Grupo Corpo

The contemporary Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo, founded by Paulo Pederneiras in 1975 in Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, presented its first work, Maria Maria, the very next year. Featuring original music by Milton Nascimento, a script by Fernando Brandt, and choreography by the Argentine Oscar Araiz, the ballet would go on to spend six years on stage and tour 14 countries. But even though the piece was an immediate critical, popular, and commercial success, the group’s distinctive identity, its long-term popularity, and its artistic achievements have been the fruits of a long, arduous journey. As a result, Grupo Corpo began operating in its own premises as of 1978.

While the success of Maria Maria was still reverberating throughout Brazil and in various European and Latin American countries, Grupo Corpo (literally “Body Group”) never stopped working, staging six productions between 1976 and 1982. During the first phase of this development, the influence of Araiz, who in 1980 would create O Último Trem, was evident in varying degrees. However, the company’s distinctive features and personality were chiefly molded by Paulo Pederneiras, the man responsible for the artistic direction as well as the sets and lighting of the performances, and dancer Rodrigo Pederneiras, who left the stage in 1981 to assume the role of full-time choreographer.

In 1985, the company launched its second great success, Prelúdios, a theatrical piece incorporating 24 Chopin preludes interpreted by pianist Nelson Freire. The show debuted to public and critical acclaim at the First International Dance Festival of Rio de Janeiro and went on to cement Grupo Corpo’s reputation in the world of contemporary Brazilian dance.

The company then entered a new phase, during which it firmly established its own unique theatrical language and approach to choreography. Beginning with an sophisticated repertoire featuring music by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Richard Strauss, and Edward Elgar, among others, the company began combining classical technique with a contemporary re-reading of popular Brazilian dance forms. This would ultimately become the group’s trademark.

In 1989 Grupo Corpo debuted Missa do Orfanato, a complex theatrical reading of Mozart’s Missa Solemnis (K. 139). Nearly operatic in dimensions, the ballet became an esthetic milestone in the group’s history.

The company underwent a radical transformation three years later with the production of 21, a ballet that confirmed the originality of Rodrigo Pederneiras’ choreography and Grupo Corpo’s singular persona. Utilizing the unique sounds of the Brazilian instrumental group Uakti, as well as a selection of themes composed by Marco Antônio Guimarães, 21 moved beyond the group’s former preoccupation with technical form and saw it deconstructing melodies and rhythms to explore the works’ underlying ideas. The decision to once again use original music—a mark of the group’s first three productions in the 1970s—allowed Grupo Corpo to further explore the language of popular Brazilian dance.

In the work that followed, Nazareth (1993), Rodrigo Pederneiras’ fascination with traversing the worlds of both popular and erudite music found a perfect opportunity for fuller expression. Inspired by the verbal games of Brazilian literary icon Machado de Assis (1839–1908) and the works of Ernesto Nazareth (1863–1934), a seminal figure in the formation of Brazilian popular music, the work was scored by composer and literary theorist José Miguel Wisnik. Though built on a solid, classical foundation, the production combined—in good-humored fashion—the light-hearted and sensual elements inherent in Brazilian popular dances.

The ongoing partnership between Grupo Corpo and contemporary authors has been a great success and the scores composed specifically for the company have become the norm, with each one inspiring a new creation. An exception came in 2004 with the production of Lecuona, a work that drew on 13 love songs by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona (1895–1963), in which Rodrigo Pederneiras demonstrated his gift for the creation of pas-de-deux.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Grupo Corpo increased its international touring. Between 1996 and 1999, it was the resident dance company of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon, France. Several of the group’s creations (Bach, Parabelo, and Benguelê) were first staged in Europe during this period.

Today, having created more than 40 works of choreography, Grupo Corpo gives regular performances worldwide, from Italy, France, the Netherlands, Iceland, Lebanon, and Israel, to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea.

Grupo Corpo has drawn on from countless inspirations—the minimalism of Philip Glass; the vigorous pop and urban sounds of Arnaldo Antunes; the primordial experimentalism of Tom Zé; the African sensibility of João Bosco; the metaphysical verse of Luís de Camões and Gregório de Mattos with the light touch of Caetano Veloso and Wisnik; the rootsy modernity of Lenine; the sound diversity of Moreno, Domenico, and Kassin; the contemporary vision of Martin Codax’s medieval songs by Carlos Núñez and José Miguel Wisnik; the pop style of Samuel Rosa; the musical genius of Gilberto Gil—to produce programs of very diverse character: cerebral, cosmopolitan, primitive, existential, tough—while always celebrating the company’s distinctive traits.