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An inspiring and moving celebration of Katherina Radeva's 40 years as a woman, a migrant and an artist. Claiming space on a dance floor, she dances with joyous abundance and presents stories of her past, present and future. From the little girl dancing at her parents' student parties, to the teenage rhythm gymnast who was body-shamed, to the creative who refuses to be categorised we see a choreography of all the joys and sorrows of 40 years. Radeva is an irresistible performer whose authenticity and generosity shines in this life-affirming piece from award-winning Two Destination Language. MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
A dance theatre piece that follows six dancers as they grow up and mature. They chase two things, two key concepts: a Star, what they want to be, and a Pearl, who they truly are. As we age, we face hardships and epiphanies whilst reaching up to our star and down to our pearl. A contemporary dance show with influences of hip hop, gymnastics, jazz and ballet, this show is for any artist who doesn't or does feel like they know their place in this world.
theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall
Grand Theatre
Authentic Afro acrobatics and African performing arts. Featuring dance, music, performing arts, acrobatics, limbo, contortion, suspension and juggling.
theSpaceTriplex
Big
Poignant dance-theatre production by Apsaras Dance Company that brings to life the deeply human stories of refugees. Inspired by Artistic Director Aravinth Kumarasamy’s own experiences, it explores displacement, identity and resilience through a compelling blend of Bharatanatyam, theatre and poetry. Drawing on works of celebrated Tamil poets and voices of refugee youth, Agathi captures the emotional turmoil, stigma and hope that define the refugee journey. Reimagined in collaboration with Ivan Heng, this powerful work challenges perceptions and invites audiences to see beyond headlines, offering a moving call for empathy, understanding and shared humanity.CastStoryteller | Seema HarikumarDancers | Mohanapriyan Thavarajah, Devapriya Appan, Meera Balasubramanian, Nikita Menon, Maanasa Sri Ganesh, Janani Arun KumarVocals | Chithra Poornima Sathish and Karthik RaveendranMridangam | T RamananPercussion | Ganapathi VenkatasubramaniamViolin | Easwar RamakrishnanFlute | Vishnu VijayaArtistic Director | Aravinth KumarasamyDramaturg | Ivan HengChoreographer | Mohanapriyan ThavarajahNarration and Scriptwriter | Audrey PereraScript Consultant | Alfian Sa’atCollaborative Choreographers | Renjith Babu and Vijna VasudevanMusic composers | Chitra Poornima Sathish and Karthik RaveendranCostume Design | Mohanapriyan ThavarajahOriginal Stage and Lighting Design | Gyandev SinghLighting Design | Albert WileoWardrobe and Hairstyling | Selvy Radhakrishnan, NagaletchmiBalasubramaniam, Sankari ElavazhahanAudio Support | Gayatri SachidanandarSurtitle Support | Jothsna Akilanwww.apsarasarts.cominstagram.com/apsaradancecompany
C ARTS | C venues | C aquila
temple
With their stylized, signature fusion of multi-disciplinary dance and theatre, Suitcase Dance Theatre embarks on a spellbinding odyssey through a dreamy world of rhythm and movement. Tap, jazz and contemporary styles collide and intertwine, chasing human connection through shiny distractions that shimmer, mislead and seduce. Beneath the polish and pulse, the journey quietly reveals a deeper truth; the connection they seek has been there all along, hidden in plain sight. **** (Mervyn Stutter's Pick of the Fringe). **** (Edinburgh Festivals Magazine).
theSpace @ Niddry St
Upper Theatre
A woman walks into a café. She orders a coffee. The barista doesn't understand her request. The woman loses her sh*t. Chaos reigns. This off-beat collaboration between award-winning playwright Vivienne Franzmann, and choreographer and psychotherapist Frauke Requardt, brings together 22 very different eyewitness accounts of one everyday altercation to show how our nervous systems are stuck in the Stone Age. Performed by two dancers, an actor and a drummer (and one bear), Anatomy of Survival is a show for all the nervous systems in the auditorium. Come and feel the rise and fall of yours.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Ayre is a multi-disciplinary, family-friendly performance inspired by flamenco, Indian dance, Scottish folk, Brazilian rhythms and other world music and dance traditions. It invites audiences to explore 'air' as the invisible thread connecting breath, rhythm and emotion across cultures. Within Ayre, presence emerges, gesture becomes language and diverse traditions recognise themselves in a shared pulse. Featuring multiple singers, instruments and dances, the show offers a rich and engaging experience for all ages. Children and adults are immersed in a vibrant world of sound, movement and languages. Ayre is not simply a fusion of styles, but a return to origin.
Edinburgh New Town Church
The Nave
Erain (Jarraibiderik Gabe) is a young company formed by two highly skilled dancers who have recently developed this creation. The piece proposes a suggestive dialogue between bodies and objects, opening a space where materials, play, and transformation become compositional tools. Through a careful balance of physical rigour and imaginative imagery, the work invites multiple readings while maintaining a strong sensory clarity. Helena Wilhelmsson (Trembling Frequencies), a Swedish dancer long based in the Basque Country, presents her first choreographic work: a solo that unfolds within a deeply emotional landscape.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Fringe favourites the Black Blues Brothers return with their electrifying, family-friendly show. Having wowed over 65,000 Fringe spectators, they are back at McEwan Hall, ready to amaze audiences once again. Set in a smoky train station and driven by an unforgettable rock’n’roll soundtrack, expect jaw-dropping acrobatics, towering human pyramids and gravity-defying stunts. Featuring iconic music by Glenn Miller, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, this is the ultimate experience for all ages. After five smash-hit Fringe seasons and appearances at the Royal Variety Show and the Moulin Rouge, this feel-good phenomenon is truly unmissable.
Underbelly Bristo Square
McEwan Hall
A plurality of bodies beyond their visible social markers. Despite their diverse backgrounds artists unite believing that even different individualities empower each other when they act as one. In times of social segregation, we deal with a crossing of the mental boundaries and not just the physical ones. Border Bodies desires to acknowledge the portrait of humanity: collective, clustered, seeking interactions and associations. In the midst of the silence of distancing, we rediscover and invent ways of being together. On stage, hierarchies between social roles are tested, questioned and reorganized. The show is part of São Paulo Showcase.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Using only visual storytelling, dance and acrobatics, this award-winning duo show explores the experience of growing up transgender in an Asian American immigrant household, and the connection between siblings each navigating their own relationship to gender. Winner of multiple Best of Fringe awards and named 'groundbreaking work' by FringeReview. 'It’s a testament to how well-crafted this show is that it can be so specific and yet feel so universal at the same time' (Matthew Palm, Orlando Sentinel). Performed by Landyn Endo and Kapi Lee. Created by Genie Cartier, Landyn Endo and Os Roxas. Produced by Flying Rabbit Circus.
theSpaceTriplex
Big
A contemporary stage adaptation of Lillian Lee’s acclaimed novel based on the legend of the White Snake, produced by the National Theatre of China and directed by Tian Qinxin. The story follows two serpent spirits who take on human form to seek love and freedom in the mortal world. While one pursues a conventional human life through marriage, the other is more sensual and rebellious. Their intertwined fates lead to betrayal, sacrifice, and an epic confrontation. Blending myth, passion, and psychological depth, Green Snake explores love, identity, and the cost of becoming human in a visually-striking drama.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
A solo dance-theatre work following an immigrant dancer chasing her New York dream. Through movement, spoken word and simple props, the piece traces the city’s dazzling promise, restless speed and the collision of visa uncertainty, fleeting romance, friendship, and loneliness. As hope of staying meets bureaucratic scrutiny, the performer confronts her identity beyond ambition and approval. Intimate and immersive, the work blends humour and melancholy, offering a tender portrait of longing, resilience and the courage to seek light in a shifting city.
theSpaceTriplex
Big
Step into the world of Saint Edgar, where elegance meets audacity and every step tells a story. One suit. One tie. One transformation. Candyman: Saint Edgar's first burlesque act, built on comedy, dance, tease, and a little something you won’t see coming. Turns out one taste would never be enough… Candyman grew, evolved, and refused to be contained. A show about identity, liberation, and the freedom of dance. From the electric precision of quickstep to the sultry swagger of jive, Edgar peels back the layers to reveal something that changes everything you thought you knew.instagram.com/edgar_andersen/ Watch Trailer
C ARTS | C venues | C aquila
studio
A hybrid performance blending movement, storytelling and meditative stillness. Carpathyo explores how we consciously choose the future we live through body, mind and awareness. Through embodied presence and shifting perception – the work invites audiences into a space where inner experience becomes visible and changeable. Drawing from performance, meditation and lived inquiry, this piece moves between stillness and expression: offering a sensory and reflective journey into becoming.
Greenside @ George Street
Sprout Studio
An authentic Scottish experience in a historic church, with dance teacher and caller Ken Gourlay, and a ceilidh band. All dances walked through and called. Good exercise and great fun. 'It's so joyful' (Audience review). Alcoholic and soft drinks available in the venue. 5-minute warm up begins at 19:55. Please see warnings section for further information on dress code and mobile phone usage.
St Cuthbert's Church
Main Sanctuary
Bringing together the National Youth Dance Companies of Scotland and Wales for a night of bold choreography, the programme celebrates the power of dance, blending distinct cultural influences with cutting-edge contemporary dance. In a dynamic double-bill of new commissions expect vibrant ensemble movement, intimate duets and striking costumes, as emerging performers push their technique, artistry and imagination to new heights. This collaboration is a celebration of connection, with infectious energy, fierce precision and moments of breathtaking tenderness. These rising stars offer a glimpse of what dance in the UK can become.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
Dance Base’s two in-house companies PRIME (for over 60s) and Lothian Youth Dance Company (for 14-21 year-olds) come together to explore the pressures we all face. This double bill will feature new pieces created over the past year by PRIME’s Artistic Director Kally Lloyd-Jones, as well as guest choreographers Malcolm Sutherland, Tough Boys Collective and Rosie Mackley.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
A visually striking dance theatre work blending street dance with epic storytelling. A modern family discovers a mysterious relic that unlocks a legacy of resilience and purpose. Myth, history and imagination collide, as universal themes of identity, courage and destiny are revealed. Driven by internationally recognised street dancers, the production combines dynamic choreography, bold visuals and innovative staging. At its heart, it explores what we inherit – from family and humanity – and invites audiences to reconnect with their inner strength and move forward with confidence.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
There are different dances performed by various ethnic groups in Ghana. They include Adowa, Bamaya, Kpalongo, Agbekor, Cow Dance, Kundum, Tokwe, Fisherman. Each dance has its unique rhythm and tempo, which is determined by the music played. The music and the dance are often used to tell stories, celebrate events and express emotions. The popularity of Ghanaian dance has led to the creation of dance schools and workshops around the world. Ghanaian dance has also been featured in major cultural events like the Olympics and the World Cup.
