Over 60 artists · Performances · Workshops · Cultural and community encounters · Improvised meetings · Experiences · Big Dance Jam · Fête de la Musique

Building on the artistic vision of Dance People, created last August at the Edinburgh International Festival, Maqamat (Omar Rajeh & Mia Habis) is now expanding the project into a larger, collective format: a three-day international festival in Lyon. Dance People brings together over 60 dance artists and professionals for a vibrant gathering celebrating participatory movement, shared practice, and collective experience.

Over three days, the program unfolds across nine performances, including four French premieres, as well as workshops, improvised meetings, discussions, the Big Dance Jam, La Cité Bouge!, and many other ways to experience dance.

Rooted in its local context, the festival actively engages the community by bringing together 70 residents, 15 local dance schools, and 60 dance students, alongside artistic interventions by more than 20 companies based in France and the region—highlighting both international perspectives and the richness of the local scene.

As the closing event of the European SHIFT project, Dance People also becomes a laboratory for inventing new ways of gathering: rethinking festival hospitality, sharing public space, and exploring how dance can extend beyond conventional stages. By revisiting works in adaptable and non-traditional venues and creating participatory formats that invite citizens to take part in the creative act, the festival fosters a more direct and lively relationship between artists, audiences, and the city.

The event is presented by Maqamat – Omar Rajeh & Mia Habis, in partnership with Les SUBS, the CND (National Dance Center), Arty Farty, and France Travail – Scènes et Images, as part of the European Creative Europe SHIFT project, developed in cooperation with Fondazione Fabbrica Europa and Albania Dance Meeting, and co-funded by the European Commission.