EIF Dance Highlights: Kelly Apter on the 2026 programme

Scotsman dance critic Kelly Apter picks her highlights from the 2026 Edinburgh International Festival programme

Personal stories sit at the heart of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival dance line up. Setting the large-scale splendour of Mere Mortals aside (see feature), the other three works in the programme all focus on real people in real situations. Tragedy, pathos and confusion abound, but so too does self-acceptance and a celebration of identity.

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Ihsane Double Olivier-award-winning Belgian choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui is one of the most respected dance makers working today, and his 2024 piece Ihsane is a visual treat, although not without challenge. Inspired by the horrific homophobic murder in 2012 of Ihsane Jarfi, a 32-year-old Moroccan man living in Belgium, it also touches on Cherkaoui’s own heritage. His father was born in Morocco and emigrated to Flanders, but never quite left his homeland emotionally and died when his son was a teenager. This piece is, to some degree, Cherkaoui’s quest to re-connect with him and his culture. Festival Theatre, 18-20 August

EXXY Dan Daw also looks back in time, to growing up in a working-class Australian family with limited resources. Named after a slang word for “expensive”, his new show explores EXXY (above) how to exist in a world that demands more than you can give, and how to recognise your own worth when others don’t. It follows on from last year’s impactful Dan Daw Show, which also invited us inside the world of cerebral palsy. That was unflinching in its delivery but ultimately joyful, and EXXY looks set to be the same – not least because tickets include a post-show party on all floors of the newly revamped King’s Theatre. King’s Theatre, 23 August

When Prophecy Fails Made by Scottish ensemble Groupwork, When Prophecy Fails (see feature) was inspired by the 1956 social psychology book of the same name. A big hit at last year’s Manipulate festival, it was dubbed “brilliant” and “near perfect” by Scotsman critic Joyce McMillan. Dance, projected images, text and music combine to powerful effect, as members of a doomsday cult in small-town America slowly discover their belief the world will end has proved false. Studio Theatre, 27-30 August

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