Ghillie Dhu
Auditorium
Busan International Dance Festival presents the next generation of Korean choreographers in a double bill featuring Kim Hyung-min’s DeRuWa, where five dancers are propelled by an accelerating beat, and Hwang Jungeun’s Hazy, a captivating, visceral and intimate solo.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
Wordless stories inspire wonder, second glances and reimagined possibilities. Silent storytellers lead audiences through dynamic adventure. From a quiet bus stop to the explosive Big Bang, with a cooking show and a lakeside memory between. Funny, tender and totally original, this piece celebrates the expressive power of the body and the art of mime. With no spoken dialogue, it reveals just how much can be said without saying a thing. From a hit run at Adelaide Fringe, and created by members of NYC’s Broken Box Mime Theater, this is visual storytelling at its most inventive. **** (List).
Underbelly Bristo Square
Dairy Room
A contemporary dance inspired by the Chinese mythological creature – a creature composed of many parts. Six dancers gather, transform and evolve from individual bodies into one collective organism. Inspired by dragon boat rituals and the ancient philosophy of circular movement found in Eastern practices such as Tai Chi, the choreography investigates transformation, balance, and the flowof energy between organic and artificial systems, with the introduction of a robotic arm as a competing dragon. Finally body and machine merge into a hybrid form, reflecting on the evolving relationship between humanity, nature and technology.Performers | Yingxin Lyu, Tela Chu, Yujia Chen, Chuanbao Huang, Joey Zhu, Dongli DuanDirected and Choreographed | YoChen YehProduced by | Xintian ZhaoMusic Composed by | Zhang YimengMultimedia Artist | Juice CuiArt Installation | Ki Leung, Hsinsyuan KaoCreative Technologist | Joseph WanCostume Designer | Jiang YifanPhotographer and Editor | Gengyao Li
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
What lies beneath the surface of who we appear to be? This visually immersive choreographic work explores memory, identity, and emotional tension through the body. Drawing on colour psychology and the contrast between red and blue, this new dance piece reveals shifting inner states – between control and inner conflict, concealment and openness. As masks begin to dissolve, fragments of memory and lived experience emerge. Blending movement, colour, and perception, Echoes of Being invites audiences into a reflective space, where the boundary between performer and observer blurs, and traces of existence come into view.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
From the Latin feralis, meaning a plant or animal that returns to a wild state after being domesticated (or, alternatively, one that never was). A vocal-sound performance delving into processes of sexualization, objectification, and the empowerment of personal pleasure. Josefina weaves a narrative of her journey – from a hypersexualized childhood to an adulthood where pleasure finds new avenues of exploration through domination, sex work, and BDSM. The performance unfolds in an intimate setting, featuring a live-sound recording and playback setup alongside other sex technologies that accompany the storytelling. Feral is a defence of the object over the human.Created and performed | Josefina CerdaMask created by | Pedro Gramegna, John AlvarezProsthetic | O'Ryan LabAdministration, production and distribution | Ébana Garín and Roni Isola - Fundación Cuerpo Surinstagram.com/josafana/
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
studio
Daniel Martinez returns with his new venture: Flamenco Fringe. Each year, Daniel brings incredible flamenco artists to the stage for a thrilling, authentic flamenco tablao. 2026's edition will feature Daniel himself joined by sensational singers, Inma Montero and Danielo Olivera, skilfull percussionist Julian Ticotico and three spectacular dancers; Gabriela Pouso, Jara Perez and Maria Insa. This exceptional ensemble unites on stage for a show-stopping, unmissable celebration of flamenco culture, music and dance. Experience the artistry and beauty of flamenco in its purest form through breathtaking footwork, fiery energy and mesmerising choreography. Venue offers tapa and drink packages!
Yotel Edinburgh
Imaginex
An inspired, powerful and elegant piece with Flamenco dance and guitar. Aylin Bayaz’s contemporary flamenco dance combines strength, elegance and beauty. Raul Mannola's music draws on Flamenco, Brazilian music and jazz, giving depth and colour. Bayaz’s dance and Mannola’s music fuse together to produce an unique show of beauty and inspiration.‘Flamencodanza is more than just a show – it’s a breathtaking journey, with its fusion of tradition and contemporary flair… leaving an enduring impression on every fortunate spectator’ (Dancelife.com.au)‘Flamencodanza is hot, and you won’t see anything else like it’ (TheStageRaw.com)‘Mannola is amazing to watch. He does not “play” the guitar, he dominates it’ (TheTVolution.com)'An audience favourite' (Hudson Theatre, Hollywood)‘Pure artistry and emotional tour de force’ (LouReviews.blog)Best Dance and Physical Theatre, Hollywood Fringe 2022Award for Artistic Merit, Hollywood Fringe 2023Choreography and Dance by | Aylin BayazMusic by | Raul Mannolawww.eflamencodanza.comfacebook.com/aylinbayazinstagram.com/aylinbayaz/ Watch Trailer
C ARTS | C venues | C digital
portal – on demand
An inspired, powerful and elegant piece with Flamenco dance and guitar. Aylin Bayaz’s contemporary flamenco dance combines strength, elegance and beauty. Raul Mannola's music draws on Flamenco, Brazilian music and jazz, giving depth and colour. Bayaz’s dance and Mannola’s music fuse together to produce an unique show of beauty and inspiration.‘Flamencodanza is more than just a show – it’s a breathtaking journey, with its fusion of tradition and contemporary flair… leaving an enduring impression on every fortunate spectator’ (Dancelife.com.au)‘Flamencodanza is hot, and you won’t see anything else like it’ (TheStageRaw.com)‘Mannola is amazing to watch. He does not “play” the guitar, he dominates it’ (TheTVolution.com)'An audience favourite' (Hudson Theatre, Hollywood)‘Pure artistry and emotional tour de force’ (LouReviews.blog)Best Dance and Physical Theatre, Hollywood Fringe 2022Award for Artistic Merit, Hollywood Fringe 2023Choreography and Dance by | Aylin BayazMusic by | Raul Mannolawww.eflamencodanza.comfacebook.com/aylinbayazinstagram.com/aylinbayaz/
C ARTS | C venues | C alto
theatre
When a hyperactive mother (ADHD) and a gaming-obsessed son (Autism Spectrum Condition) meet head on, there's a collision worthy of any blockbuster movie. An intimate dive into intergenerational neurodiversity, Fringe First Award winners (Everything I See I Swallow, 2019) bring you Forgive Me – an innovative, highly personal solo show that fuses skilled pole performance, video projection and song (plus a bit of gameplay!). 'A gorgeous evocation of intergenerational schism and mutual understanding' **** (Independent). 'Fierce, unapologetic, thought-provoking and radical as f*ck' ***** (TheCircusDiaries.com). 'Hypnotic and exquisitely choreographed' **** (Stage).
Summerhall Festival
TechCube 0
'A love song – or dance – to Taiwan... I could watch this all day long. It’s magical' **** (TheatreWeekly.com). 'A heartfelt exploration of Taiwan’s 500-year history' *** (BroadwayBaby.com). Formosa Viva is a bold fusion of contemporary dance, physical theatre and visual storytelling. Eight performers trace 500 years of Taiwan’s history, from Indigenous roots and colonial struggle to democracy today. Through powerful choreography, light and rhythm, it explores resilience, transformation and identity. After touring to Avignon, Edinburgh and Adelaide, this dance work returns to the Edinburgh Fringe, inviting audiences on an emotional journey through culture, memory and hope.
Paradise in Augustines
Sanctuary
Catch a glimpse of the next big thing at Dance Base’s Fringe Fragments. An industry pitching platform open to audiences, Fringe Fragments spotlights dance makers from Scotland and around the world as they share 15-minute excerpts of tour-ready performances
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
Powerful, raw and emotional, Glass Child goes beyond fiction and theatre to showcase the extraordinary love of two siblings, Kayah, a young man with Down syndrome and his sister Maitreyah. Expressed through dance, theatre and storytelling Glass Child highlights their connection and how their lives have been affected by other people's perceptions. Maitreyah has watched Kayah be ridiculed or ignored without understanding why. By bravely sharing their own experience they ask the rest of us to look at how we meet others and why we search for difference when we share so much in common.
Summerhall Festival
Old Lab
Les Foutoukours return to Edinburgh with Glob, a circus adventure like no other! Without a single word, two lovable characters tumble, glide and soar through the unknown. Join them as they discover a world that is tender, magical and wonderfully absurd. They’ll make you laugh, gasp and cheer – all while tugging at your heart. For anyone who needs the world to slow down just a little, Glob is a wordless journey where emotion speaks louder than words. Perfect for all ages, it will delight and enchant audiences, young and old. Don’t miss this unforgettable ride!
Underbelly Bristo Square
McEwan Hall
From the critically acclaimed, award-winning company behind Mass Effect and Champions comes a brand-new performance celebrating imperfection, queer joy and the courage to find your tribe. Good Enough? is a queer, quirky and boisterous physical theatre performance about reclaiming your story and having the courage to be loud, awkward and unapologetically yourself. This is not a show about perfect bodies or polished dancers. It's about the instinct to move, to express and to be seen – especially when language isn't enough.
Summerhall Festival
Main Hall
Guru Dudu and the team return to Edinburgh with their hilarious and engaging tours. Daily tours of spontaneous flash mobs through the streets, interpretative dance around local landmarks, group singing and lots of fun interaction with onlookers. Everyone wears headphones (supplied) and can hear the hilarious commentary and dance mix of uplifting favourites from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. Accessible for all ages and ability. Come prepared if raining. Tickets available at door if not sold out. See www.gurududu.org/fringe for more information on the theme of each tour (Queen, Abba, 80s or 90s).
Cockburn Street at corner of Fleshmarket Close
Meeting Point
Guru Dudu and the team return to Edinburgh with their hilarious and engaging tours. Daily tours of spontaneous flash mobs through the streets, interpretative dance around local landmarks, group singing and lots of fun interaction with onlookers. Everyone wears headphones (supplied) and can hear the hilarious commentary and dance mix of uplifting favourites from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. Accessible for all ages and ability. Come prepared if raining. Tickets available at door if not sold out. See www.gurududu.org/fringe for more information on the theme of each tour (Queen, Abba, 80s or 90s).
Outside Appleton Tower, Crichton Street
Meeting Point
HK Soul is providing a platform for the artists' unique voices that resonate across cultures. Justyne's Gemini delves into the tension between conscious and subconscious minds, using unconventional movements to explore control and surrender, reimagining the body as a displaced vessel devoid of its inner soul. Blue's Romantic 4:48am (The Neighbor's Neighbor) poses a haunting query: Do you seek to draw near, or fear being heard? It follows a solitary woman orchestrating strangers amid echoes of unspoken memories from her past home.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
If home is lost, destroyed and you have nothing left, and no one to turn to, what do you do? This show is about finding home. Using cutting edge projection, live video feed, original immersive media and unbridled, athletic enthusiasm, you will witness a wild odyssey toward a crazy version of home and belonging. From the state of Louisiana in the deep south of the United States, LSU Theatre world premiere’s their ninth new devised piece to the Fringe. Founding member of Diavolo, Nick Erickson, directs the company using dance, acrobatics and innovation to tell this timeless story.
