16–17 September | Kyiv, Ukraine
Perform Ukraine 2026 is a professional gathering bringing together Ukrainian and international performing arts professionals for two days of dialogue, exchange and artistic encounters.
The event is organised for the fourth consecutive year by the Creative Europe Desk Ukraine and Impulse Transformation Platform. Previous editions have welcomed between 200 and 350 participants, establishing Perform Ukraine as an important meeting point for the Ukrainian performing arts community and its international partners.
A venue that has witnessed generations of artists. Velvet curtains, wooden interiors, an authentic bar where conversations seem to linger long after the audience has left. A place where people have always come not only for the performance, but also for the encounters that happen around it.
Perform Ukraine creates a space for professional exchange, presenting artistic practices, discussing current challenges, finding collaborators and building long-term partnerships — a space where art truly matters.
The programme is built around two interconnected parts: daytime discussions dedicated to the future of the sector, followed by evening performances and informal networking.
Who is it for?
We welcome artists, producers, cultural managers, curators, researchers, educators, as well as representatives of theatres, festivals, cultural institutions and independent organisations.
What to expect
The programme combines immersive and interactive formats, workshops, discussions and pitching sessions with networking opportunities designed to encourage meaningful professional connections. Together, we will explore international perspectives, inspiring practices, embodiment, artistic meaning and the questions shaping the future of performing arts and their role in society.
The evening programme will feature performances that differ in form, atmosphere and artistic language. Each offers its own reflection on contemporary realities through dance, theatre and interdisciplinary performance, leaving a different impression — sometimes raw, sometimes gentle, sometimes almost weightless.
Participants will also have the opportunity to present their own work, meet colleagues from Ukraine and abroad, explore possibilities for collaboration and lay the foundations for future international projects.
As always, we are preparing parallel activities, multiple venues and a few unexpected formats along the way. More details about the programme and our international guests will be announced on our social media channels 🤫
Day 1
The first day of Perform Ukraine 2026 begins at 13:00 with registration and an opportunity to meet fellow participants. At 14:00, we will officially open the event, welcome our international guests and introduce the Living Books ‒ professionals from across the performing arts sector who will share their first-hand experience throughout the day.
Rather than giving formal presentations, the Living Books will be available for direct conversations. Participants can meet them, ask questions and exchange perspectives on specific practices, projects and professional challenges in an informal setting.
The programme will continue with a series of short presentations on European and Ukrainian opportunities for performing arts professionals and organisations. We will introduce current opportunities within the EU’s Creative Europe Programme, including Culture Moves Europe and Perform Europe, alongside support available through ZMINA:Resilience, Cultural Horizons and Culture Helps. Ukrainian cultural organisations and institutions will also present their work and opportunities relevant to the sector.
The session will also introduce the Culture Compass for Europe ‒ the EU’s strategic framework outlining key priorities and directions for cultural policy in the years ahead.
Throughout the afternoon, participants can explore presentation spaces hosted by cultural institutions and theatres, meet their teams directly, learn more about projects they have already implemented and start conversations about potential cooperation.
A Speed Dating session will offer another way to connect with fellow participants. Through a series of short conversations and icebreakers, everyone will have a chance to introduce themselves, their practice or organisation and meet people from across the performing arts community.
At 15:15, we will open the first panel discussion, “Art, Support, Healing: Trauma-Informed Practice, Ethics, Challenges and Approaches.” Moderated by Viktor Ruban, the conversation will bring together Lyudmyla Mova (“Multimodal Recovery”, Art Therapy Association and Ukrainian Association of Dance Movement Therapists), Mykhailo Oliynyk (“Cultural Forces”), Maksym Kurochkin (“Veterans’ Theatre”), and independent therapist and researcher Inna Falkova. The conversation will take place in Ukrainian with English interpretation.
The second panel will turn to Ukrainian performing arts in an international context. Moderated by Mykola Ulyanov, it will bring together Jakob Rachek (Goethe-Institut Ukraine), Iryna Nirsha (Head of Performing Arts at the Ukrainian Institute), Oleksandr Manshilin (Platform of Contemporary Dance), and Diana Tsyba (Executive Director of KЇ Platforma and KЇ FEST). The conversation will take place in English with Ukrainian interpretation.
Meanwhile, Perform Ukraine will be happening across several spaces at once. Alongside the main programme, the Newsroom with Albert Tsukrenko will operate as Perform Ukraine’s own editorial hub, right in the middle of the event. Together with invited guests, Albert and the Newsroom team will respond to the day’s conversations, unpack what they have heard and create content in real time.
