intimate site-specific works, or international gatherings that bring together some of the most daring voices in contemporary dance, street dances, fusion art forms and more.
This month is no exception. If you’re looking to expand your horizons, be inspired, and maybe even find your own rhythm reflected on stage, here are four dance festivals you absolutely shouldn’t miss in Brussels :
Detours Festival
Dates: July 16 – September 10, with the grand finale battle on September 13 at Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles
Location: Mont des Arts and various neighborhoods across Brussels and Wallonia 👉 Detour Festival
Detours is an exciting urban dance festival that pushes boundaries between hip hop, street culture, and contemporary movement. It’s all about mixing disciplines—where breakdance meets theater, and juggling meets dance fusion . What I love most is how it opens the stage to new generations of performers in engaging new styles and expands viewers and participants creativity. Expect bold energy, raw creativity, and plenty of surprises.
Les Brigittines International Festival
Dates: August 15 – August 30, 2025
Location: Les Brigittines Chapel, petite rue des Brigittines, Brussels
👉 Les Brigittines
Set inside the hauntingly beautiful baroque chapel of Les Brigittines, this international festival offers performances that explore the poetic and often surreal side of contemporary dance. The programming always leans experimental, with artists who transform the stage into a space of imagination and intensity. It’s not just a festival—it feels like a conversation between history, architecture, and the body in motion.
Brussels Dance Festival
Dates: August 14 – August 24, 2025 (daily from 15:00–22:00; some events late)
Location: Open-air stages at Place de la Bourse, Place de Brouckère, Grand-Place, plus museum evenings, parades, classes and installations across the city
👉 brusselsdancefestival
The Brussels Dance Festival is a grand celebration of dance in all its forms, bringing together international stars and local creators. From large-scale performances to intimate solos, it offers something for everyone. What excites me is the diversity of styles—you might see ballet one evening, an African dance workshop the next, and cutting-edge contemporary performances the day after. It’s a festival that truly reflects the multicultural essence of Brussels.
Perpetuum Mobile Dance Festival
Dates: 2025 Edition — August 16th to 23rd
Location: CC Bruegel
👉 perpetuummobilefestival
This festival is both a celebration and a laboratory exploring how dance, as a practice, a performing art and a reflective field, can contribute to making us happier, to creating social bonds, to questioning ourselves as individuals and communities, to giving substance to ideas that have the audacity to hope and, therefore, to sow the seeds of a better future in terms of human ecology. Expect performances, workshops and parties from a diverse line-up of artists and companies that dive into variety of dance styles, approaches and innovative topics.
Belgium’s dance festivals remind me why I came here—to be inspired, challenged, and moved in ways that stretch beyond the studio. Each one invites us to see dance not just as performance, but as dialogue: between cultures, spaces, and the artists who dare to reimagine movement itself.
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Thanks for reading,
Briana
“It’s not supposed to be possible but you’re doing it”
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