In our ongoing Edinburgh Fringe 2026 interview series, we are speaking to artists and creatives who are bringing their shows to the Scottish capital this summer.
In this interview, we speak with the team behind Border Bodies to learn more about their show.
What can you tell me about your show?
Border Bodies (“Corpos de Fronteira” in Portuguese) is an innately collaborative “urban contemporary” dance piece centered on exploring the beautiful and vast heterogeneity of humankind, and our intrinsic need to connect. We are incredibly proud to be bringing it to the Edinburgh Fringe as part of the official São Paulo Showcase 2026. Through movement, the show unravels ideas of hierarchy, prejudice, and separation. It is the physical realization of our company’s distinctive practice of dance-research, creating a unique performance rooted in rituals of sharing and exchange. On stage, our seven dancers bring a thematic boiling pot of intricate motifs—intertwining and colliding like atoms, moving together and apart—to explore what “the collective” (the joined, the connected, the associated) truly means for us as humans. Ultimately, it is a fearless show that dually explores the contemporary questions of our time and inspires conversations that look toward a collective future.
How would you describe the style of your show to anyone who has never seen you before?
T.F. Dance Company is a diverse group of artists with different dance backgrounds. Its foundations are based on hip hop dance culture, but from a contemporary perspective. Our techniques and codes are redefined inside the dramaturgy that values the encounter between the differences. Building upon this, we have created something collective, strong, and powerful that aims to transcend the racial and social boundaries that had led us to believe we are so divided. We are a Brazilian cast that thinks about and performs contemporary dance, going beyond the stereotypes of what is internationally expected of Brazil.
What was the lightbulb moment that led to the creation of this piece?
Imagine something that makes you scream internally. Think of a pain so heavy that it becomes impossible to externalize. Reflect on how painful it can be to exist in a world that separates people, nations, and territories. Recognize that some people are endowed with significant privileges, while others survive by enduring various forms of violence simply for being who they are: women, LGBTQIAPN+ people, people with disabilities, and those from marginalized communities. This pain is real. It exists constantly. Is there anything we can do? In our case, we decided to dance together. It was in this collective, formed by different people, that we crossed the borders that separate us to, ideally, deconstruct, question, and reinvent more plural ways of co-existing.
What makes 2026 the perfect year for this specific story or performance?
It's never too late to cross the borders that separate us as peoples, individuals, and artists! Bringing the artistic practice of T.F. Dance Company at the world's largest Performing Arts Festival honors the continuous research of 24 uninterrupted years carried out by an independent group that insists on making dance professionally in Brazil, despite conditions far from ideal. Internationalization is necessary. It's about blurring borders and acknowledging that there is a great deal of high-quality dance being performed in the Southern Hemisphere. With a well-tuned cast, works acclaimed by diverse audiences across Brazil, and research recognized by critics, this award-winning company is now taking flight.
How will you mentally and physically prepare for a run at the Fringe?
The repertoire of T.F. Dance Company is intense. To handle a month-long season with consecutive performances, advanced physical preparation is vital—and we are already diving into it. Physical conditioning classes have been integrated into our rehearsal routines alongside the individual training each dancer already maintains. Beyond the physical demands, we are talking a lot, fine-tuning the details, and developing ideas together so that we can enjoy this experience fully and healthily.
If you couldn’t use a flyer to attract audiences, what ridiculous object would you hand out to people to get them into your show?
Stretched Elastic Band.
The stretched elastic band emerges as a conceptual image when thinking about the border bodies present in the work: bodies that exist in a continuous state of negotiation between approach and distancing, containment and the desire for encounter. Like matter subjected to tension, these bodies accumulate social, affective, and political forces that stretch them without necessarily breaking them. The power of the collective appears precisely in this elastic condition, in which the movement of one inevitably reverberates in the other, producing displacements, instabilities, and micro-fissures in the structures that organize physical and symbolic territories. In a context marked by distancing, the work recognizes that connections persist even without direct contact; there is a shared vibration that keeps the bodies linked, traversed by memories, urgencies, and mutual presences. The elastic, therefore, does not present itself as an object, but as a relational state: an invisible force that continuously stretches, connects, and reorganizes the ways of being together.
What is the one item in your Fringe Survival Kit that you can’t live without this month?
I imagine a huge notebook filled with contacts, names, groups, companies, schedules, and experiences to be organized and lived throughout an entire month of the Festival—all of this combined with the immense resilience required to be on stage daily, experiencing the physical pain of intense work, while deeply recognizing the privilege and joy of being a part of it all.
What would you deem as success at the end of the Fringe?
Our goal is to transcend real and symbolic borders. May this work connect with diverse audiences, and may Edinburgh tremble with us! May T.F. Dance Company move, provoke reflection, and represent Brazil beautifully, having been selected as the only dance piece in the São Paulo Showcase. May critics recognize the power of this creation and the presence of these people—mostly marginalized individuals—experiencing their first performance tour in Europe. May it endure, perpetuate itself, and find other ways to continue crossing the territorial borders of this world.
Other than your own show, are there any other shows you would recommend at the Fringe this year?
Brazil will be represented by the “São Paulo Showcase”, and T.F. Dance Company was the dance group selected to join this incredible showcase line-up. I also highly recommend following the other theater, music, and circus groups selected by the State of São Paulo to participate in the Festival. I am certain that the diversity of works and artistic languages will substantially enrich the understanding of art created in Brazil, moving far beyond stereotypes.
What is one Edinburgh spot that you would recommend people to visit when they're not watching performances?
This will be our debut at the Edinburgh Fringe! In addition to our production, Border Bodies, we will be leading a contemporary urban dance workshop, sharing the artistic research behind the piece. Organized by Dance Base, this workshop will take place on the first Sunday of the Festival, August 9th. Beyond our schedule and the “São Paulo Showcase”, the Festival features an incredible lineup of shows across varying styles. However, the magic of the Fringe doesn't only happen on stage; we hope to cross paths with many of you in bars, cafes, museums, and on the streets. It is through these spontaneous encounters that we hope to spark a true exchange of cultures, arts, and emotions.
Can you describe the show in 5 words?
Diverse, colliding, fiercely seeking connection.
or
Shared vibration, blurring all borders
What keeps you inspired?
We are Brazilians, and the conditions here are far from ideal. Every single day is a new challenge to find ways to live and survive through dance. It is a constant cycle of envisioning projects and fighting for their feasibility—of maintaining an independent company for over 20 years without ever knowing if support will come. Metaphorically, it’s about paying for the artists' lunch today without knowing if you can afford dinner tonight. I work with dancers from the city's peripheries who navigate vastly diverse realities, but a fierce belief in art and education as vehicles for social transformation is what keeps me inspired. Throughout this journey, I have trained countless artists who found their first professional footing at T.F. Dance Company. Many have gone on to soar independently; many others remain by our side in deep partnership. Ultimately, providing training, study, and stage experience for young artists is what has most fueled my life as a creator and educator all these years.
What would you hope someone takes away from seeing the show?
More than just watching a performance, the audience is invited to embark on a shared experience. Border Bodies proposes a poetic and political exploration of the boundaries that organize bodies in contemporary society—spanning physical, affective, and symbolic territories. On stage, different corporealities create friction within relationships, belonging, and unity, evoking images that oscillate between tension and catharsis. Through proximity and distance, the work calls upon the spectators to recognize the pre-existing boundaries within themselves, ultimately discovering the possibility of collectively reinterpreting them.
When and where can people see the show?
You can catch Border Bodies at Dance Base DB3, running 7-30 August at 5:15pm!
Tickets for Border Bodies are available from https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/border-bodies
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