IN CONVERSATION WITH: Lili de Grammont
We sat down with Lili de Grammont, who is bringing her double bill Voyeur / Samba and Love to Edinburgh Fringe this year. Presented by São José dos Campos Dance Company, this show runs from 31 July – 24 August at Assembly @ Dance Base.
You’re bringing Double Bill: Voyeur / Samba and Love to the Fringe this August as part of the São Paulo Showcase supported by Associação Paulista dos Amigos da Arte and São Paulo State Secretariat of Culture – are you excited to show Scottish audiences the work?
Yes, absolutely! It’s a great honour and a very special opportunity for us to bring Voyeur / Samba and Love to the Fringe, especially as part of the São Paulo Showcase. Sharing Brazilian contemporary dance with Scottish and international audiences at such an iconic festival is very exciting for our entire company. This is also a unique chance to present not only the physicality of Brazilian bodies, but also our dramaturgical, political, and emotional narratives through dance.
Double Bill: Voyeur / Samba and Love consists of two dance performances, back to back, both with different messages and themes. Can you tell us a little about each show?
Voyeur invites the audience into an intimate space, where private movements unfold under the pressure of being observed. It explores how bodies exist when they are exposed, when consent becomes fragile, and when the simple act of being seen transforms everything. The choreography plays with proximity, stillness, tension, and the constant negotiation between inner and outer worlds. Samba and Love draws inspiration from Chico Buarque’s iconic song, embracing both its lyricism and its rhythms. While it touches on the sensation of navigating the pressures of modern life, it also celebrates the vitality of the body, the joy of movement, and the beauty of human connection. The piece moves between softness and energy, between intimacy and collective rhythm, always grounded in the musicality that carries Brazilian identity.
What would you like Edinburgh Fringe audiences to learn, take, or experience whilst watching Double Bill: Voyeur / Samba and Love?
I hope the audience feels invited into the richness of Brazilian culture — where music, rhythm, and the body are deeply connected. In Voyeur, we explore the intimate tension between exposure and privacy, set against an original score that brings cinematic and emotional depth to the atmosphere. In Samba and Love, Brazilian music takes center stage. Inspired by Chico Buarque’s iconic song, the piece carries both the softness of bossa nova and the pulse of samba. Even when we touch on themes of exhaustion or contemporary life, the rhythm always offers a sense of vitality and beauty. I would like the audience to experience not only the stories we tell through movement, but also the emotional landscapes that Brazilian music and dramaturgy create — spaces of reflection, but also of celebration.
What is your choreography and creation process like when it comes to making dance performances like these?
My path into dance was born from a very personal story. I grew up in a family of singers, surrounded by music and performance. But my childhood was also marked by tragedy: in a moment of obsessive jealousy, my father took my mother’s life on stage. It took many years to find healing. Dance became the space where I could hold all that I carry — first as a dancer, and now as a creator. But above all, dance has been my path of transformation. It allowed me to turn pain into meaning, and intensity into beauty. My creation process is a way to give shape to what is sometimes impossible to express in words. I always begin with a question that resonates inside me — questions about human connection, vulnerability, and the emotional spaces we all navigate. Before entering the studio, I spend time researching, reading, listening to music, and building the dramaturgy. Once I’m with the dancers, the process becomes a dialogue. I bring images and sensations; they bring their own stories and sensitivities. Together, we build the movement organically, allowing the work to breathe and evolve. Music is central to this process — not simply as accompaniment, but as a driving force that guides rhythm, atmosphere, and emotional texture from the very beginning.
Music plays an important role in both Voyeur and Samba and Love – why did you make this creative choice?
Music is a central part of my creative process, and I have the privilege of working in close collaboration with composer Ed Côrtes, who has scored over 30 works with me throughout my career. From the very beginning of each creation, we build the atmosphere of the piece together — dramaturgy, sound, and movement are developed simultaneously. Ed brings his deep experience in cinematic composition, creating immersive emotional landscapes that allow the audience to feel fully inside the world of each work. At the same time, his research into Brazilian music — its rhythms, textures, and connections with classical music — brings a strong sense of our cultural identity into every score. In Voyeur, the music holds the intimacy and tension of the bodies on stage, supporting the fragile negotiation between exposure and privacy. In Samba and Love, the rhythms of samba and bossa nova are present, but reimagined through a contemporary lens that allows joy, sensuality, and emotional complexity to live together. For us, music and dance are inseparable from the very first moment of creation — they feed each other and build the emotional world we want to share with the audience.
Finally, tell us when and where we can see Double Bill: Voyeur / Samba and Love this August!
Double Bill: Voyeur / Samba and Love will be presented at Dance Base Three – Assembly, as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, from July 31st to August 24th, 2025, with performances every Wednesday to Sunday at 1:00 PM.
