Festival Dance
Grupo Corpo
Playhouse, Edinburgh
Mary Brennan
five stars
The fabulous ‘wow!’ factor is every bit as urgent and compelling as it was when Grupo Corpo last lit up the EIF dance programme in 2014. And if the Playhouse audience has plenty of first-timers feasting their eyes (and ears) on every aspect of this performance, there are countless expectant returnees who remember the pliant agility, sinuous precision and melding of traditions with contemporary vibes that are the hallmark of this Brazilian company. The whoops and ecstatic applause that greeted both UK premieres in this double bill were clear signs that Grupo Corpo had met - and probably eclipsed - all high expectations.
Brazil - and the company’s home territory of Belo Horizonte especially - is in the DNA of the choreography by Rodrigo Pederneiras, a member of the family who founded Grupo Corpo in 1975 and are still at its helm. The opening piece, Gil Refazendo, is a celebration of the music and cultural influences that are the legacy of Gilberto Gil - the way the backdrop gradually morphs from dark, jungle-dense foliage into a final blossoming of flower heads reflects a sense of his transformative energies. Simple loose-fitting costumes allow the dancers’ bodies to channel the moods and rhythms of Gil’s music with a seemingly effortless ease - in truth the hip-sways, shimmies, little kicks’n’flicks of feet and hands are orchestrated with a consummate exactness and attention to detail.
This focus and finesse is to the fore in Gira, which channels a sense of ancient religious rites into an outpouring of sheer, exuberant physicality often with a sexual thrust. Music, by Metá Metá, adds in chants, brassy bellowing and fierce discords. Costumes - long, flounced skirts and bare tops - accentuate the leaps, swirls, twirls and undulations of bodies that are like human slinkies: coiled springs primed to unleash rippling movement. Hot, sultry, charged with an awareness of a heritage past that is still present in the very soul of Grupo Corpo. Wow!
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