“FronTerra” Astra theatre company

Borders span the Earth, drawing boundaries between nations. Sometimes these boundaries go beyond the physical borders dividing lands. Where do we find our boundaries? The national boundaries, cultural boundaries, or personal boundaries that define us. What happens when we cross a boundary?

FronTerra is a physical theatre piece that invites us to reflect on the role that borders play in our lives, at both the social and personal level. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a border as: “a line separating two political or geographical areas, especially countries.” The Royal Academy of Spanish Language in its definition of the Spanish word for border, frontera, notes that this “line or limit” can be “real or imaginary.” In crossing a border, one encounters multiple barriers, both internal and external, and faces the challenge of overcoming them.

Through dance, poetry and a visual world of strings and cloth overflowing from an antique suitcase, we explore that which ties us down and that which sets us free. What does it mean to cross a border?

Sarah, an American, was born in a country built by immigrants but increasingly closed off to the world. Anna, from the Ukraine, was born in the Soviet Union, a country that no longer exists, and has lived through war in her region. They found each other in the European Union, a region constructed on the idea of open borders, at a moment when nationalism is resurgingacrossour globalized world.

Departing from folk traditions of our very different cultural backgrounds, we interweave these with stories of immigration in our two countries and the European Union. From the journeys of migratory birds to the greatest walls of history, through movement we investigate the drawing of borders over the face of the Earth and how humans interact with them.