Paradise in Augustines
Sanctuary
A contemporary dance performance exploring the subtle process of shedding imposed identities and social expectations. It examines how professional roles and societal norms shape, even constrain, the body. On stage, garments such as stiff-collared shirts, structured workwear, and cinched dresses become visible markers of internalized discipline and expectation. Through shared movement and interaction, I Don’t Care traces a journey: from unconscious endurance, to the awakening of discomfort, to collaborative acts of removal, and finally to the emergence of the self as the symbolic layers are stripped away, to reveal the long hidden authentic selves.Performed by | Jiarong Yu, Yen-Ning Yi, Jiayu Zhou, Yu-Chen ChiuChoreographer | Jie ZhouProducer | Hui-Hsin LuPhotographer | Katie HoComposed by | Balfours Juncheng Su
C ARTS | C venues | C aquila
temple
Nine girls. One dorm. Zero filter. A movement-led dance theatre piece set at a 1990s college dorm party, where performers respond physically to music instead of text. Using popular songs, the work explores friendship, identity, nostalgia and moments of change. Created by the UK’s first Meisner-based movement theatre company, the piece uses a unique method merging acting and movement, so no two performances are ever the same. Funny, tender, chaotic and sincere, it offers an emotionally direct, deeply relatable experience shaped by music and memory.
theSpaceTriplex
Big
A new collaboration by choreographer Karl Jay-Lewin and composer Matteo Fargion. If I Can’t Dance I’m Not Coming reframes Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece Metropolis, translating silent cinema into a rigorous choreographic score. Performed by an eclectic ensemble of eight, the work rejects virtuosity in favour of dignity, threading humour, rebellion and flashes of tenderness through a democratic creative process. Extending Jay-Lewin and Fargion’s acclaimed Extremely series, the work resonates with quiet political force. www.MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
On the motionless nights of the Karst summer, a call crosses the dark: keu... keu... The scops owl sings, hidden among branches, revealing itself only through its voice. From this image, Compagnia Bellanda shapes a visceral duet on love's fragile threshold – between desire and control, tenderness and aggression, guidance and surrender. Rooted in breaking and evolving into intimate partnering, the choreography entwines bodies, breath and stripped language. Sound is amplified, fractured, returned as memory. Suspended between choice and destiny, the performers inhabit a space where empathy resists rupture and a single word may alter two lives.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
A one-woman physical theatre performance about living with bipolar disorder. Through movement, Ella's world shifts between emotional highs and lows-bursts of energy, creativity and confidence giving way to doubt, exhaustion and collapse. Past trauma surfaces without warning, disrupting the present and blurring time. Where words fail, the body keeps moving, and the only silence is her heartbeat. The piece reveals the inner conflict and pressure of these rapid changes, showing how they affect both mind and body. This is a non-linear journey through instability, survival and the ongoing effort to find balance and healing.
theSpace @ Niddry St
Lower Theatre
Les Echos de la Rue / Sab'R: Detours Festival Working Progress Awards Winners. Discover the two award-winning shows from the Detours Festival: Sab'r, a one-woman krump show that combines femininity and introspection, and Les Échos de la Rue, featuring five breakers who transcend urban and personal struggles.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
This powerful performance explores the enduring spirit of freedom within the Ukrainian people, fusing contemporary choreography with traditional movement, and choral expression. At its heart, Liberty is a story of connection – between past and present, between adults and children – and the role of cultural roots in preserving identity across generations. It reflects on the resilience, hope, and inner strength that define a nation fighting not only for its land, but for its future, and highlights how cultural roots act as an anchor that enables individuals to remain free in spirit even in the face of adversity.Performed by | The Flowers of Ukraine, Harmony Choir, Starlight, MyWay, Karina Cherviakova, Nataliia Khomenko, FreedomSTEPUA, Elzara BatalovaCreated and Composed by | Tetiana HordiienkoCreative Director | Tetiana HordiienkoDirected by Tetiana HordiienkoProduced by | Mission of InnocentsProject Managers | Olga Vivchar, Nataliia Pidruchna, Flora LangSound and Technical Operator | Ihor Pisklovwww.missionofinnocents.orgfacebook.com/profile/UkrainiankidsclubinEdinburghinstagram.com/missionofinnocents
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
An abstract dance dialogue about peace, violence, and the relationship between the self and society. It explores how global conflicts seep into attitudes, bodies, and relationships, examining the roots of violence and the fading art of dialogue, while searching for where peace begins – and where it ends? Through intense physical proximity, the choreography unfolds an investigation of violence as a learned pattern—and of peace as a fragile, active process. It invites the audience to question their own beliefs and prejudices, and to reflect on individual responsibility within a broader social context.Performed by | Doris Lingenau and Gleb BondarevCreated by | Darja ReznikovaChoreography by | Darja Reznikova and Sade Mamedova in collaboration with the dancersMusic and Voice Composition by | Sabio JaniakDramaturgical Assistance by | Angela WendtLighting Design | Stefan GrießhaberCostume Design | Natalia MoskvychovaSet Design | Elena NekrasovaVideography (Teaser) | Tadas AlmantasVideography (Trailer and Full production) | DeDa Productionswww.sobopro.comfacebook.com/SoundBodyProductionsinstagram.com/soboproductions/
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
An interdisciplinary mixed-media performance blending South Asian classical-contemporary dance, interactive projection, spoken word and live audience encounter. Created by Theiya Arts in collaboration with academics from Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society at University of Edinburgh, the work explores gender, power and resistance through a transnational intersectional feminist lens. For Fringe 2026, it is presented as a theatre adaptation. A layered, intimate and politically charged space where you are invited to move through an interactive exhibition environment before entering a live performance shaped by movement, projection art and collective reflection.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
'If you need an hour of positivity and wonderful dancing (and lots of good laughs!), this is one for you.' (TheEdinburghReporter.co.uk). An acclaimed performer delivers a vibrant dance/spoken word show. 70+, plus-sized lesbian artist shares intimate, queer-centred stories that celebrate inclusivity and urge audiences to chase their dreams. In Lucia’s fifth Edinburgh Fringe production, she premieres new work alongside timeless gems, weaving personal narratives from decades of experience into a powerful testament to authentic living and artistic passion. Lucia’s performance inspires viewers to push beyond their limits and pursue their life's ambitions.
Greenside @ George Street
Olive Studio
Rewrite her stories. Write her. A one-of-a-kind multidisciplinary performance rooted in Nüshu, the secret script of Chinese women. In this ritualistic solo work, Jiayi Chen uses her body as a living scroll, inscribing ancient characters onto her skin with traditional ink. Through live body calligraphy, inspiring contemporary dance, and an original soundscape, the piece becomes a haunting altar of memory, grief, and feminine resistance. The piece is a tribute to the missing women in Jiayi’s life, and a bold act of rewriting silenced histories through the body, voice, and art.‘Thoughtful and sincere… A beautiful mark that lingers… Nüshu stands out for its intimate, personal and poetic rhythm... I left feeling reflective and quietly uplifted’ (Edinburgh-Reviews.co.uk)‘A defiant distillation of stories into something simple, stoic, and deeply affecting’ (Scotsman)‘I would recommend it to anyone looking for something fresh at the Fringe this year’ **** (The Student)‘A delicate, shadowed world gives way to a story of resilience and voice’ **** (Scottish Field)Created, Written and Directed by | Jiayi ChenProduced by | The Great Her CICExecutive Producer | Ronny GaleProducers | Lintong Zhang, Ying YangStage Manager | Henry GaleDesigned by | Ash Lab Art StudioComposed by | Zhenqi Zhufacebook.com/Jiayi Cheninstagram.com/overelated/
C ARTS | C venues | C aquila
temple
Who are we when we’re together? When we’re alone? When we fight for what we believe in? Dance Base's in-house company for dancers over 60, PRIME explores the ways in which we can support each other to keep going, fighting and overcoming obstacles and also when we choose to surrender and accept. We Are premiers new work from recently appointed Artistic Director Kally Lloyd-Jones and guest choreographer Malcolm Sutherland.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
A wildly quirky piece of physical theatre from Japan. Watching PeoplePeople is like peering into the minds of its five characters: a professor, a punk, a pierrot, a patient and a pupil. The experience is strangely humanising and somewhat mad. The movements are carefully crafted and highly stylised through the unique theatrical language of Corporeal Mime. The characters speak in their native tongue (Japanese, Chinese, English). There is no story. There is no set. Just five people, being people, in their own surreal way.Created and performed by | Tomoki Nonaka, Ruxun Dai, Teruya Sugimoto, Masaya Tsujimoto and Harry DeanDirected by | Kentaro Suyama, Tania CokeAssistant Directed by | Yukiko MasuiMusic by | Tania Coke, Henry Morse, DreamylapseLighting Design and Projected Images by | Kentaro SuyamaProduced by | tarinainanikawww.tarinainanika.compatreon.com/tarinainanikafacebook.com/tarinainanikainstagram.com/tarinainanika Watch Trailer
C ARTS | C venues | C digital
portal – on demand
A performance by Corpo Máquina's artistic director Guilherme Miotto for pole dance virtuoso Yvonne Smink. With a live soundscape from musician/composer Isaac Poels. Pole dancer Yvonne Smink won the Dutch pole dancing championships multiple times and is a rising star internationally. In Poles, Guilherme highlights Yvonne's impressive technical strength and allows for joy to radiate from her no-nonsense appearance. With her down to earth approach and healthy blush, Yvonne makes her way through the steel pipe construction. At the cutting edge of personal and public space, she delivers chilling moments of physicality and intimacy.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
A contemporary butoh work, R/evolution(s) reimagines butoh for today while carrying its inheritance forward. It brings together Conan Amok – heir to the lineage of Dairakudakan, one of Japan's leading butoh companies – and contemporary dancers renewing the form from within. Grounded in Amok's 'multi layered body' method, developed through a fusion of butoh and sculptural practice, the work explores revolution as both orbit and radical transformation. Deep bass and wadaiko drums create a club-like ritual atmosphere, inviting audiences to encounter butoh anew. This work is part of Wings: International Dance Project by Dance Base Yokohama for Emerging Creators.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
Set against the dramatic backdrop of Devon’s coastline, Sand follows Dylan and Heather as they navigate the complexities of living with dementia. Together, they uncover profound truths about love, memory, and resilience, while coastal erosion symbolises life’s inevitable changes. Created by the acclaimed Kook Ensemble, SAND is a non-verbal circus theatre show that blends acrobatic skill with meticulously crafted storytelling. Through visually striking, emotionally resonant performances, the company brings the experiences of people living with dementia to life, offering audiences a deeply moving experience. A must watch!
