The best EIF dance shows - Scotsman critic Kelly Apter previews the 2024 programme

Size isn’t everything, so while this year’s Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) dance programme is a little on the small side, it’s definitely a case of quality over quantity. Not only that, but all three companies/choreographers are “repeat offenders” in the best possible way. Aakash Odedra, Crystal Pite and Grupo Corpo have all graced EIF stages before, with stunning productions that left audiences in raptures. Each of them also received a five-star review in this paper, so their return is to be relished and anticipated.

It’s 14 years since Brazilian contemporary dance company Grupo Corpo played the Festival, eight years since Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite re-staged her stunning work, Emergence with Scottish Ballet, and just two years since classical Indian dancer Aakash Odedra performed the sublime Samsara.

The work these three companies produce is so vastly different, it somehow makes the dance programme feel bigger than it actually is.
The music-driven, loose-limbed movement of Grupo Corpo (see feature) may have its foundations in classical ballet, but the bodies and minds behind it are steeped in Brazilian culture. Aakash Odedra grew up learning and performing Kathak and Bharatanatyam, but these classical Indian dance styles were then wrapped up in his contemporary dance training.

Renée Sigouin in Assembly Hall PIC: Michael Slobodian

While Crystal Pite started her career dancing classical ballet but went on to form her own contemporary dance theatre company, Kidd Pivot. So between them, different styles, sensibilities and cultures take their moment in the spotlight.
Odedra calls dance ‘the language of the soul’, and all those who saw Samsara in 2022 will agree that he laid his soul bare. Taking the stage with Chinese dancer Hu Shenyuan, he transfixed us with his fast-paced feet pounding the stage. This year, Odedra will be dancing alone in Songs of the Bulbul. Inspired by an ancient Sufi myth in which a bulbul bird is captured but sings its sweetest songs as death draws closer, the work will have its world premiere in Edinburgh this August. Odedra talks of his affinity with birds, and likens birdsong to live dance – it exists in the moment but is then lost. So experience it while you can.


On the surface, Pite’s work Assembly Hall sounds light-hearted and vaguely ridiculous. Taking place in a community centre, where a group of medieval re-enactors are battling to keep their society going in the face of falling membership and increasing debt, it’s billed as a cross between Arthurian cosplay and contemporary dance.

Pite, and long-time collaborator Jonathon Young, know how to mix frivolity with gravitas however, and the combination of his sharp dialogue and her compelling movement creates pure gold.
Having choreographed work for such renowned companies as the Royal Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater and many more, winning over 20 prestigious awards in the process, Pite has been in high demand for years. Exciting physicality, beautiful imagery, strong wit, and a deep sense of humanity is evident in everything she makes, and Assembly Hall will no doubt be a highlight of this year’s Festival.

For more information, and to book tickets, visit www.eif.co.uk