Tanzfestival Rhein-Main 2026 – Moving Democracy

Spotlight: Lia Rodrigues & Associates

As the Spotlight Artist for Tanzfestival Rhein-Main Lia Rodrigues offers an insight into her work with two pieces. At the same time, she has invited four other Brazilian artists with whom she feels a close affinity. They will present their own pieces as associates of Lia Rodrigues.

Hardly any choreographer combines her artistic work with social engagement as resolutely as Lia Rodrigues. The Brazilian choreographer founded her Companhia de Danças in 1990 and has developed it into one of the most influential companies in contemporary dance. For over 20 years she has worked in the Centro de Artes da Maré in one of the largest favelas in Rio de Janeiro. Here, for Rodrigues, dance has become a place to meet, learn and participate in society. Works have been created out of this close connection between art and everyday life that link global issues with specific lived realities.

Rodrigues develops a choreographic language in which the body, subject matter, voices and spaces continuously enter new relationships. Her works revolve around community and belonging, around how we treat nature and resources, around inequality and the question of whether people can live together despite social fragmentation. Rodrigues creates imposing stage worlds of great physical power that understand the body as a site of experience, resistance and change.

With this spotlight 2026’s Tanzfestival conveys a multi-faceted impression of the work of one of Brazil’s best-known choreographers that transcends her own creations. This expansion of the programme reflects one of Lia Rodrigues’s strongest views, as she consistently sees her works as being influenced and permeated by those of others.