Summerhall Festival
Main Hall
A dance theatre work exploring one man’s internal battle with depression, loss and memory. Combining choreography with cinematic imagery, S I C K delves into psychological tension and the presence of an unseen intruder shaped by grief. Created by choreographer Taira Foo, the piece draws on lived experience and collaboration with young people affected by mental health challenges. The words ‘elastic’, ‘space’ and ‘movement’ become metaphors for confinement and release, questioning whether hope can emerge when darkness feels overwhelming.Performed by | Matthew Brion, Asher Norridge, Anna Watkins, Laura Gibson, Lauren McGuire, Effie McGuire Ward, Joshua LeónCreated, Choreographed and Directed by | Taira FooProduced by | TF Dance CoFilmmaker | David KaplowitzSet Design by | Daniel LovellLighting Design by | Will DarkinCostume Design by | Taira FooMusic by | Joshua Pacey and Oliver LodgeAdditional Music by | HiatusThanks | Culture Co LB, Ali Lala, Drift Pro Dance and Movement, Laura Gibson Photography, Bernie Raffe, Hectors House, Bucks Mind, One Dance UK, Young Creative Bucks, Oxfam, The Salvation Army, Charlotte Kettridge, Clive Ketteridge, Aidan Pasquale, Archie Lovell, Victoria Stuartwww.tairafoo.com/sickfacebook.com/tairafoodancecoinstagram.com/tf_dance_coinstagram.com/s_i_c_k_bytfinstagram.com/taira_foo/
C ARTS | C venues | C digital
portal – on demand
Step into the vivid world of Japan, where traditional and modern collide. Through the spirit of samurai and elegance of oiran (historic Japanese courtesans), brought to life with dance, theatre, taiko drumming and acrobatics this non-verbal production delivers striking visual storytelling that transcends language, making it accessible to audiences worldwide.Performed by Asakusa Kaguwa, a Tokyo-based theatre company, the show blends cultural heritage with contemporary stagecraft. Its dynamic, immersive style and flexible omnibus format, means Samurai and Oira is continually evolving, offering a fresh and powerful experience for each different venue and audience.Performed and Directed | Kazumi NemotoPerformers | KAGUWA CompanyStage Manager and Taiko Performer | Shingowww.asakusa-kaguwa.comfacebook.com/AsakusaKaguwainstagram.com/asakusakaguwa Watch Trailer
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
In a surreal world of terracotta figures bound by rigid roles, each is trapped in an unchanging destiny. Armoured warriors must stare ahead, performers must always smile, and others remain forever fixed. A defiant cavalry figure breaks these rules, to be told they are only clay, not truly alive. Though doubt causes his body to crumble, he continues to move towards the :red sun” in his heart. Inspired, others also rebel, forming a caravan journeying against the flow of time through ancient cities, marketplaces, and battlefields, each searching for meaning, freedom, and their own inner truth.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
Snow White is boldly reimagined into a haunting exploration of beauty and control through striking, expressive choreography from Jacob Gutiérrez-Montoya, featuring a living mirror. Nostalgia and darkness blend to question perception, power, and the cost of perfection.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
Cosmic Dance presents Space In Between, a compelling South Asian dance triple bill by Oxana Banshikova, Kirsten Newell and Abirami Eswar, exploring tensions between intention and outcome, self and society. Rooted in Bharatanatyam and Kathak and expanded through contemporary movement, three interconnected works unfold. Time Matters reflects on regret and imagined alternate futures, Duality delves into inner conflict and identity, and Unspoken Alignment examines personal and collective misalignment. Together, these pieces reveal unseen forces shaping our choices, relationships and sense of self, offering a powerful, emotionally layered performance experience.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Using the body as my medium, I explore life and identity. I try to find my own place within the crowd and let go of unnecessary labels. I want to break down a disciplined body and cross its boundaries to discover a comfortable, natural way of dancing. We twist and tighten ourselves, hoping to become completely clear. We may spiral upwards in growth, but we can also spiral downwards, without knowing where life will take us. Every exploration helps me untie my inner knots. I long for a bright future, but I also fear the hardships there might be.
theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall
Grand Theatre
Springboard '26 is a curated programme of theatre, dance and physical theatre produced by PASS (Edinburgh College). Following on from our successful programme at last year's Fringe, we will be bringing another mixed bill of original work from emerging artists and recent graduates to PASS Theatre this August. We're thrilled to welcome back students from York St John University, who will be performing a varied selection of short-form pieces as part of the programme.
PASS Theatre
Theatre
Where sound becomes movement in this reimagining of a classical Japanese folktale. Directed by Erica Yamada, a Toga Directors' Competition award recipient, the work features acclaimed performers who have been invited to stages across Asia. Praised in Japanese previews for its inventive movement, creativity and sound, the piece blends rhythm, myth and intimate storytelling into a visceral, cross-cultural experience that shifts from quiet physical poetry to contemporary dance and a powerful ensemble finale. Supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
Paradise in The Vault
The Vault
Twelve rounds. Five women. No holding back. Set inside the charged atmosphere of a boxing gym, this high-impact theatrical dance follows a rising superstar, a fading referee and the figures who orbit them. Sweat meets spectacle as pounding beats collide with sweeping classical strings. Characters clash, alliances form and ambition burns through every round. Raw, physical and fiercely human, this 47-minute contemporary dance asks what it really costs to go the distance.
Summerhall Festival
Dissection Room
How do our bodies navigate a world in which boundaries and rules are constantly changing? Are there ways of finding closeness even in moments of separation? Could distance ever be seen and felt as a strength? A compelling tension between oneself and others underscores every moment of this captivating three-part quintet, beautifully brought to life by LEI Dance Theatre with Lao-French choreographer Olé Khamchanla. Intelligently blending traditional, contemporary and classical styles, it is an honest, imaginative and questioning dance about the way we live now.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
2024 Bobby Award-winning company Seed Dance returns to the Fringe with the UK premiere of another 'stunning' (BroadwayBaby.com) production by gifted artistic director Huang Wen-Jen. For her, dance is a form of socially acute visual thinking. Here her subjects range from contemporary division and connection to human vulnerability, adaptability and perception. Using a pair of simple yet strikingly symbolic framed platforms, Huang plays blazingly smart games with vertical, horizontal, internal and external space. The result is an explosively dynamic, emotionally provocative quintet packed with restless, urgent precision.
Summerhall Festival
Main Hall
Hotly-tipped young choreographer Lai Yun-Chi (formerly a dancer with Shechter II and a member of Humanhood) is keen to uncover what lies beneath our layered personalities – the roles we play, the identities we choose, the faces we wear. Drawing upon ceremonial folk rituals, a battery of cross-cultural movement styles and practices and a family history of leathercraft, she and her company Mailantia present the UK premiere of a bold, intricate and brand-new steampunk-influenced quartet about concealment and transformation. Expect a unique and original mix of East-West sensibilities.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Two timelines collide in this bold fusion of dance and circus, offering a fresh perspective on HIV. When Grace receives a diagnosis, she is transported back to the 80s alongside Michael, a gay man navigating a very different reality. Their journeys unfold through striking choreography, Chinese pole and aerial artistry. Sadiq Ali Company, makers of five-star, award-winning The Chosen Haram, return to the Fringe with their new show Tell Me, part of the Made in Scotland showcase. 'Stunning, soulful, a total triumph' ***** (PinkPrinceTheatre.com). 'Poignant tale of sex, revelry and glistening abs' **** (Guardian). MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
Summerhall Festival
Dissection Room
When no-one tells us who to become, are we willing to take responsibility for choosing? A physical theatre work where movement carries memory and language reveals consciousness. This is not a memorial, but a ritual of becoming. The body on stage moves through states of mechanism, imitation, adaptation, disorientation, awareness and choice. At the final altar, Er’er completes a long-rehearsed dance, not in rage or collapse, but by stepping away. The cocoon does not break into a new identity or heroic rebirth, but into an undefined body – an open state.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
Mr Chevalier, the flamboyant new director of the Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg, presents an exceptional moment of dance. Hailed as the Bad Boy of Folklore and renowned for his expertise, bold artistic vision, and magnetic stage presence, Mr Chevalier pays tribute to Summerhall as part of the 50th anniversary of the company's iconic Pigeon Dance. The unpredictable director and choreographer, whose stage performances are as rare as they are emotionally intense, will perform emblematic classics from the company’s exceptional repertoire. This unforgettable experience will be followed by an autograph session.
Summerhall Festival
Main Hall
What began as a provocation to create a physical theatre piece inspired by a fairy tale was further developed around Erikson's Stages of Development to explore life through a lens not often seen in storytelling. What if none of the characters are truly heroic? What if they are just human? What if good intentions aren't enough to create a meaningful life? And what if there is more to life than how we define ourselves? The story that unfolds is a grave and poetic reminder that each choice we make impacts the people we leave behind.
Nicolson Square Venues
The Studio
Inside the soul, two wolves are locked in a relentless conflict. Fear thrives in the shadows, the other seeks certainty. In this audacious reimagining, we unravel and disarticulate together, seeking it is visceral, an intertwined journey something you feel in every haunting movement. Shauna Steele’s mesmerizing choreography fuses the precision of contemporary ballet with the raw powers of modern. As the struggle unfolds, we interweave, confront and explore the existential idea of the multitudes we contain, which version of ourselves we feed and where we remain. Dance as you’ve never experienced it before: FEED THE NEED!
Central Hall
Auditorium
Drawing on plant growth as its central metaphor, Unbounded Growth explores relationships and transformation within a symbiotic ecosystem. Performed by four dancers, it develops through shifting physical connections, forming multi-directional patterns resembling roots and branches. Inspired by Wa culture’s reverence for and harmony with nature, these ideas are translated into movement and choreographic structure. Emphasising process and multiplicity, the work unfolds through evolving spatial relationships, revealing how life continuously emerges through interaction with environment and others.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
Grab your finger-guns, comb your ‘stache and brace yourselves for the Well-Balanced Dads! Dick and Dale are taking the audience on a camping trip full of dad jokes, dance moves, acrobatics, movie references and unthreatening audience participation. This hilarious duo balances levity with deeper themes like finding your inner child, hypermasculinity and navigating life after the kids have flown the nest. '6 stars from this dad, 5 from the rest of the family!' (Good Dad). 'My face hurt from smiling' (Good Kid). A show for anyone who is a dad, has a dad or wants a dad.
Braw Venues @ Hill Street
Alba Theatre
Where We Choose to Stand is an ambitious dance-theatre work inspired by climate activism amid political upheaval. Embedded in Nicolette Macleod's evocative soundscape are first hand accounts from people from across the UK who have been involved in direct action, amplifying the voices of those often silenced for their actions. Through audience interaction, the work challenges audiences to reflect on where they stand, asking how we position ourselves in moments of crisis.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
not for glory is a restless, relentless, rebellious unravelling of traditional dance and music. It is not a radical Highland Dance show, not a reinvented Irish dance display and not an experimental piping competition. It's bodies, bagpipes and brutality. It's kilts, queerness and ceremonial violence. It's back beats, high cuts, striking in, a battering, flinging skirl. not for glory resuscitates tradition with respect and resilience, dissects heritage and dances solidarity. It's a dance-theatre gig balancing virtuosity with vulnerability, pride with shame. Three performers reclaim the traditions they grew up in, not for glory – but for what?
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
A footballer, a violinist. Two artists from very different worlds meet on stage for an unexpected duet. Blending freestyle football with live music, °Up transforms the stage into a poetic playground. At its heart, °Up is the story of an encounter: a solo that became a duo thanks to the obvious connection on stage. Gabriel Majou plays the strings of his violin with as much playfulness as Paul Molina dribbles with his ball.
