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Spring '26

Defrost your heart

We’re serving some  'Fresh juice' a brand-new spring programme packed with zest, spirit and creative bite. 

Agenda

  • Smells Like Circus 2026

    Circus, dance, performance & everything inbetween
    21.01
    -
    25.01

    Circus, dance, performance & everything inbetween

    'Smells Like Circus' is pitching its tents in Ghent again for an eighth edition! From January 21 to 24, 2026, the festival will be juggling the boundaries of contemporary circus with amazing performances.

    Discover the programme

    Discover the programme
    Discover the programme

  • Souvenirshop

    BRONKS & Not Standing|Alexander Vantournhout
    Mona Lisa? Monet? Magritte? Magic!
    21.01

    Mona Lisa? Monet? Magritte? Magic! 

    Award-winning choreographer Alexander Vantournhout dives into his quirky souvenir collection. Mona Lisa hoodies, Monet socks and Magritte apples twist and turn into fantastic surprises: sleeve holes appear in unexpected places, trouser legs turn into evening gowns, and zippers unlock hidden worlds.

    With acrobatics and dance, performer Miguel do Vale brings this playful universe to life. A magical, imaginative show for a small and wide-eyed audience.

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  • Fabian Krestel

    Labyrinth
    Juggling meets visual art: a playful, mesmerising adventure for the eyes and ears.
    21.01

    Juggling meets visual art: a playful, mesmerising adventure for the eyes and ears.

    Step into ‘The Labyrinth’ at the Wintercircus, a free, drop-in experience where jugglers explore rhythm, balance and motion. Every throw creates a trace, every gesture a new shape. Sounds come alive in a vibrant, visual playground of lines, dots and patterns.

    • 21.01 17:00 - 20:00
      free
    free
    free
    • 21.01 17:00 - 20:00
      free

  • Anna Tauber & Fragan Gehlker

    Suzanne: une histoire du cirque
    In between lecture, film, circus and music hall
    21.01
    and
    22.01

    In between lecture, film, circus and music hall

    In the 1950s, Suzanne and her husband amazed audiences worldwide with a breathtaking trapeze act. Ten meters high, without a safety net. Every movement had to be precise, confident, and exact. All or nothing, every time. Sixty years later, Anna meets the now 90-year-old Suzanne and uncovers her forgotten story. She reflects on the circus of the past: the freedom, the risks, the beauty, and the impermanence.
    By bringing Suzanne’s act back to life, Anna searches for what endures over time. What remains of us, our risks, our gestures, our former beauty and perfection? Grace or time: which one prevails?

    Data & tickets

  • Jean-Daniel Broussé

    (le/the) Pain
    From baguette to trapeze: the hilarious end of a baker's tradition
    22.01

    From baguette to trapeze: the hilarious end of a baker's tradition

    Jean Daniel Broussé (aka JD) is the queer son of a long line of French bakers. JD is destined for bread, but choosing circus. ‘(le) Pain’ is his debut solo show: a playful mix of acrobatics, dance, storytelling, Béarnaise folklore, karaoke and laughter. It is a wild ride through bread-making, queerness, and breaking away from tradition with all the tragedy, comedy and joy that entails.This debut solo performance, in collaboration with cabaret artist Ursula Martinez, mixes circus, dance, storytelling, video, karaoke, and Béarnaise folklore. A feast for the funny bone!

     

     

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  • Today

    Aline Breucker & Quintijn Ketels | Side-Show
    Mini-stories and everyday events on a picnic blanket
    23.01
    -
    24.01

    Mini-stories and everyday events on a picnic blanket.

    Take a seat on the picnic blanket and savor the moment! Two circus performers, an actress and a musician, invite you to experience a series of seemingly everyday events filled with mini-stories, spontaneous actions and surprises. In this 'relaxed performance,' theater and life blend seamlessly. Watch, listen, taste, or simply enjoy being together with others, all in your own unique way.

    Data & tickets

  • Arno Ferrera & Gilles Polet

    Armour
    Sexy as fuck!
    23.01
    and
    24.01

    Sexy as fuck!

    Three acrobats walk the fine line between wrestling and cruising, reshaping what ‘masculinity’ can mean. Armored in sports gear and hungry for physical intensity, they teeter between strength and vulnerability, erotics and play. Like mythical Graces, they sketch a generous vision of love in an intimate arena that pulls the audience right in. Sexy, raw, virtuosic.

