As an international festival and platform, which will be held for the third time in 2026 and reflects on the present to launch projects into the future, it has become crucial to understand what it means ‘to transmit’, asking ourselves how the transmission of dance/knowledge can be made fluid and accessible, how can we create a sense of identity and continuity through dance, and how can we produce new dance/knowledge by mixing collective or individual memories carried by bodies with different cultural elements, either from different societies or from different groups or classes within the same society.
We decided to dedicate this third Lugano Dance Project festival to the theme of “dance and heritage” because we strongly believe that transmitting means preserving what we have inherited from the past with the criteria that apply to the time we live in, its value system, and its challenges and needs, while also continuing to produce it and provide the conditions for future generations to build a heritage.