French Institute in Scotland
Salle Emilienne Moreau-Evrard
An inspiring and moving celebration of Katherina Radeva's 40 years as a woman, a migrant and an artist. Claiming space on a dance floor, she dances with joyous abundance and presents stories of her past, present and future. From the little girl dancing at her parents' student parties, to the teenage rhythm gymnast who was body-shamed, to the creative who refuses to be categorised we see a choreography of all the joys and sorrows of 40 years. Radeva is an irresistible performer whose authenticity and generosity shines in this life-affirming piece from award-winning Two Destination Language. MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
A dance theatre piece that follows six dancers as they grow up and mature. They chase two things, two key concepts: a Star, what they want to be, and a Pearl, who they truly are. As we age, we face hardships and epiphanies whilst reaching up to our star and down to our pearl. A contemporary dance show with influences of hip hop, gymnastics, jazz and ballet, this show is for any artist who doesn't or does feel like they know their place in this world.
theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall
Grand Theatre
Authentic Afro acrobatics and African performing arts. Featuring dance, music, performing arts, acrobatics, limbo, contortion, suspension and juggling.
theSpaceTriplex
Big
Poignant dance-theatre production by Apsaras Dance Company that brings to life the deeply human stories of refugees. Inspired by Artistic Director Aravinth Kumarasamy’s own experiences, it explores displacement, identity and resilience through a compelling blend of Bharatanatyam, theatre and poetry. Drawing on works of celebrated Tamil poets and voices of refugee youth, Agathi captures the emotional turmoil, stigma and hope that define the refugee journey. Reimagined in collaboration with Ivan Heng, this powerful work challenges perceptions and invites audiences to see beyond headlines, offering a moving call for empathy, understanding and shared humanity.CastStoryteller | Seema HarikumarDancers | Mohanapriyan Thavarajah, Devapriya Appan, Meera Balasubramanian, Nikita Menon, Maanasa Sri Ganesh, Janani Arun KumarVocals | Chithra Poornima Sathish and Karthik RaveendranMridangam | T RamananPercussion | Ganapathi VenkatasubramaniamViolin | Easwar RamakrishnanFlute | Vishnu VijayaArtistic Director | Aravinth KumarasamyDramaturg | Ivan HengChoreographer | Mohanapriyan ThavarajahNarration and Scriptwriter | Audrey PereraScript Consultant | Alfian Sa’atCollaborative Choreographers | Renjith Babu and Vijna VasudevanMusic composers | Chitra Poornima Sathish and Karthik RaveendranCostume Design | Mohanapriyan ThavarajahOriginal Stage and Lighting Design | Gyandev SinghLighting Design | Albert WileoWardrobe and Hairstyling | Selvy Radhakrishnan, NagaletchmiBalasubramaniam, Sankari ElavazhahanAudio Support | Gayatri SachidanandarSurtitle Support | Jothsna Akilanwww.apsarasarts.cominstagram.com/apsaradancecompany
C ARTS | C venues | C aquila
temple
With their stylized, signature fusion of multi-disciplinary dance and theatre, Suitcase Dance Theatre embarks on a spellbinding odyssey through a dreamy world of rhythm and movement. Tap, jazz and contemporary styles collide and intertwine, chasing human connection through shiny distractions that shimmer, mislead and seduce. Beneath the polish and pulse, the journey quietly reveals a deeper truth; the connection they seek has been there all along, hidden in plain sight. **** (Mervyn Stutter's Pick of the Fringe). **** (Edinburgh Festivals Magazine).
theSpace @ Niddry St
Upper Theatre
A woman walks into a café. She orders a coffee. The barista doesn't understand her request. The woman loses her sh*t. Chaos reigns. This off-beat collaboration between award-winning playwright Vivienne Franzmann, and choreographer and psychotherapist Frauke Requardt, brings together 22 very different eyewitness accounts of one everyday altercation to show how our nervous systems are stuck in the Stone Age. Performed by two dancers, an actor and a drummer (and one bear), Anatomy of Survival is a show for all the nervous systems in the auditorium. Come and feel the rise and fall of yours.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Ayre is a multi-disciplinary, family-friendly performance inspired by flamenco, Indian dance, Scottish folk, Brazilian rhythms and other world music and dance traditions. It invites audiences to explore 'air' as the invisible thread connecting breath, rhythm and emotion across cultures. Within Ayre, presence emerges, gesture becomes language and diverse traditions recognise themselves in a shared pulse. Featuring multiple singers, instruments and dances, the show offers a rich and engaging experience for all ages. Children and adults are immersed in a vibrant world of sound, movement and languages. Ayre is not simply a fusion of styles, but a return to origin.
Edinburgh New Town Church
The Nave
Erain (Jarraibiderik Gabe) is a young company formed by two highly skilled dancers who have recently developed this creation. The piece proposes a suggestive dialogue between bodies and objects, opening a space where materials, play, and transformation become compositional tools. Through a careful balance of physical rigour and imaginative imagery, the work invites multiple readings while maintaining a strong sensory clarity. Helena Wilhelmsson (Trembling Frequencies), a Swedish dancer long based in the Basque Country, presents her first choreographic work: a solo that unfolds within a deeply emotional landscape.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Fringe favourites the Black Blues Brothers return with their electrifying, family-friendly show. Having wowed over 65,000 Fringe spectators, they are back at McEwan Hall, ready to amaze audiences once again. Set in a smoky train station and driven by an unforgettable rock’n’roll soundtrack, expect jaw-dropping acrobatics, towering human pyramids and gravity-defying stunts. Featuring iconic music by Glenn Miller, Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, this is the ultimate experience for all ages. After five smash-hit Fringe seasons and appearances at the Royal Variety Show and the Moulin Rouge, this feel-good phenomenon is truly unmissable.
Underbelly Bristo Square
McEwan Hall
A plurality of bodies beyond their visible social markers. Despite their diverse backgrounds artists unite believing that even different individualities empower each other when they act as one. In times of social segregation, we deal with a crossing of the mental boundaries and not just the physical ones. Border Bodies desires to acknowledge the portrait of humanity: collective, clustered, seeking interactions and associations. In the midst of the silence of distancing, we rediscover and invent ways of being together. On stage, hierarchies between social roles are tested, questioned and reorganized. The show is part of São Paulo Showcase.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Using only visual storytelling, dance and acrobatics, this award-winning duo show explores the experience of growing up transgender in an Asian American immigrant household, and the connection between siblings each navigating their own relationship to gender. Winner of multiple Best of Fringe awards and named 'groundbreaking work' by FringeReview. 'It’s a testament to how well-crafted this show is that it can be so specific and yet feel so universal at the same time' (Matthew Palm, Orlando Sentinel). Performed by Landyn Endo and Kapi Lee. Created by Genie Cartier, Landyn Endo and Os Roxas. Produced by Flying Rabbit Circus.
theSpaceTriplex
Big
A contemporary stage adaptation of Lillian Lee’s acclaimed novel based on the legend of the White Snake, produced by the National Theatre of China and directed by Tian Qinxin. The story follows two serpent spirits who take on human form to seek love and freedom in the mortal world. While one pursues a conventional human life through marriage, the other is more sensual and rebellious. Their intertwined fates lead to betrayal, sacrifice, and an epic confrontation. Blending myth, passion, and psychological depth, Green Snake explores love, identity, and the cost of becoming human in a visually-striking drama.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
A solo dance-theatre work following an immigrant dancer chasing her New York dream. Through movement, spoken word and simple props, the piece traces the city’s dazzling promise, restless speed and the collision of visa uncertainty, fleeting romance, friendship, and loneliness. As hope of staying meets bureaucratic scrutiny, the performer confronts her identity beyond ambition and approval. Intimate and immersive, the work blends humour and melancholy, offering a tender portrait of longing, resilience and the courage to seek light in a shifting city.
theSpaceTriplex
Big
Step into the world of Saint Edgar, where elegance meets audacity and every step tells a story. One suit. One tie. One transformation. Candyman: Saint Edgar's first burlesque act, built on comedy, dance, tease, and a little something you won’t see coming. Turns out one taste would never be enough… Candyman grew, evolved, and refused to be contained. A show about identity, liberation, and the freedom of dance. From the electric precision of quickstep to the sultry swagger of jive, Edgar peels back the layers to reveal something that changes everything you thought you knew.instagram.com/edgar_andersen/ Watch Trailer
C ARTS | C venues | C aquila
studio
A hybrid performance blending movement, storytelling and meditative stillness. Carpathyo explores how we consciously choose the future we live through body, mind and awareness. Through embodied presence and shifting perception – the work invites audiences into a space where inner experience becomes visible and changeable. Drawing from performance, meditation and lived inquiry, this piece moves between stillness and expression: offering a sensory and reflective journey into becoming.
Greenside @ George Street
Sprout Studio
An authentic Scottish experience in a historic church, with dance teacher and caller Ken Gourlay, and a ceilidh band. All dances walked through and called. Good exercise and great fun. 'It's so joyful' (Audience review). Alcoholic and soft drinks available in the venue. 5-minute warm up begins at 19:55. Please see warnings section for further information on dress code and mobile phone usage.
St Cuthbert's Church
Main Sanctuary
Bringing together the National Youth Dance Companies of Scotland and Wales for a night of bold choreography, the programme celebrates the power of dance, blending distinct cultural influences with cutting-edge contemporary dance. In a dynamic double-bill of new commissions expect vibrant ensemble movement, intimate duets and striking costumes, as emerging performers push their technique, artistry and imagination to new heights. This collaboration is a celebration of connection, with infectious energy, fierce precision and moments of breathtaking tenderness. These rising stars offer a glimpse of what dance in the UK can become.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
Dance Base’s two in-house companies PRIME (for over 60s) and Lothian Youth Dance Company (for 14-21 year-olds) come together to explore the pressures we all face. This double bill will feature new pieces created over the past year by PRIME’s Artistic Director Kally Lloyd-Jones, as well as guest choreographers Malcolm Sutherland, Tough Boys Collective and Rosie Mackley.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
A visually striking dance theatre work blending street dance with epic storytelling. A modern family discovers a mysterious relic that unlocks a legacy of resilience and purpose. Myth, history and imagination collide, as universal themes of identity, courage and destiny are revealed. Driven by internationally recognised street dancers, the production combines dynamic choreography, bold visuals and innovative staging. At its heart, it explores what we inherit – from family and humanity – and invites audiences to reconnect with their inner strength and move forward with confidence.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
There are different dances performed by various ethnic groups in Ghana. They include Adowa, Bamaya, Kpalongo, Agbekor, Cow Dance, Kundum, Tokwe, Fisherman. Each dance has its unique rhythm and tempo, which is determined by the music played. The music and the dance are often used to tell stories, celebrate events and express emotions. The popularity of Ghanaian dance has led to the creation of dance schools and workshops around the world. Ghanaian dance has also been featured in major cultural events like the Olympics and the World Cup.