The White Hall will host the Somatic Lounge, created by the Mozok. Tilo. Rukh initiative. It will be a space to step away from the intensity of discussions and networking, reconnect with your body and simply take a moment for yourself. From 17:00 to 18:30, the lounge will also host a somatic practices performance intervention.
The “Living Books” will also continue throughout the afternoon. Instead of a presentation from the stage, this format offers a one-to-one conversation with a person as a “book”. Choose someone based on a topic or experience you are curious about and ask the questions that rarely fit into the format of a panel discussion.
At 18:30, we will take a coffee break before moving into the evening programme. The programme will feature “4.5.0”, a performance by choreographer Khrystyna Shyshkariova, and “Kyiv Perepichka” with Irma Vitovska. Separate registration is required for both performances.
We will wrap up the first day with informal networking and a DJ set by NFNR (Olesia Oniykiienko). No more panels or presentations, just music, conversations and a chance to keep the connections going.
Day 2
The second day of Perform Ukraine 2026 will build on the conversations and connections of the first, with a particular focus on professional networks, exchange of experience and new opportunities for collaboration across the performing arts sector.
We will start with registration and a short opening session featuring key programme announcements. Until 16:00, stands hosted by theatres, cultural organisations and institutions will remain open. This will be an opportunity to meet their teams, discover their work and learn more about projects, programmes and opportunities within the sector.
We will also share Stories from Practice, featuring artists, professionals and organisations who have already brought their projects to life. They will talk about what worked, what proved challenging and what they learned along the way. Some of these practitioners will later become “Living Books”, available for one-to-one conversations from 15:00 to 19:00.
At 15:00 in the Red Hall, the third panel discussion will focus on professional networks and collaboration within the sector. We will look at how professional communities are formed today and what brings people together, what networks can offer individual practitioners and organisations, and what role they can play in strengthening the sector. We will also ask what connections are still missing between the networks that already exist.
The conversation will be moderated by Oleksii Ananov, joined by Olha Baibak (NSTDU), Yuliia Honchar (Playwrights’ Theatre), Viktor Ruban (ICF ITP), and Romana Izabela Soutus (Head of the NASHI Experimental Theatre Club and director of The Trojan Women). The discussion will be held in Ukrainian without English interpretation.
From 16:00 to 17:30 in the Blue Hall, participants looking for collaborators, expertise or new professional connections can join a matchmaking session. Rather than conventional project pitching, the format works in both directions: participants can introduce an idea and explain what kind of collaborators they are looking for, or share what they can offer and what expertise, people or organisations they would like to connect with. The aim is to identify shared interests, find the right people in the room and turn an initial introduction into a potential collaboration.
At 17:30 in the Red Hall, a Project Showcase will shift the focus towards work that has already been brought to life. Through a series of short presentations, participants will introduce completed and ongoing projects, their approaches, results and experience. The session offers a snapshot of what artists and organisations across the Ukrainian performing arts scene are currently creating ‒ and a chance to discover people and practices worth following up with afterwards.
From 15:00 to 19:00, the White Hall will once again become the Somatic Lounge ‒ a quieter space within the programme where participants can step away from panels, presentations and networking and reconnect with the body through somatic practices.
A separate part of the programme will explore oral history as a way of documenting and preserving dance and performing arts heritage. Viktor Ruban and Anna Lodyhina will introduce the approach and consider how personal testimonies, memories and lived experiences can become valuable historical sources ‒ particularly for artistic practices that exist through bodies, movement and live experience and may leave little conventional archival material behind.
The introduction will lead into a screening of the documentary The Artist’s Case: Serge Lifar in the Red Hall. In parallel, the Blue Hall will host a screening of A Match in a Haystack.
After two days of discussions, performances, presentations and professional encounters, we will come together for the closing of Perform Ukraine 2026. The event will then continue with a DJ set and informal networking ‒ time to reconnect with people met throughout the programme, exchange contacts and continue conversations beyond the official schedule.
Practical information
📅 Dates: 16–17 September
📍 Location: Kyiv, Ukraine (exact venue to be announced)
🎟 Participation: Free of charge. Attendance is subject to participant selection.
🗓 Application deadline: 11 September
📝 How to apply: Complete the application form using the link below. Participants will be selected based on the information provided.
https://tally.so/r/2EzdNL
Complete the application form above and become part of the next chapter of Perform Ukraine 🪭