     

    Data & tickets

  • Ivo Dimchev

    Di/STRAUSS Technique
    Extravaganza, kitsch and camp
    23.01
    and
    24.01

    Extravaganza, kitsch and camp

    Bring along friends, neighbours, and lovers to this extraordinary music and dance experience with choreographer, singer-songwriter, and queer activist Ivo Dimchev. ‘Di/Strauss Technique’ has already garnered success on various international stages. Inspired by the music of Johann Strauss II, the King of the Waltz, Dimchev has created his own ‘healing songs’ and choreographies, which he now shares with the audience. Upon arrival, you'll receive a goodie bag filled with ribbons, fans, pompoms, and even ‘shots’. This way, every spectator becomes a participant in a collective ritual of extravaganza, queer humour, operetta kitsch, and camp catharsis.

    last tickets

  • Sophia Rodriguez

    Ostentation
    Absurd, sharp and unmistakably feminist.
    24.01

    Absurd, sharp and unmistakably feminist.

    In the vibrant solo performance 'Ostentation', Sophia Rodriguez explores the imagery of the female body. She magnifies clichés and turns them inside out, peeling back layer after layer. Effortlessly transitioning between absurd exaggeration and sharp observation, Rodriguez moves from bold nudity to colorful costumes to a trapeze. She invites the audience into an engaging game where the lines between ‘being’ and ‘representation’ are constantly shifting.

    Data & tickets
    Tickets

  • Galapiat Cirque / Sébastien Wojdan

    Blanc
    A white universe full of vibrant humanity.
    24.01

    A white universe full of vibrant humanity.

    ‘BLANC’ unfolds in a stark white space where cups, oranges, nails, knives and even sweat become tools in a fierce experiment of the body. It draws you into the world of someone wrestling with fear, control and perfectionism. With humor and brave vulnerability, Sébastien Wojdan reveals just how thin the line is between control and surrender. A charged visual performance about the struggle to simply be human

    Data & tickets
    Tickets

  • Jan Martens & GRIP

    THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER 2.0
    03.02
    and
    04.02

    Jump until the masks fall off. Remake of a radical hit

    "Open all pores to this gem. And above all, don't forget to breathe." wrote Het Nieuwsblad in 2014 about 'THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER'. The reviews back then did not lie: this production marked the absolute breakthrough for Jan Martens, with an extensive international tour of more than 100 performances. In 2025, Jan Martens and GRIP are recreating this successful show with a new cast. 

    The American photographer Philippe Halsman once said: “When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.” With THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER Jan Martens took this statement as a starting point and exposed through the jump the person behind the dancer.

    In THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER, the dancer is defined as a pure performer, striving after perfection. Subjected to a complex, mathematical, vigorous and exhausting choreography executed in forced uniformity, the eight dancers ultimately slip up. And then their masks fall.

    Thanks to its radical choreographic form, THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER revealed the audience’s perception of dancers, choreographers, spectators and the cultural policy at the time. Ten years on, these questions are still very much relevant due to current political and social trends: Where does the thin line between art and entertainment lie? Who are we as an audience when we contemplate the suffering of dancers from the theatre like a bullfight in an arena? Is contemporary dance striptease for the elite? THE DOG DAYS ARE OVER makes the viewer shift in his position: from being merely subjected to the experience to actively reflecting on it.

    Data & tickets

  • 4X4 Lieselot Siddiki

    Life in a Dead Circus
    Lieselot Siddiki has been given carte blanche and can turn VIERNULVIER into her playground for an entire evening.
    05.02

    Lieselot Siddiki has been given carte blanche
    and turns VIERNULVIER into her 
    playground for an entire evening.

    Multidisciplinary artist Lieselot Siddiki invites you into her wild universe with the first 4x4: 'Life in a Dead Circus'. Her world pulses with obscene hedonism, grotesque tenderness and raw vitality, a chaotic playground where beauty and decay collide. This is not a show but an open laboratory, a noisy carnival of performances, sensory installations, music and rituals that evoke a haunting sense of the uncanny. Expect hypnotic dance, DIY sound rituals, latex masks, glowing toys and anarchic noise acts. As curator, Siddiki creates a delirious space where recognition meets estrangement, celebrating creative chaos and unfiltered wonder.

