THE ELECTRIFYING BRAZILIAN DANCE COMPANY
GRUPO CORPO
MARCH 6, 2009
AT BASS CONCERT HALL FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY!
TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Grupo Corpo is Brazil’s most recognized and popular dance company! Founded in 1975 in the city of Belo Horizonte. Grupo Corpo and their work are a true melting pot of cultural and artistic influences. Their compelling style grafts the pliancy of modern dance and rhythmic complexity of Afro-Brazilian dance onto ballet. The Brazilian dance company captivates audiences with their stunningly sexy physicality, dynamic ability, and rich visual finesse.

The company’s musical selections are a major hallmark of their work, with pieces set to music by composers as diverse as Phillip Glass, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Ernesto Lecuona. In addition, “O Corpo,” as they are often referred to in Brazil, has a long history of collaborating with some of Brazil’s most renown popular musicians, including Lenine, Caetano Veloso, Arnaldo Antunes, João Bosco, and Tom Zé.

The heart and soul of Grupo Corpo is the Pederneiras family. Brothers Rodrigo, Paulo, and Pedro Pederneiras serve as Choreographer, Artistic Director, and Technical Director, respectively, while sister Miriam Pederneiras started out as one of the company’s dancers and now oversees Corpo Cidadão, Grupo Corpo’s non-profit public education program for children in economically marginalized areas of Belo Horizonte.

“In its honorable commitment to all the heritage of Brazil, Grupo Corpo has purged falsehoods and indignities that have too often attached themselves to images of Latin America. In presenting a more complete and candid image of Brazilian culture, the company underscores the fact that the truth, no matter how unvarnished, always contains a more profound beauty than does the most beguiling caricature.” – Suzanne Carbonneau, in Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival’s program notes.

This performance is a part of the Performing Arts Center’s ArtesAméricas program.

The pieces that will be performed at Bass Concert Hall:

BREU
(2007 – duration: 40 minutes)
Choreography: RODRIGO PEDERNEIRAS
Music: LENINE
Costumes: FREUSA ZECHMEISTER
Set and lighting: PAULO PEDERNEIRAS

Breu follows the intricate and poignant fabric of sounds created by Brazilian composer Lenine to evoke the dark times we live in. The show seems to have started by its end as the initial deathly inertia is followed by the most aggressive, edgy and powerful choreography created thus far by Rodrigo Pederneiras in almost 30 years as the choreographer of GRUPO CORPO.

The music created by Lenine combines the best of the musical tradition of the Brazilian Northeast with cutting-edge modernity. Extreme individualism, the absence of communication, the pursuit of victory at any cost and the willingness to see confrontation as the main strategy of survival – values perhaps inherent to the human nature but heightened to apocalyptic levels in the gigantic urban settlements of this beginning of millennium – seem to be the principles that move the dancers through Breu.

SETE OU OITO PEÇAS PARA UM BALLET (SEVEN OR EIGHT PIECES FOR A BALLET)
(1994 – duration: 42 minutes)
Choreography: RODRIGO PEDERNEIRAS
Music: PHILIP GLASS | UAKTI
Costumes: FREUSA ZECHMEISTER
Set: FERNANDO VELLOSO
Lighting: PAULO PEDERNEIRAS

Based on eight themes written by American composer Philip Glass and Brazilian instrumental ensemble Uakti, choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras balanced the formal rigor that had marked his work till then and created an artless choreography. Movement scores appeared as a series of sketches, annotations or studies for a choreography; “7 or 8 Pieces for a Ballet” had its debut in 1994, displaying an apparently unfinished character in a superb flawless form. As in contemporary art in which corrections may be visibly incorporated to the final result, dancers’ movements came in variations, from a “dirty” aesthetics resembling rehearsals to a pristine final result. In this sense, this is a ballet that would rather propose than foretell; it’s as if the creators of Corpo shared with the spectator the different phases of its creative process.

The obsessive, cold, and precise quality of Glass’ themes written especially for this ballet led Pederneiras to orchestrate solos with automaton-like movement repetitions in contrast with ensembles full of organic movements charged with Latin sensuousness inherent to the unique Uakti sound. The set by Fernando Velloso and costumes by Freusa Zechmeister gave the ballet its visual identity, exploring early minimalism. They filled the stage with green, blue, and yellow stripes whereas white dominated Paulo Pederneiras’ lighting.

This performance is a part of the Performing Arts Center’s ArtesAméricas program.

In partnership with the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies , ArtesAméricas promotes cultural dialogue in the Americas through the performing arts. In addition to presenting the best performing artists from throughout the hemisphere, ArtesAméricas supports events and programs that serve as catalysts to broaden the understanding, appreciation, and support for the performing arts, by:

• Sponsoring lectures, workshops, master classes, and other events before and after performances to create opportunities for audiences and artists to interact.

• Creating comprehensive materials on artists and their countries to contextualize the experience of the art forms presented for audiences and the community.

• Sharing the University of Texas at Austin’s vast academic and educational resources with audiences and artists.

• Planning, facilitating, and executing educational and professional exchanges throughout the hemisphere, especially with faculty, staff, and students from the College of Fine Arts , including The Butler School of Music and The Department of Theatre and Dance.

• Encouraging the presentation of Latin American and US Latino artists throughout the United States.

Since its inception in 2002, ArtesAméricas has worked with dozens of artists from across the hemisphere on a wide variety of activities.

CALENDAR LISTING:

Friday, March 6, 2009, 8:00 pm – The University of Texas at Austin Performing Arts Center presents Grupo Corpo at the Performing Arts Center’s Bass Concert Hall (2400 E. Campus Dr.). A map of the campus: http://www.utpac.org/venues/bass_concert_hall. Tickets ($26.00 – $39.50/ limited number of $10 tickets for students / discounted tickets available for UT faculty & staff) are on sale now at the authorized ticket outlets, which include the Bass Concert Hall Box Office, most H-E-B stores and all Texas Box Office outlets, online at www.utpac.org, or by calling (512) 477-6060 or (800) 982-BEVO.

Download a PDF copy of the Grupo Corpo press release