At a time when wars, occupations, repression, and state violence continue to devastate so many lands – from Gaza to Ukraine, from Sudan to Yemen, from Syria to countless other forgotten regions – the Biennale de la Danse de Lyon stands firmly by the values at the very heart of its existence: freedom of creation, equality, human dignity, and dialogue between peoples.
The Biennale de Lyon is a global artistic event, rooted in its territory yet profoundly open to otherness.
It is a place of encounter, of circulation – of ideas, of aesthetics, of lived experiences. A space where dancing bodies carry stories, wounds, struggles, desires, and dreams of justice.
In today’s international context, marked by the intensification of armed conflicts, the rise of extremism, the criminalization of dissenting voices, and the erosion of fundamental human rights, we affirm that dance – like every form of art – is an act of resistance.
Resistance against the erasure of cultures. Resistance against indifference. Resistance against inhumanity.
This conviction is all the more resonant here in Lyon, city of Resistance, where Jean Moulin, in the heart of Second Word War, forged the unity of those who opposed fascism. This history is not merely a glorious past: it is a call to vigilance, to stand tall and in solidarity whenever human lives are threatened, whenever freedom is silenced.
We cannot remain silent before what unfolds in Gaza, where an entire people is trapped in a war without end, in a human tragedy of unbearable magnitude. Nor can we look away from those who, elsewhere, live under bombs, under dictatorships, in exile, or in fear, or else are held hostage.
Echoing the Declaration d’Avignon, carried in July 2025 by numerous European cultural actors, we reaffirm that artistic freedom is a fundamental right, and that culture is a common good essential to any democratic society.
The Biennale de la Danse de Lyon strives to be a space for thought, creation, solidarity, and freedom. More than ever, we stand alongside artists, audiences, citizens, and communities who struggle, create, and hope.
Because dance is a universal language, capable of speaking the unspeakable. Because it connects us, across borders and fractures.
Let us stay alert.
Let us stand in solidarity.
La Biennale de Lyon,
Co-signed with the team and the artists of the 21st Biennale de la danse.