Grupo Corpo

Artistic Director: Paulo Pederneiras

Creation: 1975

The contemporary Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo, founded by Paulo Pederneiras in 1975, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, debuted its first work, « Maria Maria », the very next year. The ballet go on to spend six years on stage and tour fourteen countries. But even though the piece was an immediate critical, popular and commercial success, the group´s distinctive artistic identity, its long-term popularity and its artistic achievements have been the fruits of a long, arduous journey. As a result, the group started operating in its own premises as of 1978. The company´s distinctive features and personality were chiefly molded by Paulo Pederneiras, the man responsible for sets and lighting the group´s performances and its artistic direction and the dancer Rodrigo Pederneiras, who left the stage in 1981 to assume the role of full-time choreographer.

Today, having created 35 choreographies and more than 2,300 pieces, the Brazilian dance company maintains ten ballets in its repertoire and gives 80 performances a year in places as distinctive as Iceland and South Korea, the United States and Lebanon, Canada, Italy, Singapore, the Netherlands, Israel, France, Japan and Mexico. The minimalism of Philip Glass (« Sete ou Oito Peças para um Ballet »); the vigorous pop and urban sounds of Arnaldo Antunes (« O Corpo »); the primordial experimentalism of Tom Zé (« Santagustin » and, with Wisnik, « Parabelo »); the African sensibility of João Bosco (« Benguelê »); the metaphysical verse of Luís de Camões and Gregório de Mattos; the light touch of Caetano Veloso and Wisnik (« Onqotô »); the rootsy modernity of Lenine (« Breu »); the poetry of polarities (« Ímã »): Grupo Corpo has drawn on all of these elements and more to produce shows of a very diverse character – cerebral, cosmopolitan, primitive, existential, tough – while always keeping in sight the company´s distinctive traits.

Source: Grupo Corpo ‘s website

More information : grupocorpo.com.br