    Data & tickets
    Tickets

  • Decoratelier Jozef Wouters

    Moments Before the Wind
    A special duet between space and imagination
    07.02

    A special duet between space and imagination

    ‘Moments Before the Wind’ is a performance without performers, tailor-made for De Vooruit. A replica of an 18th-century stage set by Decoratelier and Rimah Jabr enters into dialogue with Vooruit’s Theaterzaal. Guided by Jorge Luis Borges’ voice and his lecture ‘Metaphors’ (1967), scenography and imagination perform a poetic duet that shifts and challenges your gaze. A striking tribute to the building upon its reopening.

     

    Data & tickets
    Tickets

  • Renée Goethijn

    4 Women Getting Sick
    An absurd tribute to female territory.
    11.02
    and
    12.02

    An absurd tribute to female territory.

    When a doctor’s visit slips into an endless medical limbo, four figures enter a realm where body, landscape and operating table intertwine. ‘4 Women Getting Sick’ unveils a magical-realist universe where land and body mirror each other’s histories of conquest and exhaustion. Through surreal imagery, physical theatre and a vivid scenography, ‘4 Women Getting Sick’ becomes a liberating journey that invites us to rethink the world and our place within it.

    Data & tickets

  • Robbert&Frank Frank&Robbert

    WOOD
    Interactive journey of discovery
    14.02
    -
    28.02

    Interactive journey of discovery

    In the interactive virtual reality performance WOOD, participants embark on a journey of discovery through the field. But beware: nothing is what it seems! Artists Robbert&Frank Frank&Robbert take you on an experience that blurs the line between what is real and what is virtual.

    Data & tickets

  • Not Standing/Alexander Vantournhout

    Through the Grapevine Live
    Virtuosic pas de deux with a new twist.
    20.02
    and
    21.02

    Virtuosic pas de deux with a new twist.

    Following its successful premiere in 2020, ‘Through the Grapevine’ returns with a fresh twist as ‘Through the Grapevine Live’. Choreographer Alexander Vantournhout and dancer Axel Guérin once again engage in a dynamic pas de deux, this time energized by the live music of experimental percussionist Andrea Belfi. With focus and dedication, the performers explore balance, harmony, and connection, all while embracing humor. The live soundtrack adds new dimensions, enhancing the energy and poetry of their movements.

    Data & tickets

  • Afra Tafri Creations / Abhishek Thapar

    Lacuna Kitchen
    Pop-up restaurant and performance about invisible labour and the hidden stories in our food culture
    25.02
    -
    28.02

    Pop-up restaurant and performance about invisible labour and the hidden stories in our food culture

    Lacuna Kitchen by the Indian-Dutch theater maker and storyteller Abhishek Thapar is a sensory theater experience in the form of a unique pop-up restaurant, where the stories behind our food culture are explored. Personal ingredients and untold stories of kitchen workers (including migrant workers, refugees, and individuals with diverse skills) form the basis for a four-course dinner. Lacuna Kitchen demonstrates how food can serve as a bridge between cultures, while also exposing invisible labor and the impact of colonialism on our food culture.  


    The performance transforms the kitchen into a space for community building and critical reflection, inviting participants and the audience to think about their own role within societal and economic systems.

    Data & tickets

  • Motus

    Frankenstein_ diptych (Love Story) + (History of Hate)
    Frankenstein revisited
    26.02

    Frankenstein revisited.

    Inspired by Mary Shelley's ‘Frankenstein’, this diptych takes you to the extremes of human existence: creation and destruction. ‘Love Story’ delves into the insurmountable loneliness of Shelley and her creations, exploring the fragile boundary between human and non-human, between desire and fear. ‘History of Hate’ reveals the other side: when love is denied and transforms into rejection, anger, and alienation. A narrative that unveils both the brilliance and the shadows, leaving no heart untouched.

     

    Data & tickets
    Tickets

  • Motus

    [ÒDIO]
    Teenage truths about hatred and loneliness
    27.02

    Teenage truths about hatred and loneliness

    The documentary ‘[ÒDIO]’ concludes Motus’ Frankenstein project, exploring how love can turn into hate. Young people share how violence and exclusion leave lasting marks on bodies that never feel at home. Frankenstein’s loneliness echoes through a generation torn between tenderness and rage. Where does hate begin and which social structures nurture it?

