Queer bodies, softcore and hardcore: Alban Ovanessian’s hardcore tours Liège, Lausanne and Horst

Queer choreographer Alban Ovanessian brings their intense, utopian performance hardcore to Lausanne and Liège this March, before opening Horst Arts & Music Festival in 2027. The piece, which fuses softcore and hardcore aesthetics in a radical celebration of queer bodies, is quickly becoming a reference in contemporary dance and performance.

A queer utopia in motion

In hardcore, Alban Ovanessian imagines a queer, post-emancipation bodily utopia where bodies are finally liberated, affirmed and heroised. On stage, four performers move through constellations of identities and experiences, pushing their physical limits through effort, repetition and endurance. The work embraces both softcore and hardcore aesthetics, not as opposites, but as frictions that generate new ways of being together.

The piece has already been presented in Brussels at La Balsamine, where it was described as a space for future and present bodies: resilient, marginalised, and yet fully central on stage. Ovanessian, a queer Franco-Armenian dancer, performer and choreographer based in Brussels, draws on a rich background across fashion, cinema and performance to craft a universe where queer bodies are not simply represented, but affirmed as active forces of transformation.

Discover more about the artist on their profile page with LaRAC: https://larac.be/membres/alban-ovanessian​
A visual glimpse of hardcore and Alban’s work is also available on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DU0UuycDaG9/​

Lausanne and Liège: queer intensity across borders

This March, hardcore travels beyond Brussels. On 13 and 14 March 2026, the piece will be presented at Théâtre Sévelin 36 in Lausanne, as part of Les Printemps de Sévelin, in a programme explicitly highlighting its queer intensity. The festival describes the work as a cathartic score where four performers navigate a friction between apocalypse and rebirth, asking whether we are witnessing an end or a new beginning.​

On 21 March 2026, hardcore will be shown in Liège at La New Space, in partnership with Honey Time Festival, as part of the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the Beaux-Arts de Liège. This special programme addresses a largely queer audience and positions hardcore at the crossroads between contemporary dance, club culture and visual arts. (Information provided by the artist.) This Liège date underlines how the piece resonates across different queer scenes, from Brussels to Wallonia and beyond.

Looking ahead to Horst 2027

The journey of hardcore does not stop there. Looking further ahead, the performance has been invited as the opening piece of Horst Arts & Music Festival in 2027, one of Belgium’s most exciting crossovers between contemporary art, architecture and club culture. (Information provided by the artist.) This invitation confirms the growing impact of Ovanessian’s work and its capacity to speak to both dance audiences and nightlife communities.

For queer spectators, hardcore offers more than a performance: it is an invitation to inhabit a space where bodies, desires and vulnerabilities can exist without apology, in all their contradictions. It is also a reminder that queer art continues to push European stages towards more radical, embodied and political forms of storytelling.

Useful links:

Les Printemps de Sévelin / Théâtre Sévelin 36: https://360.ch/culture/danse/87613-les-printemps-de-sevelin-sallient-a-larsenic-que-voir-en-2026/

Alban Ovanessian – artist page (LaRAC): https://larac.be/membres/alban-ovanessian​

hardcore at La Balsamine (context and credits): https://balsamine.be/en/balsa_post/hardcore-2/​

Instagram (visuals and updates): https://www.instagram.com/p/DU0UuycDaG9/

​HARDCORE (Alban Ovanessian @albanovanessian, Elsa Tagawa @elsatagawa_ , Arno Verbruggen @arno_verbruggen , Bissi Adeye) — [danse / corps queer]

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