About

Founded by Paulo Pederneiras in 1975 in Belo Horizonte, Grupo Corpo premiered its first creation, Maria Maria, the following year. With original music by Milton Nascimento, a script by Fernando Brant, and choreography by the Argentinian Oscar Araiz, the ballet ran for ten years and toured fourteen countries. This success led to the establishment of its own headquarters, inaugurated in 1978. However, while the audience's connection, critical acclaim, and box office success were immediate, the achievement of a distinct artistic identity, the maintenance of a standard of excellence, and the construction of a structure capable of guaranteeing the company's continuity and the setting of long-term goals are the result of arduous daily work.

From 1976 to 1982, while the success of Maria Maria was still reverberating in performances throughout Brazil and various countries in Europe and South America, Grupo Corpo did not rest. They staged no fewer than six choreographies by Rodrigo Pederneiras, who took over as resident choreographer in 1981 and, together with Paulo Pederneiras – the company's artistic director and responsible for the lighting and sets of the shows – ended up shaping the definitive personality and features of the group.

In 1985, the group reached its second major milestone on stage: Prelúdios, a staged interpretation of pianist Nelson Freire's 24 Chopin preludes. The show, which premiered at the 1st International Dance Festival of Rio de Janeiro, was acclaimed by the public and critics alike, and further cemented the group's name in the Brazilian dance scene.

Grupo Corpo then begins a new phase, in which it will develop a unique calligraphy and choreographic vocabulary. Starting from a predominantly classical repertoire – which includes, among others, works by Richard Strauss, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Edward Elgar – the combination of classical technique with a contemporary reinterpretation of movements drawn from Brazilian folk dances takes shape, becoming a trademark of the group.

In 1989, Missa do Orfanato premiered, a dense and grandiose stage adaptation of Mozart's Missa Solemnis K.139. Almost operatic in scale, the ballet became such a definitive aesthetic landmark in the group's trajectory that, two decades after its premiere, it remains in their repertoire.

In 1992, Grupo Corpo's watershed moment emerged: 21, the ballet that would solidify the unique choreographic syntax of Rodrigo Pederneiras and the company's unmistakable stage persona. Starting with the singular sound of the Minas Gerais instrumental workshop Uakti and ten themes composed by Marco Antônio Guimarães, the choreographer set aside concerns about form and began to invest in the dynamics of movement, seeking, through the dismantling of musical and rhythmic phrases, the creation of a movement score less focused on melodic construction and more interested in what underlies it. The revival of the idea of working with specially composed soundtracks, which had marked the group's first three shows in the 1970s, also allowed him to advance in the investigation of a vocabulary identified with his Brazilian roots.

In his next creation, Nazareth (1993), Rodrigo's fascination with moving between the worlds of classical and popular music finds a perfect opportunity to be realized more fully. Inspired by the mirroring game proposed in the stories and novels of the greatest icon of Brazilian literature, Machado de Assis (1839-1908), and in the work of Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934), a seminal figure in the formation of popular music in Brazil, the soundtrack created by composer and professor of Literary Theory José Miguel Wisnik allows Grupo Corpo to bring to the stage, from a solid classical base, a humorous synthesis of the mischievousness and (un)contained sensuality in the characteristic sway of Brazilian ballroom dances.

The partnership with contemporary composers works so well that specially composed soundtracks become the norm, with each soundtrack serving as the starting point for a new creation. Since 1992, the exception that proves the rule is Lecuona, from 2004, where, based on thirteen heartfelt love songs by the Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963), Rodrigo exhaustively exercises his gift for creating pas-de-deux.

In the mid-1990s, Grupo Corpo significantly intensified its international agenda. Between 1996 and 1999, it acted as the resident company of the Maison de la Danse in Lyon, France, during which period it premiered its creations Bach, Parabelo, and Benguelê in Europe.

Today, having created more than 40 choreographies, the Minas Gerais-based contemporary dance company performs in places as diverse as Iceland and South Korea, the United States and Lebanon, Italy and Singapore, the Netherlands and Israel, France and Japan, Canada and Mexico.

The simultaneously unique and multifaceted sound of Marco Antônio Guimarães, the minimalism of Philip Glass, the pop and urban vigor of Arnaldo Antunes, the primitive experimentalism of Tom Zé, the African influence of João Bosco, the metaphysical verses of Luís de Camões and Gregório de Mattos in the light of Caetano Veloso and José Miguel Wisnik, the rooted modernity of Lenine, the sonic diversity of Moreno, Domenico and Kassin, the medieval songs of Martín Codax in the reinterpretation of Carlos Núñez and José Miguel Wisnik, the pop groove of Samuel Rosa and his Skank bandmates, the rhythmic originality of Metá Metá and the genius of Gilberto Gil give rise to shows of essentially diverse temperaments – cerebral, cosmopolitan, rural, primordial, existentialist, brutal, modern, lyrical – without losing sight of the distinctive traits of Grupo Corpo.