What's on this week: 16-22 December

This holiday season take advantage of Brussels' preeminent position in the world of circus and street theatre arts for a high-level spectacle of unicycle acrobats, juggling, trapeze, comedy, aerial rope, Chinese mast, Cyr wheels, soap bubble juggling, close up magic and more, punctuated by fine gastronomic dining. It all takes place at La Tentation, transformed for this event into a cosy restaurant for 200 around a seven-meter-wide elevated stage for optimum viewing.
20-30 December, eight performances (closed on 24-26)

Dendermonde’s Wintering! festival is a celebration of that coldest and darkest of seasons, whose cold and dark are nevertheless a fine excuse for community warmth and imagination. For one magical evening, the entire city centre comes alive with open-air light installations, circus performances, concerts and plenty of piping hot food and drink. The festival hub is CC Belgica, and its centrepiece is the flaming interactive performance Incontri on Grote Markt, but there are over a dozen more participating venues. Among them is Van Winckellaan, site of a continuous fire show by Peter Gusta.
17-18 December, 18.00, Dendermonde

If you are looking for gifts handmade by urban crafters head down to central Brussels' Rue de Laeken where 32 craftspeople are participating in Maker.Street's Vitrinexpo. Many of the street's shop windows are showing the craftspeople's goods from bio cosmetics to social robots to design for cats to bamboo bicycles to paper beasts to leather weaving and much more. For all info either go to Quartier Général LKN (next to the KVS) to start your tour or online at www.urbancrafts.tv
Until 18 December, every day 11.00-18.00

It’s no surprise that the genre of the short story is currently experiencing a renaissance. With attention spans stretched to the limit and most thoughts capped at 140 characters, readers appreciate a narrative that doesn’t beat around the bush. Even award-winning Russian novelist Mikhail Shishkin is getting in the game with his first volume of short stories, Calligraphy Lesson. Short Notice is a star-studded evening featuring readings by Shishkin and four more masters of the genre: Flemish author Annelies Verbeke, Welsh writer Cynan Jones and Dutch storytellers Jamal Ouariachi and Joubert Pignon.
16 December, 20.00, Beursschouwburg, Brussels

Do you like short films? Then celebrate the winter solstice with the third edition of Le Jour Le Plus Court (The Shortest Day) which honours the short film on the shortest day of year with programming in 10 cities of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles hosted by 27 cultural entities. New this year the event has a godfather in the person of Belgian actor and director Bouli Lanners who is providing 2 programs of his favorite shorts including the classic E pericoloso sporgesi by Jaco van Doermael (1984). Check the website for all the details of which of the 153 films are playing near you.
21 December, across Brussels and Wallonia 

Film festival System_D is back with its third edition. More than 40 short films created in Brussels by young people are in the competition. No limits have been put on these young emerging talents beyond the premise that the filmmakers be young with no formal filmmaking education and the action take place in Brussels, so the subject matter and interpretation is wide open. Expect everything and anything, an exciting, eclectic mix of documentary and fiction. The contestants may be neophytes but they approach their projects with intensity and enthusiasm. The jury will award three prizes, the audience one prize. The opening evening is free, the two following days are €5 each.
16-18 December at KVS

Somewhere between art film and B-movie, Flemish director Harry Kümel’s 1971 cult classic Daughters of Darkness is set in a deserted, off-season Ostend and sees a young newlywed couple seduced into a lustful frenzy by sexy vampires. (In English with Dutch and French subtitles)
16 December 22.00, Cinema Nova, Rue d'Arenberg 3, Brussels

Exchange books in various languages for adults and kids at the Brussels Bookswappers Christmas party. Plus there's a toy swap, charity raffle, live music, readings and mini Christmas market. Dinner available on reservation.
21 December, Chapelier Fou, Chaussée de la Hulpe 190, Watermael-Boitsfort, Brussels

Tintin, the fictional globe-trotting boy reporter beloved by millions, is currently the guest of honour at Train World, the rail museum in Schaerbeek that opened last year. In the museum’s first temporary exhibition, the role that trains played in many Tintin comic-strip albums is explored through original artwork and archival materials. Read more about the exhibition here.
Until 16 April, Train World, Brussels

KVS director Michael De Cock has written extensively about migration, both fiction and non-fiction. His theatre piece Kamyon is played in the trailer of a big rig, the travel vehicle of need for many migrants. For the play the trailer has been painted by graphic artist Luca Kortekaas and outfitted to seat 45 spectators. After playing across Europe, each time in the language of the country, the piece is now going to be presented in Belgium in five different languages, Arabic, Dutch, French, English and Turkish. The story is told from the point of view of a little girl fleeing with her mother from war in her country of origin. The spectacle includes live music and is appropriate for ages eight and up. The English-language performance is on 20 December behind the KVS. Performances will also take place along the canal in Brussels, at the VUB, in Vilvoorde, Anderlecht and Schaerbeek. There will also be 36 performances in schools.
Kamyon, 9 December-24 March, KVS and other venues, Brussels

It's always a pleasure to discover La Bellone, one of Brussels' most spectacular hidden gems and during the end of the year to coincide with the Winter Wonders it's especially worth a visit because each year an artist is given carte blanche to reinterpret the space. This year Iranian artist Nazanin Fakoor has created an environment which reflects in a virtual, liquid, obscure and ever-changing way, depending on the movements of the visitors, with the fearsome Bellone, goddess of the atrocities of war, depicted in all her glory on the front of the building.
Until 14 January, opens 16 December at 19.00