Cypriot Choreographer Breaks Into Europe’s Top 20 with “NO IM NOT”
Panos Malaktos selected for Aerowaves #Twenty26 after standing out among hundreds of works.
The Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture announces with great pleasure Cyprus’s participation in Aerowaves #Twenty26 artists with the work “NO IM NOT” by choreographer Panos Malaktos.
Malaktos was selected during a session held in October in Budapest by a jury of 52 dance professionals, chosen from among hundreds of works, as one of Europe’s most promising choreographers for 2026. The piece premiered in 2024 at the 24th Cyprus Choreography Platform, organised by the Department of Contemporary Culture Cyprus and the Rialto Theatre.
Aerowaves is a European dance network that identifies the most promising new works by emerging choreographers and promotes them for performances across Europe. The Aerowaves network includes partners in 34 countries, including Cyprus, giving choreographers the opportunity to present their work to new audiences. Cyprus participates in the network through the Dance House Lemesos.
Every October, these partners convene to select, from hundreds of submissions, 20 artists for the following year. Their works are first presented at the Spring Forward Festival, which in 2026 will take place from 6–9 May in Portugal.
Panos Malaktos is a Cypriot dancer and choreographer whose work explores the intersections of queer identity and transformation through a raw, physical and emotionally charged movement language. His practice draws on everyday gestures and surreal images, creating spaces where tenderness, absurdity and awkwardness coexist. Deeply rooted in movement yet open to theatricality, his works unfold like intimate encounters—familiar, playful and at the same time political. Trained in musical theatre at Bird College and in ballet and contemporary dance at the Rambert School, he combines technical precision with a strong performative presence. His artistic world is shaped by a curiosity for the body as a site of contradiction, memory and resistance. His work has toured across Europe and New Zealand, inviting audiences into landscapes where movement becomes a means of reimagining identity, vulnerability and belonging. In 2019, he received the New Choreographer Award at the Cyprus Choreography Platform.