    Data & tickets
    Tickets

  • Kabinet K

    Bron
    What future do we want to shape?
    05.03
    and
    06.03

    What future do we want to shape?

    ... la révélation la plus simple et la plus radicale: 
    que le présent se transforme en présence, 
    qu’une action devient une histoire, 
    qu’un humain devient un héros, 
    qu’un endroit devient lieu.
    Claire Simon

    What if we could throw all the ballast overboard, come home somewhere, return to the essence? In ‘Bron’, different generations share this longing, as equals. It reflects vulnerability, imagination, and strength among people. To the live music of Thomas Devos, the dancers search for what connects them and what future they want to shape. One thing is certain: water takes center stage. With a spring as a gathering place. A place where humanity gallops in its desire, where life flows and overflows.

    With ‘Bron’, Joke Laureyns and Kwint Manshoven return to the core of their work. After ‘as long as we are playing’ as an ode to the playful human, and ‘promise me’ that celebrated freedom and recklessness, ‘Bron’ becomes an ode to the creative human. A dance performance about the necessity of ‘making’, about humans as ‘makers’, and about the question of the malleability of life. A performance that touches, connects, and celebrates the power of community. 

    Data & tickets

  • Freek De Craecker, Jarne Van Loon & Zindzi Tillot

    Ander Strand
    Relive the spirit of 'De Rooie Vlinder': a fiery celebration of freedom and activism 
    12.03
    and
    13.03

    Relive the spirit of 'De Rooie Vlinder': a fiery celebration of freedom and activism 

    In 1979, the Ghent-based ‘Rooie Vlinder’ organized Belgium's first Pride in Ghent, a celebration and protest rolled into one. Today, there's no longer a Pride in our city. Have we already achieved all our rights?

    Several artists and historians are reinterpreting Ghent's queer past. Together, they create a festive, activist ritual that celebrates connection and freedom in a world full of uncertainty and oppression. Join and bring the spirit of 'De Rooie Vlinder' back to life!

    Data & tickets

  • Voetvolk / Lisbeth Gruwez & Maarten Van Cauwenberghe

    Tempest
    From raw energy to focused strength: dancing in the eye of the storm
    13.03
    and
    14.03

    From raw energy to focused strength: dancing in the eye of the storm

    Anger is a dual force: on the one hand destructive, on the other a catalyst for change, a response to imbalance. In the solo 'Tempest', Lisbeth Gruwez draws on martial arts to channel raw energy into focused strength. An oscillating body that moves between chaotic sharp surges of energy and the potential for a quiet clarity held at its centre.

    'Tempest' explores how to welcome a storm within, integrating its force instead of resisting it. It is a dance through the eye of the storm—or rather, a dance that seeks to open an eye in the storm—a single, energetic, glowing point.

    Voetvolk is the dance company of dancer/choreographer Lisbeth Gruwez and musician/composer Maarten Van Cauwenberghe. Their work is often highly visual, powerful and expressive, full of improvisation, performance elements, and a razor-sharp dialogue between dance and sound design. 

    Data & tickets

  • SNOBS

    Editie #11
    ​​Where art misbehaves
    14.03

    ​​Where art misbehaves 

    ‘​​SNOBS’ is back, wilder, dirtier and freer than ever. A night of raw energy, unpredictable performances and visual chaos. A hedonistic celebration of everything that moves, breathes and derails.

    Data & tickets
    Tickets

  • Lisa Vereertbrugghen / CAMPO

    Again Forever
    Dance as resistance: the 'slow' as the slow sister of rave dance
    19.03
    -
    21.03

    Dance as resistance: the 'slow' as the slow sister of rave dance

    For the past twelve years, Lisa Vereertbrugghen has researched the political and physical dimensions of (hardcore) techno music and dance. With ‘Again Forever’, she now focuses on the ‘slow’: that sticky, slow dance at the other end of the speed spectrum.