Ghillie Dhu
Auditorium
Busan International Dance Festival presents the next generation of Korean choreographers in a double bill featuring Kim Hyung-min’s DeRuWa, where five dancers are propelled by an accelerating beat, and Hwang Jungeun’s Hazy, a captivating, visceral and intimate solo.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
Wordless stories inspire wonder, second glances and reimagined possibilities. Silent storytellers lead audiences through dynamic adventure. From a quiet bus stop to the explosive Big Bang, with a cooking show and a lakeside memory between. Funny, tender and totally original, this piece celebrates the expressive power of the body and the art of mime. With no spoken dialogue, it reveals just how much can be said without saying a thing. From a hit run at Adelaide Fringe, and created by members of NYC’s Broken Box Mime Theater, this is visual storytelling at its most inventive. **** (List).
Underbelly Bristo Square
Dairy Room
A contemporary dance inspired by the Chinese mythological creature – a creature composed of many parts. Six dancers gather, transform and evolve from individual bodies into one collective organism. Inspired by dragon boat rituals and the ancient philosophy of circular movement found in Eastern practices such as Tai Chi, the choreography investigates transformation, balance, and the flowof energy between organic and artificial systems, with the introduction of a robotic arm as a competing dragon. Finally body and machine merge into a hybrid form, reflecting on the evolving relationship between humanity, nature and technology.Performers | Yingxin Lyu, Tela Chu, Yujia Chen, Chuanbao Huang, Joey Zhu, Dongli DuanDirected and Choreographed | YoChen YehProduced by | Xintian ZhaoMusic Composed by | Zhang YimengMultimedia Artist | Juice CuiArt Installation | Ki Leung, Hsinsyuan KaoCreative Technologist | Joseph WanCostume Designer | Jiang YifanPhotographer and Editor | Gengyao Li
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
What lies beneath the surface of who we appear to be? This visually immersive choreographic work explores memory, identity, and emotional tension through the body. Drawing on colour psychology and the contrast between red and blue, this new dance piece reveals shifting inner states – between control and inner conflict, concealment and openness. As masks begin to dissolve, fragments of memory and lived experience emerge. Blending movement, colour, and perception, Echoes of Being invites audiences into a reflective space, where the boundary between performer and observer blurs, and traces of existence come into view.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
From the Latin feralis, meaning a plant or animal that returns to a wild state after being domesticated (or, alternatively, one that never was). A vocal-sound performance delving into processes of sexualization, objectification, and the empowerment of personal pleasure. Josefina weaves a narrative of her journey – from a hypersexualized childhood to an adulthood where pleasure finds new avenues of exploration through domination, sex work, and BDSM. The performance unfolds in an intimate setting, featuring a live-sound recording and playback setup alongside other sex technologies that accompany the storytelling. Feral is a defence of the object over the human.Created and performed | Josefina CerdaMask created by | Pedro Gramegna, John AlvarezProsthetic | O'Ryan LabAdministration, production and distribution | Ébana Garín and Roni Isola - Fundación Cuerpo Surinstagram.com/josafana/
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
studio
Daniel Martinez returns with his new venture: Flamenco Fringe. Each year, Daniel brings incredible flamenco artists to the stage for a thrilling, authentic flamenco tablao. 2026's edition will feature Daniel himself joined by sensational singers, Inma Montero and Danielo Olivera, skilfull percussionist Julian Ticotico and three spectacular dancers; Gabriela Pouso, Jara Perez and Maria Insa. This exceptional ensemble unites on stage for a show-stopping, unmissable celebration of flamenco culture, music and dance. Experience the artistry and beauty of flamenco in its purest form through breathtaking footwork, fiery energy and mesmerising choreography. Venue offers tapa and drink packages!
Yotel Edinburgh
Imaginex
An inspired, powerful and elegant piece with Flamenco dance and guitar. Aylin Bayaz’s contemporary flamenco dance combines strength, elegance and beauty. Raul Mannola's music draws on Flamenco, Brazilian music and jazz, giving depth and colour. Bayaz’s dance and Mannola’s music fuse together to produce an unique show of beauty and inspiration.‘Flamencodanza is more than just a show – it’s a breathtaking journey, with its fusion of tradition and contemporary flair… leaving an enduring impression on every fortunate spectator’ (Dancelife.com.au)‘Flamencodanza is hot, and you won’t see anything else like it’ (TheStageRaw.com)‘Mannola is amazing to watch. He does not “play” the guitar, he dominates it’ (TheTVolution.com)'An audience favourite' (Hudson Theatre, Hollywood)‘Pure artistry and emotional tour de force’ (LouReviews.blog)Best Dance and Physical Theatre, Hollywood Fringe 2022Award for Artistic Merit, Hollywood Fringe 2023Choreography and Dance by | Aylin BayazMusic by | Raul Mannolawww.eflamencodanza.comfacebook.com/aylinbayazinstagram.com/aylinbayaz/ Watch Trailer
C ARTS | C venues | C digital
portal – on demand
An inspired, powerful and elegant piece with Flamenco dance and guitar. Aylin Bayaz’s contemporary flamenco dance combines strength, elegance and beauty. Raul Mannola's music draws on Flamenco, Brazilian music and jazz, giving depth and colour. Bayaz’s dance and Mannola’s music fuse together to produce an unique show of beauty and inspiration.‘Flamencodanza is more than just a show – it’s a breathtaking journey, with its fusion of tradition and contemporary flair… leaving an enduring impression on every fortunate spectator’ (Dancelife.com.au)‘Flamencodanza is hot, and you won’t see anything else like it’ (TheStageRaw.com)‘Mannola is amazing to watch. He does not “play” the guitar, he dominates it’ (TheTVolution.com)'An audience favourite' (Hudson Theatre, Hollywood)‘Pure artistry and emotional tour de force’ (LouReviews.blog)Best Dance and Physical Theatre, Hollywood Fringe 2022Award for Artistic Merit, Hollywood Fringe 2023Choreography and Dance by | Aylin BayazMusic by | Raul Mannolawww.eflamencodanza.comfacebook.com/aylinbayazinstagram.com/aylinbayaz/
C ARTS | C venues | C alto
theatre
When a hyperactive mother (ADHD) and a gaming-obsessed son (Autism Spectrum Condition) meet head on, there's a collision worthy of any blockbuster movie. An intimate dive into intergenerational neurodiversity, Fringe First Award winners (Everything I See I Swallow, 2019) bring you Forgive Me – an innovative, highly personal solo show that fuses skilled pole performance, video projection and song (plus a bit of gameplay!). 'A gorgeous evocation of intergenerational schism and mutual understanding' **** (Independent). 'Fierce, unapologetic, thought-provoking and radical as f*ck' ***** (TheCircusDiaries.com). 'Hypnotic and exquisitely choreographed' **** (Stage).
Summerhall Festival
TechCube 0
'A love song – or dance – to Taiwan... I could watch this all day long. It’s magical' **** (TheatreWeekly.com). 'A heartfelt exploration of Taiwan’s 500-year history' *** (BroadwayBaby.com). Formosa Viva is a bold fusion of contemporary dance, physical theatre and visual storytelling. Eight performers trace 500 years of Taiwan’s history, from Indigenous roots and colonial struggle to democracy today. Through powerful choreography, light and rhythm, it explores resilience, transformation and identity. After touring to Avignon, Edinburgh and Adelaide, this dance work returns to the Edinburgh Fringe, inviting audiences on an emotional journey through culture, memory and hope.
Paradise in Augustines
Sanctuary
Catch a glimpse of the next big thing at Dance Base’s Fringe Fragments. An industry pitching platform open to audiences, Fringe Fragments spotlights dance makers from Scotland and around the world as they share 15-minute excerpts of tour-ready performances
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
Powerful, raw and emotional, Glass Child goes beyond fiction and theatre to showcase the extraordinary love of two siblings, Kayah, a young man with Down syndrome and his sister Maitreyah. Expressed through dance, theatre and storytelling Glass Child highlights their connection and how their lives have been affected by other people's perceptions. Maitreyah has watched Kayah be ridiculed or ignored without understanding why. By bravely sharing their own experience they ask the rest of us to look at how we meet others and why we search for difference when we share so much in common.
Summerhall Festival
Old Lab
Les Foutoukours return to Edinburgh with Glob, a circus adventure like no other! Without a single word, two lovable characters tumble, glide and soar through the unknown. Join them as they discover a world that is tender, magical and wonderfully absurd. They’ll make you laugh, gasp and cheer – all while tugging at your heart. For anyone who needs the world to slow down just a little, Glob is a wordless journey where emotion speaks louder than words. Perfect for all ages, it will delight and enchant audiences, young and old. Don’t miss this unforgettable ride!
Underbelly Bristo Square
McEwan Hall
From the critically acclaimed, award-winning company behind Mass Effect and Champions comes a brand-new performance celebrating imperfection, queer joy and the courage to find your tribe. Good Enough? is a queer, quirky and boisterous physical theatre performance about reclaiming your story and having the courage to be loud, awkward and unapologetically yourself. This is not a show about perfect bodies or polished dancers. It's about the instinct to move, to express and to be seen – especially when language isn't enough.
Summerhall Festival
Main Hall
Guru Dudu and the team return to Edinburgh with their hilarious and engaging tours. Daily tours of spontaneous flash mobs through the streets, interpretative dance around local landmarks, group singing and lots of fun interaction with onlookers. Everyone wears headphones (supplied) and can hear the hilarious commentary and dance mix of uplifting favourites from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. Accessible for all ages and ability. Come prepared if raining. Tickets available at door if not sold out. See www.gurududu.org/fringe for more information on the theme of each tour (Queen, Abba, 80s or 90s).
Cockburn Street at corner of Fleshmarket Close
Meeting Point
Guru Dudu and the team return to Edinburgh with their hilarious and engaging tours. Daily tours of spontaneous flash mobs through the streets, interpretative dance around local landmarks, group singing and lots of fun interaction with onlookers. Everyone wears headphones (supplied) and can hear the hilarious commentary and dance mix of uplifting favourites from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s. Accessible for all ages and ability. Come prepared if raining. Tickets available at door if not sold out. See www.gurududu.org/fringe for more information on the theme of each tour (Queen, Abba, 80s or 90s).
Outside Appleton Tower, Crichton Street
Meeting Point
HK Soul is providing a platform for the artists' unique voices that resonate across cultures. Justyne's Gemini delves into the tension between conscious and subconscious minds, using unconventional movements to explore control and surrender, reimagining the body as a displaced vessel devoid of its inner soul. Blue's Romantic 4:48am (The Neighbor's Neighbor) poses a haunting query: Do you seek to draw near, or fear being heard? It follows a solitary woman orchestrating strangers amid echoes of unspoken memories from her past home.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
If home is lost, destroyed and you have nothing left, and no one to turn to, what do you do? This show is about finding home. Using cutting edge projection, live video feed, original immersive media and unbridled, athletic enthusiasm, you will witness a wild odyssey toward a crazy version of home and belonging. From the state of Louisiana in the deep south of the United States, LSU Theatre world premiere’s their ninth new devised piece to the Fringe. Founding member of Diavolo, Nick Erickson, directs the company using dance, acrobatics and innovation to tell this timeless story.
