Lia Rodrigues
Lia Rodrigues
In Portuguese, the word ‘borda’ means border, fringe, boundary, margin, threshold, limit, frontier. There are geographic and political borders, represented by walls, barbed wire, checkpoints and gates. They impose a hierarchy and create opposition: hospitality and hostility, freedom and domination, what is considered native and what is foreign, inferior and superior. It is the home of the otherness. Borders separate groups and people, humans and non-humans. Who is allowed to cross? Who will be kept out? Who belongs and who does not?
‘Borda’ can also be derived from the verb ‘bordar’, embroider, which means to enrich, to decorate, to enhance.
In a figurative sense the word ‘borda’ may also mean to imagine, to fantasize. Imagination intensifies dreams, fables, mirage, creation. How can we work from a reality intertwined with visible and invisible lines, that overcome boundaries and frontiers? Perhaps by patiently and laboriously weaving together a porous place of fluid alterity, an embroidery where margins move float, and dance.
The Brazilian choreographer Lia Rodrigues creates her works at the Arts Centre in the Maré favela in Rio de Janeiro and is regarded as one of the most distinctive and original voices in international contemporary dance.
02 JUN 2026
TUE 21:00
03 JUN 2026
WED 21:00
Post-show talk with Lia Rodrigues
3 JUN
Created by
Lia Rodrigues
Interpretation and creation 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
Stage and lighting operation
Magali Foubert
Soundtrack
Miguel Bevilacqua (based on excerpts from a recording made in 1938 in northern Brazil by the Folklore Research Mission conceived by writer and intellectual Mário de Andrade, and excerpts from the public domain song Amor Amor Amor, part of the repertoire of Cavalo Marinho, a Brazilian dance performed by Luiz Paixão)
Mixing and mastering
Ronaldo Gonçalves
Administration, agency and production management
Colette de Turville
Responsible for agency and production
Astrid Toledo
Production and management in Brazil
Gabi Gonçalves / Corpo Rastreado
Administration and secretarial services in Brazil
Gloria Laureano
Logistical support Centro de Artes da Maré
Sendy Silva
Professors
Amalia Lima, Leonardo Nunes, Valentina Fittipaldi, Andrey Silva
Costumes
Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças
Seamstress
Antonia Jardilino De Paiva
Production
Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças
Co-production
Kunstenfestivaldesarts – Bruxelas / Maison de la danse, Pôle européen de création, with the support of Biennale de Lyon, Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse – Paris, Le CENTQUATRE – Paris, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Wiener Festwochen – Viena, La Bâtie – Festival de Genève – Comédie de Genève, Romaeuropa – Roma, PACT Zollverein – Essen, One Dance Festival – Plovdiv, Theater Freiburg, Muffatwerk – Munique, Passages Transfestival – Metz, Festival Perspectives – Saarbrücken, Le Parvis scène nationale Tarbes-Pyrénées, Tanz im August, HAU Hebbel am Ufer – Berlim, Théâtre Garonne, scène européenne – Toulouse, Le Lieu Unique, Scène nationale de Nantes (residence in La Libre Usine)
With the support of
Redes da Maré and Centro de Artes da Maré
Acknowledgements
Thérèse Barbanel, Corpo Rastreado, Inês Assumpção, Luiz Assumpção, Diana Nassif, equipe do Centro de Artes da Maré, Jacques Segueilla
Dedicated to
Max Nassif Earp
Lia Rodrigues is an international artist associated with CENTQUATRE-PARIS and the Maison de la danse / Pôle européen de création, with the support of Biennale de Lyon.
Borda is a creation by Lia Rodrigues Dance Company, conceived at the Centro de Artes da Maré, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
