THE BRAZILIANS DANCE…AND HOW!
A REVIEW OF “GRUPO CORPO “
Two New York premieres brought from Brazil by “Grupo Corpo” for the 2008 spring season at Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House set off an exultant evening of Latin rhythms, surging choreography, and heart. This outstanding company of dancers, clearly a result of superb training and a grounded commitment, put forth every last molecule of energy for their audiences. Those viewers tired of message pieces delivered by less than competent choreographers and performed by mediocre dancers responded with standing ovations. Suddenly Brooklyn didn’t seem so far to travel to reap good dance.
Part I, “Benguele,” was filled with bounteous primitive movement that could have been a mish-mash of steps but was not. Choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras, one of the two brothers who make possible the excitement generated by this company, structured his piece in lines and did not waver from his plan. It was repetitive in a way that Philip Glass music is repetitive, lulls you along and just when you think “Is he kidding?” there is an ecstatic change of key, urging your concentration forward and reinforcing your appreciation of this company’s ability. Soon the eye anticipated a “What next?” and there was always a “next” to enchant, even if it was just the company lumbering across the stage. There was nostalgia, a longing inherent in the choreography, perhaps born in the African roots, as the rhythms and the undulating spines rebounded to the music of Joao Bosco who drew from Arab, Afro and Brazilian elements for his score.
"Brue" Grupo Corpo, Choreography by Rodrigo Pederneiras
Photo: Julieta Cervantes
Pederneiras explored every nook and cranny of a dancer’s performing ability. It was the rubbery spine collapsing, recovering, pulling tighter then releasing, all the while the Latin rhythms roaring through their muscles. The lighting design of brother Paulo highlighted the dancers with dynamic originality. The brothers have dotted the “I’s” and crossed the “T’s” and come up with a stunning theatrical event. The finale was pure Mardi Gras. The dancers, adorned in ribboned suspenders and white ruffled pants set off with a festive candy-striped backdrop, became celebratory. The splendid ending lifted the mood abundantly.
“Breu” began in darkness, and it took a long while for the eye to focus. The dancers, costumed in black and white patterned leotards, were strewn across the floor in a pile of intertwined bodies. The stage floor was shiny black. The dancers lay side by side in a mound of tangled limbs, almost indistinguishable, until one leg moved and another limb began to propel the torso across the floor. The bodies seem tied to the floor. A leg wheeled around like a spoke in a bicycle, two elbows dug into the floor lifting the torso to an arch, and with one foot pushing, the entire body moved across the floor into the wings. It seemed superhuman to try even once, but the dancers do at least 50 of them. When the eye adjusted to the dimly lit stage, the mind began to contemplate if, indeed, R. Pederneiras was depicting the destruction of the innocent by man and nature run amok. However, as the piece continued its movement splendor, one wondered if the dancers would recover enough to ever get up, accept the applause and go home, or would the exquisite floor movements, original and relentless, point them in the direction of the nearest physical therapist?
What would Katharine Dunham have been thinking if she could have seen “Grupo Corpo” in performance? It was Dunham who became the pioneer in bringing the rhythm and dance of African, South American and Caribbean cultures to the American stage and spawning these movements into both Broadway and concert theatres, founding what we now know as jazz /dance. My guess is she would have been on her feet clapping with the rest of us.