The Cyprus Contemporary Dance Festival is an institutional event of the Deputy Ministry of Culture co-organised by the Department of Modern and Contemporary Culture and the Rialto Theatre. Since 1998, every June, the Festival has been giving the audience in Nicosia and Limassolthe opportunity to view innovative contemporary dance performers from all over Europe, as well as Cypriot dance groups. Throughout the years, the Festival has been exposing its audience to conceptual, postmodern, modern et.al. sub categories of contemporary dance, thus achieving growth as well as an audience more accepting of new ideas and experimentation, an audience that hashigh standards.  

The foreign participating dance groups are selectedby a selection committee consisting of Officers from the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Chief Executive of Rialto Theatre and two local contemporary dance professionals. The Committee works very closely with the Cultural Attachés of foreign embassies in terms of attracting performances of international calibre. International artists are brought together with local dance groups, thus forging relationships and providing a base for collaborations and exchanges.