Brazilian choreographer Lia Rodrigues has always interwoven tradition and innovation, creating dances where ancestral rituals merge with the new forms of urban life. For the 35th anniversary of her Companhia de Danças, she returns to the REF with Borda, a piece created in collaboration with the Centro de Artes da Maré, which she has directed for over twenty years in the favela da Maré, one of the most complex neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro.
In Portuguese, Borda not only means “to create” or “to decorate” but also “to trace a boundary” or “a barrier.” Rodrigues seems to build her performance on these boundaries, weaving together fears, hopes, cultural identities, and the ever-evolving movements of a new generation of dancers.
Nine performers take the stage, moving through fluid spaces where dreams and memories intertwine and reinvent themselves in a new tapestry of bodies, matter, fabric, and plastic, merging and separating to create vibrant and powerful tableaux vivants.
Created by Lia Rodrigues
Danced and created in collaboration with : Leonardo Nunes, Valentina Fittipaldi, Andrey da Silva, David Abreu, Raquel Alexandre, Daline Ribeiro, João Alves, Cayo Almeida, Vitor de Abreu
Creative assistant: Amalia Lima
Dramaturgy: Silvia Soter
Artistic collaboration and images: Sammi Landweer
Lighting design: Nicolas Boudier
Lighting and Stage Management: Magali Foubert and Baptistine Méral
Soundtrack:
Production/Diffusion Manager: Colette de Turville
Production Manager: Astrid Toledo
Production and Diffusion Brazil: Gabi Gonçalves/ Corpo Rastreado
Secretary, Administration: Gloria Laureano
Teachers: Amalia Lima, Leonardo Nunes, Valentina Fittipaldi, Andrey Silva
Production: Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças
Coproduction: Le Kunstenfestivaldesarts – Brussels/ Maison de la danse, Lyon/Pôle européen de création,
with the support of the Biennale de la danse 2025 -Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse – Paris /
Le CENTQUATRE – Paris/ Festival d’Automne à Paris / Wiener Festwochen – Wien /
Festival La Batie – Comédie de Genève – Genève / Romaeuropa-Rome/ Pact Zollverein – Essen/
One Dance Festival-Plovdiv /Theater Freiburg/ Muffatwerk – Münich, Passages Transfestival – Metz /
Festival Perspectives – Saarbrücken, Le Parvis scène nationale Tarbes Pyrénées,
Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer – Berlin, théâtre Garonne, scène européenne – Toulouse
with the support of Redes da Maré and Centro de Artes da Maré
Lia Rodrigues is an international associate artist of CENTQUATRE-Paris, Maison de la Danse in Lyon,
Pôle européen de création and the Biennale de la danse de Lyon, France
