Grupo Corpo: A delight of colorful dancing bodies

The abundance of lights and colors, the design of bodies shaping unconditional movements fulfilled the hearts of the public in the Arlene Schinitzer Concert Hall in Portland, in February 9th, 2011. Grupo Corpo or Body Group encountered a full theater with a captive audience that was responsible for bringing the group back for the fourth time.

The Grupo Corpo is a modern dance company from Belo Horizonte city in Brazil. The group is directed by Paulo Pederneiras and his brother Rodrigo who is responsible for the choreography direction. The company was composed of 25 members from different parts of Brasil. The internationally  acclaimed  group is touring along Europe and the US with their show Imã (magnet).

At the Schnitzer and under request the group presented the piece Parabelo. The music repertoire for Parabelo is a sound track composed in 1997, by Tom Zé and José Miguel Wisnik. It was a collaborative work characterized by its “Mash up” of Brazilian regional styles and the idiosyncrasies of the experimental music.

The settings for both Parabelo and Imã have a minimalist presence unveiling just the essence of the work.  With the art of Fernando Velloso and Paulo Pederneiras for the settings’ design and the costumes’ by Freusa Zechmeister the beauty of simplicity and the harmony that the production transmits are an orchestration of shapes, matters and colors in a simply astonishing dynamic!

The production sets the environment to a daydream.  Unimaginable body shapes helped by an extremely pictured light design lead our eyes to optical illusions. The second piece Imã is an abstract musical composition uniting expressions and instruments from different countries with a Brazilian touch. As the name indicates, Imã or magnet is the principle that creates the dynamic between the bodies and souls on the stage, exploring the possibilities of attraction and polarity that surprises the audience in its singularities.

The difference in time between the creation of the two productions demonstrates the aesthetic development of the company in terms of conceptual connection with its time. Participatory culture, transmedia, technology, convergence culture are terminologies of the recent global era and through analyzing the cultural manifestation of the this dance production we find on their bodies’ repertoire the expressions of the traditional, modern and experimental translated into sounds, gestures, shapes, languages.

The group will certainly come back in the future and for those who want to experience that I say that you will have a taste of the warmth and sensual atmosphere translated through the Brazilian dancers and production and your mind will be motivated for the unknown, your senses awaken for tasting colors and smelling ideas, to listen the silent sound of body movements recorded in your memories. For initiated dance lovers is hard to keep still on the seats and the performance inspiration leaves its flow as energizing “music for our bodies”.

Grupo Corpo http://www.grupocorpo.com.br/site/

Grupo Corpo – Parabelo (2010)

#art #performances #Brasil #LatinAmerica #dance #video