The theme this year of the festival Dansa Metropolitana, in and around Barcelona, is public space—”the freedom of bodies to inhabit and transform” it—which couldn’t be more timely. Local choreographers are pairing up with dance studios and colleges to flood plazas and parks with people in their power, unfettered and on their feet. As for ticketed events, in theaters, there’s Núria Dalmau Claret and Valeria Pisati’s surreal drama about a stuffed animal stuck inside IKEA air ducts, where he ruminates over big questions (SNÖSTJÄRNA); AzkonaToloza’s speculative “documentary” about celestial bodies, earthly and otherwise (El nostre refugi galàctic); and Antonio Ruz’s reconstruction of a 1937 ballet, soon the victim of Francoism, about Catalonia’s midsummer night revelries (La nit de Sant Joan). All exude the kind of beguiling strangeness that artists only try at home. As for Spanish stars shining bright internationally, flamenco renegade Rocío Molina presents the new Calentamiento. The solo, backed by a quartet of cantaoras, turns the warm-up that precedes a show into the show itself. Count on bold ingenuity and calibrated chaos. —Apollinaire Scherr

After Dansa Metropolitana, Rocío Molina’s Calentamiento tours France, Spain, and Switzerland through next November. See specifics here.