Read our interview with Lia Rodrigues here.

Borders separate the native from the foreign, us from them, the known from the unknown, me from you - and while they do so, by force or without noticing, they shift, move, and even dance. Borda is a performance about transcending the barriers that visibly or invisibly reach out and stretch around. All these walls of barbed wire, concrete, and hedges, but also beliefs, views, and differences. Lia Rodrigues, whose 40-year career has deservedly earned her recognition as a pioneer of Brazilian contemporary dance, dedicates her latest work, a co-production of One Dance Festival, to the fluidity of borders - geographical, political, social, and personal.  

Nine dancers transform the no man's land of checkpoints and prejudice into an in-between station where opposites touch, but perhaps something different is born from there. The border, somewhere and nowhere at the same time, is alive because it is a human creation, which is precisely why it can change. It can mean coming together instead of separating. Acceptance instead of rejection. An open door rather than a closed one. A beginning instead of an end. Yes, instead of no. 

In Portuguese the word "borda" is derived from the verb "bordar" - to embroider, that is, to decorate, to refine. Action towards improvement. Its other meaning is border - threshold, limit, periphery, edge, boundary. A noun that divides. A noun of hierarchy. A symbol of opposition between hospitality and hostility, freedom and domination - themes that Lia Rodrigues has consistently worked with throughout her career, linking dance to activism. 

But that's not all. Figuratively, "borda" can mean to imagine, to fantasize. It is imagination that enhances desires, and aspirations, hence creation and the determination to transcend boundaries. Between fear and hope, noise and silence, peoples and lands, cultures, rituals, and knowledge. When reality intertwines red lines, how else is there but to break them with dreams and thoughts? What else is there but to patiently and methodically weave with them a new and different existence, like embroidery made with love? 

Borda will be presented in Plovdiv just days after its world premiere.

“Brazil’s miraculous choreographer” - Financial Times

“In her hands, dance is an act of activism. Lia Rodrigues has been using movement for more than 40 years to break down barriers, put art within everyone's reach and argue – lyrically and persuasively – for more inclusion and diversity.” - France24

Born in 1956 in São Paulo, Brazil, Lia Rodrigues studied classical ballet and history at the University of São Paulo (USP), where she took part in the city’s contemporary dance movement in the ‘70s. In 1980, she joined Maguy Marin’s company for two years. Once back in Brazil ten years later, she founded Lia Rodrigues Companhia de Danças in Rio de Janeiro, offering a year-round programme of research, creations, classes and rehearsals. In 1992 she established the Panorama festival in Rio and ran it for 14 years. 

Since 2004, her company has supported educational and creative activities in the Mare Favela in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with NGOs. This partnership gave rise to the Maré Arts Centre, which opened in 2009; and to the Maré free dance school, open since October 2011. Combining dance and activism on themes such as racism, inequality and poverty, Rodrigues demonstrates the synergy between art and social processes. She works with dancers from the favela, as well as performers from diverse backgrounds and physiques. At the crossroads between performance, plastic arts and dance, her work moves the body outside its comfort zone. 

Her works include: Ce dont nous sommes faits (2000), Formas Breves (2002) Incarnat (2005), Chantiers poétiques (2008), Pororoca (2009), Piracema (2011), Pindorama (2013), Para que o Céu nao Caia (2016), Fúria (2018) and Encantado (2021). The show Encantado, after receiving international success, brought its creator a nomination for the most prestigious award in the world of contemporary dance - The Rose International Dance Prize of the prestigious Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, with a final announcement in early 2025. 

Lia Rodrigues has received the medal of the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France; the Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands in 2014; and the Prix Chorégraphie de la SACD in France in 2016. She was named best choreographer of 2019 by Tanz magazine, and received the Prix de la Critique Danse for “dance personality” in 2020.