Grupo Corpo: Dança Sinfônica, Gira

2015 marked the 40th anniversary of Grupo Corpo, a legendary Brazilian dance company. Created to celebrate this special occasion by Grupo Corpo’s current artistic director, Paulo Pederneiras, Dança Sinfônica combines musical passages from ballets recently produced by Grupo Corpo with a variety of choreographic elements that have over the past four decades become the group’s trademark. Revisiting the best works from Grupo Corpo’s entire repertoire, Pederneiras’ Dança Sinfônica is a synthesis of the group’s rich, compelling and distinctive choreographic scripture. Blending ‘historical elements’, Paulo Pederneiras, whose residence with the company spans a period of over thirty years, thus created a fresh, innovative and gripping show, a visual and musical treat, which fully satisfies our craving for South American cultural delicacies.

Gira, the group’s latest production, is sheer delight. Echoing Brazil’s cultural heterogeneity – being a melting pot of hundreds, if not thousands, of races, peoples and cultures that have socially assimilated throughout the centuries of coexisting (and engaging in conflicts), whilst retaining the dissimilarity of their ‘DNA’ profiles, Gira reflects the vibrant diversity of Brazil’s dance and music scenes. Searching for inspiration, Rodrigo Pederneiras delved far back into Brazilian history and tapped into two principal sources. He drew dance elements from the Umbanda ritual, a syncretic Afro-Brazilian religion that blends Candomblé with Roman Catholicism and Kardecism. The piece’s musical texture finds inspiration in deeply embedded and rhythmically variegated Afro-Brazilian traditions, translated into eleven music scores – highly ‘conductive’ to dance – by Brazilian indie/jazz/pop/underground band Metá Metá. Gira is an overview of Brazil’s popular music, a recapitulation of Latin America’s basic dance steps, of dances whose popularity has spread throughout the world. Its invigorating dance and music, and varicoloured set and costume design, provide a veritable instruction book on the joy of living. A tangible proof that happiness is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice.