The word comes from Tupi (“pira” = fish; “cema” = to rise) and defines the migratory movement of fish against the current, towards the headwaters of rivers, to spawn. In its fiftieth year, 2025, GRUPO CORPO chose the phenomenon of piracema as a symbol of its trajectory – a journey driven by the irresistible desire to create, recreate and resist, to return to the beginning and also to advance into uncharted territories.
With a soundtrack specially composed by the Brazilian/American multi-instrumentalist Clarice Assad, Piracema inaugurated the choreographic partnership between Rodrigo Pederneiras and Cassi Abranches, who also becomes the resident choreographer.
Assad's music traces an arc that begins in the tribal, in the untouched natural environment, passes through the symphonic polyphony of classical music and ends in the electronic, urban, contemporary. The set design, created by artistic director Paulo Pederneiras, brings together no less than 82,000 sardine can lids in immense panels. And the creation of the costumes was the responsibility of the design duo Susana Bastos and Marcelo Alvarenga, who start with a palette of earthy colors and move through blues and silvers.