Paradise in Augustines
Sanctuary
A contemporary dance performance exploring the subtle process of shedding imposed identities and social expectations. It examines how professional roles and societal norms shape, even constrain, the body. On stage, garments such as stiff-collared shirts, structured workwear, and cinched dresses become visible markers of internalized discipline and expectation. Through shared movement and interaction, I Don’t Care traces a journey: from unconscious endurance, to the awakening of discomfort, to collaborative acts of removal, and finally to the emergence of the self as the symbolic layers are stripped away, to reveal the long hidden authentic selves.Performed by | Jiarong Yu, Yen-Ning Yi, Jiayu Zhou, Yu-Chen ChiuChoreographer | Jie ZhouProducer | Hui-Hsin LuPhotographer | Katie HoComposed by | Balfours Juncheng Su
C ARTS | C venues | C aquila
temple
Nine girls. One dorm. Zero filter. A movement-led dance theatre piece set at a 1990s college dorm party, where performers respond physically to music instead of text. Using popular songs, the work explores friendship, identity, nostalgia and moments of change. Created by the UK’s first Meisner-based movement theatre company, the piece uses a unique method merging acting and movement, so no two performances are ever the same. Funny, tender, chaotic and sincere, it offers an emotionally direct, deeply relatable experience shaped by music and memory.
theSpaceTriplex
Big
A new collaboration by choreographer Karl Jay-Lewin and composer Matteo Fargion. If I Can’t Dance I’m Not Coming reframes Fritz Lang’s 1927 masterpiece Metropolis, translating silent cinema into a rigorous choreographic score. Performed by an eclectic ensemble of eight, the work rejects virtuosity in favour of dignity, threading humour, rebellion and flashes of tenderness through a democratic creative process. Extending Jay-Lewin and Fargion’s acclaimed Extremely series, the work resonates with quiet political force. www.MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
On the motionless nights of the Karst summer, a call crosses the dark: keu... keu... The scops owl sings, hidden among branches, revealing itself only through its voice. From this image, Compagnia Bellanda shapes a visceral duet on love's fragile threshold – between desire and control, tenderness and aggression, guidance and surrender. Rooted in breaking and evolving into intimate partnering, the choreography entwines bodies, breath and stripped language. Sound is amplified, fractured, returned as memory. Suspended between choice and destiny, the performers inhabit a space where empathy resists rupture and a single word may alter two lives.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
A one-woman physical theatre performance about living with bipolar disorder. Through movement, Ella's world shifts between emotional highs and lows-bursts of energy, creativity and confidence giving way to doubt, exhaustion and collapse. Past trauma surfaces without warning, disrupting the present and blurring time. Where words fail, the body keeps moving, and the only silence is her heartbeat. The piece reveals the inner conflict and pressure of these rapid changes, showing how they affect both mind and body. This is a non-linear journey through instability, survival and the ongoing effort to find balance and healing.
theSpace @ Niddry St
Lower Theatre
Les Echos de la Rue / Sab'R: Detours Festival Working Progress Awards Winners. Discover the two award-winning shows from the Detours Festival: Sab'r, a one-woman krump show that combines femininity and introspection, and Les Échos de la Rue, featuring five breakers who transcend urban and personal struggles.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
This powerful performance explores the enduring spirit of freedom within the Ukrainian people, fusing contemporary choreography with traditional movement, and choral expression. At its heart, Liberty is a story of connection – between past and present, between adults and children – and the role of cultural roots in preserving identity across generations. It reflects on the resilience, hope, and inner strength that define a nation fighting not only for its land, but for its future, and highlights how cultural roots act as an anchor that enables individuals to remain free in spirit even in the face of adversity.Performed by | The Flowers of Ukraine, Harmony Choir, Starlight, MyWay, Karina Cherviakova, Nataliia Khomenko, FreedomSTEPUA, Elzara BatalovaCreated and Composed by | Tetiana HordiienkoCreative Director | Tetiana HordiienkoDirected by Tetiana HordiienkoProduced by | Mission of InnocentsProject Managers | Olga Vivchar, Nataliia Pidruchna, Flora LangSound and Technical Operator | Ihor Pisklovwww.missionofinnocents.orgfacebook.com/profile/UkrainiankidsclubinEdinburghinstagram.com/missionofinnocents
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
An abstract dance dialogue about peace, violence, and the relationship between the self and society. It explores how global conflicts seep into attitudes, bodies, and relationships, examining the roots of violence and the fading art of dialogue, while searching for where peace begins – and where it ends? Through intense physical proximity, the choreography unfolds an investigation of violence as a learned pattern—and of peace as a fragile, active process. It invites the audience to question their own beliefs and prejudices, and to reflect on individual responsibility within a broader social context.Performed by | Doris Lingenau and Gleb BondarevCreated by | Darja ReznikovaChoreography by | Darja Reznikova and Sade Mamedova in collaboration with the dancersMusic and Voice Composition by | Sabio JaniakDramaturgical Assistance by | Angela WendtLighting Design | Stefan GrießhaberCostume Design | Natalia MoskvychovaSet Design | Elena NekrasovaVideography (Teaser) | Tadas AlmantasVideography (Trailer and Full production) | DeDa Productionswww.sobopro.comfacebook.com/SoundBodyProductionsinstagram.com/soboproductions/
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
An interdisciplinary mixed-media performance blending South Asian classical-contemporary dance, interactive projection, spoken word and live audience encounter. Created by Theiya Arts in collaboration with academics from Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society at University of Edinburgh, the work explores gender, power and resistance through a transnational intersectional feminist lens. For Fringe 2026, it is presented as a theatre adaptation. A layered, intimate and politically charged space where you are invited to move through an interactive exhibition environment before entering a live performance shaped by movement, projection art and collective reflection.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
'If you need an hour of positivity and wonderful dancing (and lots of good laughs!), this is one for you.' (TheEdinburghReporter.co.uk). An acclaimed performer delivers a vibrant dance/spoken word show. 70+, plus-sized lesbian artist shares intimate, queer-centred stories that celebrate inclusivity and urge audiences to chase their dreams. In Lucia’s fifth Edinburgh Fringe production, she premieres new work alongside timeless gems, weaving personal narratives from decades of experience into a powerful testament to authentic living and artistic passion. Lucia’s performance inspires viewers to push beyond their limits and pursue their life's ambitions.
Greenside @ George Street
Olive Studio
Rewrite her stories. Write her. A one-of-a-kind multidisciplinary performance rooted in Nüshu, the secret script of Chinese women. In this ritualistic solo work, Jiayi Chen uses her body as a living scroll, inscribing ancient characters onto her skin with traditional ink. Through live body calligraphy, inspiring contemporary dance, and an original soundscape, the piece becomes a haunting altar of memory, grief, and feminine resistance. The piece is a tribute to the missing women in Jiayi’s life, and a bold act of rewriting silenced histories through the body, voice, and art.‘Thoughtful and sincere… A beautiful mark that lingers… Nüshu stands out for its intimate, personal and poetic rhythm... I left feeling reflective and quietly uplifted’ (Edinburgh-Reviews.co.uk)‘A defiant distillation of stories into something simple, stoic, and deeply affecting’ (Scotsman)‘I would recommend it to anyone looking for something fresh at the Fringe this year’ **** (The Student)‘A delicate, shadowed world gives way to a story of resilience and voice’ **** (Scottish Field)Created, Written and Directed by | Jiayi ChenProduced by | The Great Her CICExecutive Producer | Ronny GaleProducers | Lintong Zhang, Ying YangStage Manager | Henry GaleDesigned by | Ash Lab Art StudioComposed by | Zhenqi Zhufacebook.com/Jiayi Cheninstagram.com/overelated/
C ARTS | C venues | C aquila
temple
Who are we when we’re together? When we’re alone? When we fight for what we believe in? Dance Base's in-house company for dancers over 60, PRIME explores the ways in which we can support each other to keep going, fighting and overcoming obstacles and also when we choose to surrender and accept. We Are premiers new work from recently appointed Artistic Director Kally Lloyd-Jones and guest choreographer Malcolm Sutherland.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
A wildly quirky piece of physical theatre from Japan. Watching PeoplePeople is like peering into the minds of its five characters: a professor, a punk, a pierrot, a patient and a pupil. The experience is strangely humanising and somewhat mad. The movements are carefully crafted and highly stylised through the unique theatrical language of Corporeal Mime. The characters speak in their native tongue (Japanese, Chinese, English). There is no story. There is no set. Just five people, being people, in their own surreal way.Created and performed by | Tomoki Nonaka, Ruxun Dai, Teruya Sugimoto, Masaya Tsujimoto and Harry DeanDirected by | Kentaro Suyama, Tania CokeAssistant Directed by | Yukiko MasuiMusic by | Tania Coke, Henry Morse, DreamylapseLighting Design and Projected Images by | Kentaro SuyamaProduced by | tarinainanikawww.tarinainanika.compatreon.com/tarinainanikafacebook.com/tarinainanikainstagram.com/tarinainanika Watch Trailer
C ARTS | C venues | C digital
portal – on demand
A performance by Corpo Máquina's artistic director Guilherme Miotto for pole dance virtuoso Yvonne Smink. With a live soundscape from musician/composer Isaac Poels. Pole dancer Yvonne Smink won the Dutch pole dancing championships multiple times and is a rising star internationally. In Poles, Guilherme highlights Yvonne's impressive technical strength and allows for joy to radiate from her no-nonsense appearance. With her down to earth approach and healthy blush, Yvonne makes her way through the steel pipe construction. At the cutting edge of personal and public space, she delivers chilling moments of physicality and intimacy.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
A contemporary butoh work, R/evolution(s) reimagines butoh for today while carrying its inheritance forward. It brings together Conan Amok – heir to the lineage of Dairakudakan, one of Japan's leading butoh companies – and contemporary dancers renewing the form from within. Grounded in Amok's 'multi layered body' method, developed through a fusion of butoh and sculptural practice, the work explores revolution as both orbit and radical transformation. Deep bass and wadaiko drums create a club-like ritual atmosphere, inviting audiences to encounter butoh anew. This work is part of Wings: International Dance Project by Dance Base Yokohama for Emerging Creators.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
Set against the dramatic backdrop of Devon’s coastline, Sand follows Dylan and Heather as they navigate the complexities of living with dementia. Together, they uncover profound truths about love, memory, and resilience, while coastal erosion symbolises life’s inevitable changes. Created by the acclaimed Kook Ensemble, SAND is a non-verbal circus theatre show that blends acrobatic skill with meticulously crafted storytelling. Through visually striking, emotionally resonant performances, the company brings the experiences of people living with dementia to life, offering audiences a deeply moving experience. A must watch!
