This selection, artistic residency, and co-creation phase of the Beyond Borders project took place in Egypt from September 23 to 29, 2025, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo, as part of the Eazees International Women’s Theatre Festival.
The program involved the Instabili Vaganti company and choreographer Elena Copelli in an intense week of work dedicated to the creation of the show Borders#Egypt, developed together with young Egyptian artists and presented to the public on September 28 and 29, 2025, as part of the festival. The first phase of the program included an intensive creative workshop, led by director Anna Dora Dorno, performer and playwright Nicola Pianzola, and choreographer Copelli, aimed at selecting participants and transmitting the working method developed in the Beyond Borders project, fostering intercultural exchange, and artistic creation.
The workshop focused on physical theatre practices, vocal research, improvisation, and performative composition, encouraging the exchange of techniques and languages and laying the foundations for a collective creation capable of engaging with the Egyptian cultural context.
Creative workshop – Cairo, Egypt. Ph. Nicola Pianzola
From the workshop, the selected artists participated in a co-creation phase that led to the definition of the performative structure of the Borders#Egypt show. The process followed one of the key principles of Beyond Borders: the opportunity for new performers to engage with the project’s previous creations, reworking and transforming them through new materials, bodies, voices, and imagery.
The result was a unique creation, capable of intertwining female identities, experiences, and perspectives, in dialogue with the theme of borders, understood not only as geographical limits, but as spaces of crossing, resistance, and transformation.
Borders#Egypt – Qobet El-Ghouri, Il Cairo, Egitto.
The Egyptian stage was part of the Eazees International Women’s Theatre Festival, a festival dedicated to promoting female creativity and intercultural dialogue through the performing arts, named after the great figure of Arab theater, Samiha Ayoub.
During the festival’s opening ceremony on September 25, 2025, Anna Dora Dorno received a major international honor for her work as an interdisciplinary artist and for her commitment to experimental theater and intercultural dialogue. This recognition underscores the artistic and political value of the Beyond Borders project and its global impact.
Cerimonia di premiazione – Eazees International Women’s Theatre Festival – Il Cairo, Egitto. Ph. Nicola Pianzola
The Beyond Borders stopover in Egypt represented an important opportunity for training, discussion, and professional growth for all the artists involved, strengthening the project’s international dimension and consolidating new relationships between Italian and Egyptian cultural institutions.
The remote work of two of the company’s permanent collaborators was also crucial: Michele Persici, who oversaw communication and promotion of the stopover on digital channels, and Federico Costanza, who managed intercultural dialogue thanks to his knowledge of Arabic, the organization of the stopover, and the initial relationship with the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo.
The work contributed to the construction of a transnational artistic community, one of the central objectives of Beyond Borders: creating lasting spaces for collaboration, capable of generating new productions, networks, and opportunities for circulation in the Mediterranean and beyond.
The following artists and professionals were involved in this phase of the project:
Anna Dora Dorno – director and actress, Nicola Pianzola – performer, Elena Copelli – choreographer, Michele Persici – organizer, Federico Costanza – cultural mediator