    ‘Again Forever’ presents the ‘slow’ as a slow sister of an underground dance like rave dance, a dance that reconsiders intimacy and time in an era of productivity, speed, and isolation. The ‘slow’ is removed from the traditional couple context and anchored in today’s queer nightlife. Thus, the dance becomes a collective experience that, with its constantly shifting relationships and constellations, becomes a form of resistance.

    With four FLINTA*-performers, Again Forever reclaims the slow dance as an anti-patriarchal ritual without fixed roles. The audience is immersed in a slow rave where solos, couples, trios, and quartets merge into one uninterrupted dance. Time becomes subjective and whimsical, filled with loops that give the dance a timeless quality. 

    *FLINTA stands for Female, Lesbian, Intersex, Non-binary, Trans, and Agender.

    Data & tickets

  • Martha Canga Antonio

    Holy
    Performance meets beats
    26.03
    -
    28.03

    Performance meets beats

    ‘Holy’ is the enchanting love child of an exhilarating concert and a mesmerizing performance. Martha Canga Antonio explores ‘the sacred’ in all its shapes and shades. She takes the audience on a journey where personal and collective experiences merge. Boundaries blur, certainties fade, and traditional codes between performers and audience effortlessly dissolve.

    Data & tickets

  • Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Solal Mariotte / Rosas

    BREL
    'Next!': two generations dance to Brel
    31.03
    -
    02.04

    'Next!': two generations dance to Brel

    'BREL' is a collaboration between Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and dancer and upcoming choreographer Solal Mariotte. After graduating from P.A.R.T.S. in 2022, Mariotte, who also has a background in breaking, joined Rosas in 2023 for 'EXIT ABOVE'.

    The starting point for this new creation is a selection of compositions by chansonnier Jacques Brel. De Keersmaeker and Mariotte bring diverging approaches to choreography and dance to this project. Two generations apart, they also have very different histories with the singer, who was born in Brussels in 1929 and rose to international fame in the 1950s and 60s. Dense, poetic, and often political, Brel’s powerful lyrics conjure up a range of moods and emotions. We are also familiar with the image of Brel, his extraordinary stage presence and gestural expressivity. Brel projects an incredible energy, speaks to and moves his audience in a direct, personal, and almost physical manner. While arguably addressing ‘timeless’ themes, including friendship, relationships, socio-political shifts, and violence, Brel’s songs also make tangible a gap in time. They resonate very differently with the world today. What remains? What kind of tools do Brel’s modes of address and performativity offer? What to keep and how to set it in motion in a manner relevant for today? The challenge lies not only in figuring out how to ‘embody’ Brel’s music - how to bring it to life – in a way that speaks to us today, while maintaining a critical remove, but also in finding ways to really share the stage with Jacques Brel.

    In 2002, De Keersmaeker created her second dance solo, Once, to the music of Joan Baez. Playing the entire album Joan Baez in Concert, part 2, the choreographer set out to examine various possible answers – in movement, voice, and gesture – to the emotions and power embodied by Baez’ music and lyrics, which also inspired the civil rights movement in the United States in the 1960s. In 2023, EXIT ABOVE was created to songs written especially for the work and performed live on stage by singer-songwriter Meskerem Mees and dancer-musician Carlos Garbin. In BREL, De Keersmaeker and Mariotte, who will share the stage for the first time, will continue this trajectory, and further explore the challenges and potential of choreographing to songs. The artists find inspiration in the complexities and tensions inherent to Brel’s life and oeuvre. In BREL, they aim in the first place to raise questions. BREL is a search, an exploration of the shifts and gaps in time that come to the surface when revisiting Jacques Brel’s famous chansons today.

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Curated 4

Not sure where to start? Fear not, because VIERNULVIER’s artistic team curated four journeys through dance, theatre, music, and performance — from established voices to intimate, queer, and daring work. Choose your path and explore freely.
Nieuws
© Athos Burez
SOLID 4
© Athos Burez
4 CORNERS OF THE HEART
© Athos Burez
404 EXPLORER
© Athos Burez
4 TENDER REBELS

talks

Agenda

Concert

Agenda

The building reopens, and that calls for a celebration!

 

Check our festival:

HOUSEWARMING 2026

Agenda

Season finale: 24 hours long,
100 x 1 scene

Actress Natali Broods achieves the impossible in “The Second Woman,” an epic endurance performance and breathtaking theatrical tour de force.

Agenda

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