Summerhall Festival
Main Hall
A dance theatre work exploring one man’s internal battle with depression, loss and memory. Combining choreography with cinematic imagery, S I C K delves into psychological tension and the presence of an unseen intruder shaped by grief. Created by choreographer Taira Foo, the piece draws on lived experience and collaboration with young people affected by mental health challenges. The words ‘elastic’, ‘space’ and ‘movement’ become metaphors for confinement and release, questioning whether hope can emerge when darkness feels overwhelming.Performed by | Matthew Brion, Asher Norridge, Anna Watkins, Laura Gibson, Lauren McGuire, Effie McGuire Ward, Joshua LeónCreated, Choreographed and Directed by | Taira FooProduced by | TF Dance CoFilmmaker | David KaplowitzSet Design by | Daniel LovellLighting Design by | Will DarkinCostume Design by | Taira FooMusic by | Joshua Pacey and Oliver LodgeAdditional Music by | HiatusThanks | Culture Co LB, Ali Lala, Drift Pro Dance and Movement, Laura Gibson Photography, Bernie Raffe, Hectors House, Bucks Mind, One Dance UK, Young Creative Bucks, Oxfam, The Salvation Army, Charlotte Kettridge, Clive Ketteridge, Aidan Pasquale, Archie Lovell, Victoria Stuartwww.tairafoo.com/sickfacebook.com/tairafoodancecoinstagram.com/tf_dance_coinstagram.com/s_i_c_k_bytfinstagram.com/taira_foo/
C ARTS | C venues | C digital
portal – on demand
Step into the vivid world of Japan, where traditional and modern collide. Through the spirit of samurai and elegance of oiran (historic Japanese courtesans), brought to life with dance, theatre, taiko drumming and acrobatics this non-verbal production delivers striking visual storytelling that transcends language, making it accessible to audiences worldwide.Performed by Asakusa Kaguwa, a Tokyo-based theatre company, the show blends cultural heritage with contemporary stagecraft. Its dynamic, immersive style and flexible omnibus format, means Samurai and Oira is continually evolving, offering a fresh and powerful experience for each different venue and audience.Performed and Directed | Kazumi NemotoPerformers | KAGUWA CompanyStage Manager and Taiko Performer | Shingowww.asakusa-kaguwa.comfacebook.com/AsakusaKaguwainstagram.com/asakusakaguwa Watch Trailer
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
In a surreal world of terracotta figures bound by rigid roles, each is trapped in an unchanging destiny. Armoured warriors must stare ahead, performers must always smile, and others remain forever fixed. A defiant cavalry figure breaks these rules, to be told they are only clay, not truly alive. Though doubt causes his body to crumble, he continues to move towards the :red sun” in his heart. Inspired, others also rebel, forming a caravan journeying against the flow of time through ancient cities, marketplaces, and battlefields, each searching for meaning, freedom, and their own inner truth.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
Snow White is boldly reimagined into a haunting exploration of beauty and control through striking, expressive choreography from Jacob Gutiérrez-Montoya, featuring a living mirror. Nostalgia and darkness blend to question perception, power, and the cost of perfection.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
Cosmic Dance presents Space In Between, a compelling South Asian dance triple bill by Oxana Banshikova, Kirsten Newell and Abirami Eswar, exploring tensions between intention and outcome, self and society. Rooted in Bharatanatyam and Kathak and expanded through contemporary movement, three interconnected works unfold. Time Matters reflects on regret and imagined alternate futures, Duality delves into inner conflict and identity, and Unspoken Alignment examines personal and collective misalignment. Together, these pieces reveal unseen forces shaping our choices, relationships and sense of self, offering a powerful, emotionally layered performance experience.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Using the body as my medium, I explore life and identity. I try to find my own place within the crowd and let go of unnecessary labels. I want to break down a disciplined body and cross its boundaries to discover a comfortable, natural way of dancing. We twist and tighten ourselves, hoping to become completely clear. We may spiral upwards in growth, but we can also spiral downwards, without knowing where life will take us. Every exploration helps me untie my inner knots. I long for a bright future, but I also fear the hardships there might be.
theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall
Grand Theatre
Springboard '26 is a curated programme of theatre, dance and physical theatre produced by PASS (Edinburgh College). Following on from our successful programme at last year's Fringe, we will be bringing another mixed bill of original work from emerging artists and recent graduates to PASS Theatre this August. We're thrilled to welcome back students from York St John University, who will be performing a varied selection of short-form pieces as part of the programme.
PASS Theatre
Theatre
Where sound becomes movement in this reimagining of a classical Japanese folktale. Directed by Erica Yamada, a Toga Directors' Competition award recipient, the work features acclaimed performers who have been invited to stages across Asia. Praised in Japanese previews for its inventive movement, creativity and sound, the piece blends rhythm, myth and intimate storytelling into a visceral, cross-cultural experience that shifts from quiet physical poetry to contemporary dance and a powerful ensemble finale. Supported by the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
Paradise in The Vault
The Vault
Twelve rounds. Five women. No holding back. Set inside the charged atmosphere of a boxing gym, this high-impact theatrical dance follows a rising superstar, a fading referee and the figures who orbit them. Sweat meets spectacle as pounding beats collide with sweeping classical strings. Characters clash, alliances form and ambition burns through every round. Raw, physical and fiercely human, this 47-minute contemporary dance asks what it really costs to go the distance.
Summerhall Festival
Dissection Room
How do our bodies navigate a world in which boundaries and rules are constantly changing? Are there ways of finding closeness even in moments of separation? Could distance ever be seen and felt as a strength? A compelling tension between oneself and others underscores every moment of this captivating three-part quintet, beautifully brought to life by LEI Dance Theatre with Lao-French choreographer Olé Khamchanla. Intelligently blending traditional, contemporary and classical styles, it is an honest, imaginative and questioning dance about the way we live now.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
2024 Bobby Award-winning company Seed Dance returns to the Fringe with the UK premiere of another 'stunning' (BroadwayBaby.com) production by gifted artistic director Huang Wen-Jen. For her, dance is a form of socially acute visual thinking. Here her subjects range from contemporary division and connection to human vulnerability, adaptability and perception. Using a pair of simple yet strikingly symbolic framed platforms, Huang plays blazingly smart games with vertical, horizontal, internal and external space. The result is an explosively dynamic, emotionally provocative quintet packed with restless, urgent precision.
Summerhall Festival
Main Hall
Hotly-tipped young choreographer Lai Yun-Chi (formerly a dancer with Shechter II and a member of Humanhood) is keen to uncover what lies beneath our layered personalities – the roles we play, the identities we choose, the faces we wear. Drawing upon ceremonial folk rituals, a battery of cross-cultural movement styles and practices and a family history of leathercraft, she and her company Mailantia present the UK premiere of a bold, intricate and brand-new steampunk-influenced quartet about concealment and transformation. Expect a unique and original mix of East-West sensibilities.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
Two timelines collide in this bold fusion of dance and circus, offering a fresh perspective on HIV. When Grace receives a diagnosis, she is transported back to the 80s alongside Michael, a gay man navigating a very different reality. Their journeys unfold through striking choreography, Chinese pole and aerial artistry. Sadiq Ali Company, makers of five-star, award-winning The Chosen Haram, return to the Fringe with their new show Tell Me, part of the Made in Scotland showcase. 'Stunning, soulful, a total triumph' ***** (PinkPrinceTheatre.com). 'Poignant tale of sex, revelry and glistening abs' **** (Guardian). MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
Summerhall Festival
Dissection Room
When no-one tells us who to become, are we willing to take responsibility for choosing? A physical theatre work where movement carries memory and language reveals consciousness. This is not a memorial, but a ritual of becoming. The body on stage moves through states of mechanism, imitation, adaptation, disorientation, awareness and choice. At the final altar, Er’er completes a long-rehearsed dance, not in rage or collapse, but by stepping away. The cocoon does not break into a new identity or heroic rebirth, but into an undefined body – an open state.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
Mr Chevalier, the flamboyant new director of the Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg, presents an exceptional moment of dance. Hailed as the Bad Boy of Folklore and renowned for his expertise, bold artistic vision, and magnetic stage presence, Mr Chevalier pays tribute to Summerhall as part of the 50th anniversary of the company's iconic Pigeon Dance. The unpredictable director and choreographer, whose stage performances are as rare as they are emotionally intense, will perform emblematic classics from the company’s exceptional repertoire. This unforgettable experience will be followed by an autograph session.
Summerhall Festival
Main Hall
What began as a provocation to create a physical theatre piece inspired by a fairy tale was further developed around Erikson's Stages of Development to explore life through a lens not often seen in storytelling. What if none of the characters are truly heroic? What if they are just human? What if good intentions aren't enough to create a meaningful life? And what if there is more to life than how we define ourselves? The story that unfolds is a grave and poetic reminder that each choice we make impacts the people we leave behind.
Nicolson Square Venues
The Studio
Inside the soul, two wolves are locked in a relentless conflict. Fear thrives in the shadows, the other seeks certainty. In this audacious reimagining, we unravel and disarticulate together, seeking it is visceral, an intertwined journey something you feel in every haunting movement. Shauna Steele’s mesmerizing choreography fuses the precision of contemporary ballet with the raw powers of modern. As the struggle unfolds, we interweave, confront and explore the existential idea of the multitudes we contain, which version of ourselves we feed and where we remain. Dance as you’ve never experienced it before: FEED THE NEED!
Central Hall
Auditorium
Drawing on plant growth as its central metaphor, Unbounded Growth explores relationships and transformation within a symbiotic ecosystem. Performed by four dancers, it develops through shifting physical connections, forming multi-directional patterns resembling roots and branches. Inspired by Wa culture’s reverence for and harmony with nature, these ideas are translated into movement and choreographic structure. Emphasising process and multiplicity, the work unfolds through evolving spatial relationships, revealing how life continuously emerges through interaction with environment and others.
C ARTS | C venues | C aurora
main house
Grab your finger-guns, comb your ‘stache and brace yourselves for the Well-Balanced Dads! Dick and Dale are taking the audience on a camping trip full of dad jokes, dance moves, acrobatics, movie references and unthreatening audience participation. This hilarious duo balances levity with deeper themes like finding your inner child, hypermasculinity and navigating life after the kids have flown the nest. '6 stars from this dad, 5 from the rest of the family!' (Good Dad). 'My face hurt from smiling' (Good Kid). A show for anyone who is a dad, has a dad or wants a dad.
Braw Venues @ Hill Street
Alba Theatre
Where We Choose to Stand is an ambitious dance-theatre work inspired by climate activism amid political upheaval. Embedded in Nicolette Macleod's evocative soundscape are first hand accounts from people from across the UK who have been involved in direct action, amplifying the voices of those often silenced for their actions. Through audience interaction, the work challenges audiences to reflect on where they stand, asking how we position ourselves in moments of crisis.
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB1
not for glory is a restless, relentless, rebellious unravelling of traditional dance and music. It is not a radical Highland Dance show, not a reinvented Irish dance display and not an experimental piping competition. It's bodies, bagpipes and brutality. It's kilts, queerness and ceremonial violence. It's back beats, high cuts, striking in, a battering, flinging skirl. not for glory resuscitates tradition with respect and resilience, dissects heritage and dances solidarity. It's a dance-theatre gig balancing virtuosity with vulnerability, pride with shame. Three performers reclaim the traditions they grew up in, not for glory – but for what?
Assembly @ Dance Base
DB3
A footballer, a violinist. Two artists from very different worlds meet on stage for an unexpected duet. Blending freestyle football with live music, °Up transforms the stage into a poetic playground. At its heart, °Up is the story of an encounter: a solo that became a duo thanks to the obvious connection on stage. Gabriel Majou plays the strings of his violin with as much playfulness as Paul Molina dribbles with his ball.
French Institute in Scotland
Salle Emilienne Moreau-Evrard
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