Physical Culture frames rave as a vital human practice in the information age. It invites us to explore physical movement, to discover who we are when we dance and why we do so. It asks universal existential questions and puts them in a refreshingly queer, playful package. It's rave, it's queer, and it's for everyone!

Until We Die is a poetic film, set in a devastated world where collective disorder is the precondition for survival. Eloquently moving bodies replace the spoken word and reveal the bruised characters, haunted by a past sweeter than the crumbling world they find themselves in.

This film is part of the online program but accessible only in the Netherlands.

Siren is a short story of a curse. The central figure’s heightened state of danger blooms into ecstasy, disgust and rage. What happens when we yield to our fear?

To be able to live in Bogotá, you need a skin that can adapt, that can turn reptilian when it doesn't stop raining for weeks and that can go soft when the woman in the corner shop gives you a free morning coffee. Thick Skin is a dance film that takes the viewer through the Colombian capital, high above the Andes, with stylized movement that speaks of life in the bustling city.

As the Call, So the Echo follows a young woman in conflict with her inner demons. How does she reckon with her unknown self?

Noora is a dance short film that follows Noora's movement. She is a dancer. Her body's impulses are generated in the moment from contact with different environments. Noora has congenital bone fragility, osteogenesis imperfecta. She uses a wheelchair as a dancing aid. In it, she can move widely, but feels isolated. On the ground, she feels the ground against her skin. In the water she can let go of her wheelchair. Noora's toes sink into the mud bottom, which pulsates with her steps. The water supports her fragile body with its pressure and surrounded by it she dares to move more freely, her body is more elastic, her expressions and range of motion are greater. In water she finds ways to move as independently as other dancers on land.

Through a feminist lens, Wiaam from Syria and Orian from Israel seek to examine alternative methods of protest against occupation, racism and violence in current Israel. They grapple with the decision of whether to leave or stay, take action or remain home.

In an old empty paper factory, we follow a woman playing with sculptures made of paper. Inspired by the design of Japanese gardens, #16 by The Paper Ensemble invites you to be receptive to a world made entirely out of the sounds of paper: crackling bushes, ocean waves and singing whales.

In this non-dialogue tale, set along the coast of Vietnam, a mermaid is rescued from the fish market by a fisherman. As the hero carries her back to the ocean they are joined by two seahorses. Upon her awakening on the beach the mermaid performs a sensual dance. But her joy is short-lived: the waves have other plans.

Set in the flooded villages of Java, Indonesia, this dance film attempts to come to terms with the despair that surrounds a disappearing home. Leleb is dedicated to those who endure.

In an arresting procession, a group of non-conforming people – from musicians, artists and poets to anti-military activists, environmentalists and diasporic, queer and trans people – carry a coffin through the ruins of an abandoned resort on Jeju island in South Korea. By performing a burial, they come together to undo a world order built upon hierarchy and division. By performing this ritual, time and place begin to lose their stability as mythical Dokkaebi deities pass through the building and heavy rain and wind blow through its cavities.

São Paulo-born Puma mixes the martial art of Capoeira with Vogue dancing and identifies parallels between the two movement styles through a shared philosophy built on resistance and rebellion.. Through her experiences as a black trans woman, Puma found in both art forms a sense of defiance – capoeira as a form of resistance from slavery, and voguing as a celebration of queer identities – each with their origins in the search for freedom.

This short portrait takes an inside look at the artistic inspiration and motivations of Takano Yonen, a Japanese soloist member of the Hong Kong Ballet. As he dances through urban and natural surroundings, he meditates on the influence of his cultural background and his approach to the ritual and language of dance.

“Simple is complex and complex is simple.” Choreographer and director Naomi Kats exposes the internal world and the perspective we hold on our thoughts. To which extent do we allow ourselves to choose, and to look in the mirror?

A contemporary myth on the genesis of the human body, the film oscillates between two distinct dimensions: an infinite black hole, where bodies exist outside linear space and time; and a labyrinthine house, where a strange decadent gathering takes place. As the dreamlike narrative unfolds, different characters go through experiences of love, enchantment, pain and death.

On her way home from a dance rehearsal, a young woman’s spiraling thoughts begin to blur past and present as she questions her identity and place in the world.

We are transported into a dream-like state in which we do not run, but dance. The original music composed by Echo Collective takes us on a journey through landscapes where time disappears and we are drawn into nature.

It is a fairy-tale episode, told with tenderness, gushing with the intense colours of flowers and élan vital. Choreography composed to a suite by Edward Grieg and presented by the artists-dancers of the Polish Dance Theatre takes the audience into the world of flora. It allows to explore a day in the life of a plant from the moment it blooms to the end, drowned in warm nostalgia. We invite you to immerse yourself in the beautiful world of flowers and leaves, in the greens, reds and purples transitioning to the greys and browns of the autumn. And all this told with movement to the rhythm of the dynamic sounds of the suite Peer Gynt op. 1 performed by Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera.

In the history of the future, lab technicians clone themselves. The temperature rises when a clone emerges that deviates from the norm. A game of mirroring, attraction and repulsion emerges, in which the distinction between the deviation and the standard becomes blurred, and even reversible. In the end, who is the right clone?

Almost full moon in an arid mountain landscape. A young woman waters her flowering plants. The riverbed is dried out. She is at one with her silence. When sleep enfold her on the broken earth, she is transposed home.

When Sleep Enfolded Her offers a portrait of young woman looking for tenderness in a vaste environment. A deceptively simple, choreographed dance filmed in the heart of an oasis endangered by drought.

Branches asks how our lives could differ based on a single decision or encounter. Drawing on director Masumi's experience as a minority and immigrant to the UK, we examine how the environment and society shape us. Exploring neuroses and fears through the multiverse, viewers will ponder how choices in life topple like dominoes. We present opportunities for viewers to reflect on their lives in our post-COVID information-oriented society, which fragments our ideology.