Black and white and so colorful

About three years ago, Brazilian dance troupe Grupo Corpo stunned a Mondavi Center audience with its sensual, provocative dance "Onqotô."

The theme of the dance was "loneliness, brought on by metaphysical questions like 'Who am I?' or 'Where am I?' " explains choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras, one of six siblings who founded the company in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 1975.

This Friday, Pederneiras' company returns to the Mondavi Center with another dance that is sure to thrill, delight – and challenge.

Pederneiras describes the work, titled "Breu," as "a poetic translation of the violent, barbarous times we live in."

"Breu" debuted at the troupe's home theater, the 1,700-seat Palácio das Artes in Belo Horizonte, in 2007 and was performed on the East Coast of the United States and in Canada last year.

Joel Lobenthal of the New York Sun described its New York premiere as "a dazzling display of punishing virtuosity" and John Rockwell of the New York Times called "Breu" "a brilliant physical display."

Belo Horizonte, a city of 3 million roughly 300 miles north of Rio De Janeiro and the South Atlantic Ocean, has embraced Grupo Corpo. Indeed, the troupe is the most successful dance company in Brazil – and well-regarded internationally.

Pederneiras has choreographed for the Municipal Ballet Theater of Rio de Janeiro, the City Ballet of Sao Paulo, Les Ballets Jazz Montreal, the Deutch Opera Berlin and the Opera du Rhin in France.

Mixing genres that show the varied influences of Brazilian culture, Pederneiras creates dances that, though grounded in ballet techniques, are basically modern dance, performed barefoot or in regular shoes, and with allusions to such popular dance as Brazilian street dance, ballroom and African dance.

Jeremy Ganter, associate executive director and director of programming at the Mondavi Center, was responsible for bringing the troupe here in 2006 – and in booking its return as quickly as schedules would allow.

"To me, they are the unsung heroes of modern dance," he said. "... They are in the same league as Alvin Ailey in terms of being a group we want to continue a relationship with and bring back. The quality of their dancers is definitely comparable."

In an e-mail exchange, choreographer Pederneiras discussed the dance, his approach to creating and arranging dance and the "Brazilness" of what he does.

"Breu," he says, "is my most radical dance movement in 30 years as a choreographer. In order to express in movement the complex, piercing score by singer and composer Lenine, the dancers and I had to leave behind the sensuality, lyricism and joy that had characterized the group's work since 1992 and initiate new forms of movement."

Asked how that movement differs from his previous works, the choreographer responds: "The forms are harsher, more angular and more powerful than predecessors. The abrupt falls and the painfully slow upward movements of the dancers appear to condemn their bodies to the ground, where they move with the aid of the pelvis, wrists, elbows, knees, ankles and heels."

The accompanying music is "a stimulating babel of sound," Pederneiras says. The original score ranges from hard rock to traditional Brazilian genres. The scenery (by brother Paulo Pederneiras) features huge, cold plaques of shining black tiles.

"The costumes (by Freusa Zechmeister) feature black-and-white leotards that divide the body in half, front to back – the back being solid black so that under the lights, "for split seconds, they seem to become one with the scenery," the choreographer says.

(You can see a short excerpt from "Breu" by clicking on the video link on the Grupo Corpo entry at www.mondaviarts.org.)

Grupo Corpo dance, Pederneiras says, explores a private world, where dynamics and balance have more meaning than movement.

"Our body learned how to dance on the street, and my language is a modern one," he says, "using peculiar forms of Brazilian popular dances in order to create a rhythm vocabulary all my own."

Classical ballet techniques were the basis of his choreography, Pederneiras says, and daily classical training still is woven into his dancers' workout routines.

Pederneiras has largely chosen to use the work of Brazilian composers since 1992. (The only exceptions are Ernesto Lecuono ("the Cuban Gershwin") whose work accompanied the 2006 Mondavi program and Philip Glass whose music accompanies "Seven or Eight Pieces for a Ballet" on this year's program.)

Grupo Corpo tours with a troupe of about 30, and while the economy is affecting the arts in Brazil as it is in the United States, "We didn't change anything because of the economic crisis," he says. "This tour was planned a long time ago."

In Brazil, in addition to performing in Belo Horizonte, Grupo Corpo regularly performs to sold-out crowds at the 2,240-seat Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro and at the 1,130-seat Teatro Alfa in Sao Paulo.

The company had an invitation to perform at the Moscow Dance Festival this year, but the event was canceled because of lack of funding.

The troupe, instead, will "take this opportunity to tour more in Brazil, where we have a big demand," Pederneiras says. "It's a big country and usually we don't have enough time to tour (everywhere we'd like)."

http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/v-print/story/1676490.html