IT only takes place every other year and once seen it won’t be forgotten.

Inside Out Dorset is staging two UK premiere performances to make a mark on the county’s landscape this autumn.

On the South Dorset Ridgeway from September 19 to 21 Ridgeway Responses will showcase the newly commissioned work of nine contemporary artists in a range of art forms including outdoor performance, sound, music, writing, multimedia and live art.

Inside Out Dorset also includes two ticketed performances this year.

On September 20 and 21, in collaboration with Impermanence Dance Theatre, Landance will present promenade performances fusing contemporary dance, live music and visual art with the natural landscape of the Valley of Stones nature reserve near Littlebredy.

In Poole Park on September 12 and 13, French trapeze specialists CirkVOST present the British premiere of their spectacular new show BOO! in which the performers take the form of gravity-defying flying trapeze to a new level.

Following the success of their first show, Epicycle, CirkVOST wanted to create new structures to fly on and, with Australian company Bambucco, have developed a touring bamboo structure that is unique to each venue. The literally monumental installation on which BOO! is performed stands 15 metres high and is made entirely of bamboo poles tied together with more than 2,000 knots.

The Inside Out focus is shared on the opening weekend across Poole Harbour in beautiful Studland where French contemporary circus innovators Les Colporteurs stage the premiere British performances of their new show, La Chas du Violin on September 13 and 14.

Le Chas du Violin finds a mother and daughter dancing barefoot on wires in cowboy boots and stiletto heels. At once tender and comic, the fragile balance is carried not only by the ropes and wires, but also by the melodic sound of the violin.

Inside Out Dorset continues in Blandford town centre on September 18 when Periplum take over the town square with the post-apocalyptic promenade piece, The Bell, with action on stilts, pyrotechnics and soaring music exploring the nature of war in this North Dorset town with nearby Blandford Camp home to the 11th Signal Regiment.

The festival closes with The Roof, a collaboration between theatre director David Rosenberg and choreographer Frauke Requardt that takes place in a purpose-built arena in Bournemouth.

See activateperformingarts .org.uk