Historic serie 22 | Gil

GIL
[2019]

choreography: Rodrigo Pederneiras
music: Gilberto Gil
set design: Paulo Pederneiras
costume design: Freusa Zechmeister
lighting: Paulo Pederneiras and Gabriel Pederneiras

The endless bright yellow background stretches like a carpet from the top to the edge of the stage. Upon it, the luminous, pluralistic, universal and quintessentially Brazilian music of Gilberto Gil is translated into a choreographic piece named after the songwriter himself, GIL. At the invitation of artistic director Paulo Pederneiras, Gil has created a soundtrack that ranges from Afro-Bahian elements to a chamber music style, with the insertion of reworked excerpts of his well-known songs, such as Tempo Rei, Andar com Fé and Aquele Abraço.

The initial spark for the choreography came from candomble.Rodrigo Pederneiras came across the gesture that signals the presence of Shango, the orishaof whom Gil is a cherished son, in the ritual dance – one of the dancer’s hands beats his chest while the other strikes his back. The duos, trios and groups that align themselves and break apart, the unisons and counterpoints of movement are punctuated by the same gesture, reinterpreted.

The lighting, so to speak, dances too. Paulo and Gabriel Pederneiras employed the resource of moving lights, equipment widely used in music shows. The costumes created by Freusa Zechmeister – one-piece mesh style – feature a black foundation to which multicolored cuttings taken from the work of the artist Joana Lira are applied. They include flowers, stripes, triangles and graphisms, a celebration of Brazil, of Africa, of joy.