Program 1: 24th, 7.30 pm

Grupo Coringa (três momentos)

45 movimentos

(1976)

Haydn

Music: Joseph Haydn – Concert for Trumpet

3 minutos com a realidade

(1980) Music: J.S.Bach – Concert for Piano and Orchestra in F minor from the third movement
Concept: Graciela Figueroa
Length: 10’

These are three symbolic choreographies by pioneers of contemporary dance in Rio, the Grupo Coringa company. It was founded in 1997 by the Uruguayan choreographer Graciela Figueroa and remained active well into the 1980s. The first piece, developed by Graciela Figueroa while she was still in Uruguay, is made up of movements that make reference to the martial arts.

The second piece is a solo that was transformed for a group of dancers. She developed it in Belo Horizonte. The golden ball used in the piece symbolizes Halley’s comet.

The third piece was choreographed for the historic Oficina de Dança Contemporânea’s fourth edition. It quickly became the trademark of the company and was called “coreografia dos anjinhos – Choreography of Angels”. The most important dancers who worked with the Grupo Coringa company included Carlos Afonso, Debby Growald, Deborah Colker, Guto Macedo, João Carlos Ramos, Lígia Veiga, Mariana Muniz, Michel Robin and Regina Vaz.

Busca Opus 39

(1985)
Choreography: Sônia Mota
Concept: Marco Antonio Carvalho
Music: The Carnival of the Animals – Camille Saint-Saëns
Length: 11’

Sônia Mota’s solo, divisible into three sections (tormentoso, con fuoco; expressivo ma non troppo and fuga, quasi libera), was presented as a part of the fuga quasi libera. It shows the artistic path of a ballerina and choreographer from São Paulo. It focuses on her education in classical ballet as well as the development of her own personal expression in contemporary dance.

Special Participation: Sônia Mota

Dança de III

(1994)
Choreography: João Saldanha
Music: Suite nº 1 for Solo Cello in G flat – J. S. Bach
Costumes: Francisco Costa
Length: 10’

Dança de III was presented at the Bienal de la Danse in Lyon in 1996, a key year for Brazilian dance. It became the career milestone for the choreographer João Saldanha and his company o Atelier de Coreografia. It was the first work by the company that went on tour and received recognition from the audience and critics. The intelligent use of space, something that still characterizes João Saldanha’s work, was advanced by this experience and demonstrated his mastery in this métier.

Boxe

(1985)
Choreography: Renata Mello
Music: Bref – Barbara
Length: 3’

Renata Mello’s choreography was developed especially for the legendary Marzipan group from São Paulo in 1982. In this era, which was very important for Brazilian dance, day-to-day life with its clichés and kitsch were used as raw material for “dance vignettes” in short choreographies such as this one presented by the Companhia de Dança da Cidade. Cacá Ribeiro und Zecarlos Nunes danced at the premiere of Boxe.

Suíte Barroca (two excerpts)

(1973)
Choreography: Nina Verchinina
Support for the revival: Heloísa Graça Couto and Coraly Fernandes
Music: Sonata No 3 in G major, Largo e Nobile -- Francesco Maria Veracini
Concerto Op. 5 nº 7 in D flat -- Tomaso Albinoni
Costumes: inspired by the Towfik’s orginals
Length: 8'

Nina Verchinina’s last great choreography, the baroque suite with music by J.S. Bach, was a return to a style of music that she had used exclusively in her first work “Quest” in 1940. This suite can thus be seen as a conterpoint to her experiments with Metastasis in 1967 and contemporary music by Iannis Xenakis. The baroque sound was a point of departure for the short pieces in which the relationship between music and dance were seen as the common element.

Catar

(1987)
Choreography: Lia Rodrigues and João Saldanha
Music: Montage of African music, recitative elements and Tearing Herself Away by Philip Glass
Costumes: Lia Rodrigues and João Saldanha
Length: 12’

A recitative element is the point of departure for the Catar choreography by Lia Rodrigues and João Saldanha. It was the first time that Lia Rodrigues was presented to the public as a choreographer. The piece shows the beginning of her career as a choreographer and thus focuses on a moment in which she discovered choreographing as a possible element in her creative work.
Besides André Vidal, Denise Panessa, Marise Reis, Lia and João, who all danced in the original version, other important dancers from Rio de Janeiro such as Jacqueline Mota, Marcelo Braga, Lúcia Aratanha and Deborah Colker have danced in Catar.

Minha América (two excerpts)

(1985)
Choreography: Carlota Portella
Music: Caetano Veloso – “Língua”; “Podres poderes”
Length: 10'

Carlota Portella created this work, a part of the piece „América Ladina“, for her dance company Vacilou Dançou. The group has a very rich tradition. The piece presents us with a possible perspective on the aesthetics of jazz dance, which was very important for the history of dance in Rio de Janeiro in the 1980s. Excellent artists such as Renato Vieira, Daniela and Denise Panessa, Adriana Nogueira, Caio Nunes and Washington Cardoso are all involved in this piece.

Program 2: 26th April, 7.30 pm

Dança de III (see above)

(1994)
Choreography: João Saldanha
Music: Suite nº 1 for Solo Cello in G flat – J. S. Bach
Costumes: Francisco Costa
Length: 10’

Concerto em F (Primeiro movimento)

1982
Choreography: Lourdes Bastos
Music: Concerto in F – George Gerswhin

By using the American composer’s music, this piece shows the choreographer’s perspective on New York. It was a city in which she attended a multitude of dance classes that advanced her education. At the premiere at the João Caetano Theater (Rio de Janeiro), José Luiz Bastos, Glória Borghoff, Heloisa Helena Souza and Ivana Mussi all danced, among others.

Catar (see above)

(1987)
Choreography: Lia Rodrigues and João Saldanha
Music: Montage of African music, recitative elements and Tearing Herself Away by Philip Glass
Costumes: Lia Rodrigues and João Saldanha
Length: 12’

Boxe (see above)

(1985)
Choreography: Renata Mello
Music: Bref – Barbara
Length: 3’

Sentinela

(1983)
Choreography: Regina Sauer
Music: Milton Nascimento
Length: 7’40
Thanks to: Regina Sauer

Sentinela is a part of the second piece by the Companhia Nós da Dança that was founded in 1981 by Regina Sauer. Fração de Segundo (1983) begins and ends with Sentinela, a wake, while a woman looks back on her life from her childhood to her present old age.
André Vidal, Priscila Teixeira, Regina Sauer and Rita Renha danced in this first version, presented here along with others. For the ten-year anniversary, the piece was revived with such important dancers such as Carlos Magno, Fernando Filetto, Paula Águas and Tony Rodrigues. The most important references for expression were modern dance and techniques by Martha Graham and Lester Horton with whom Regina first had contact in New York. Thus modern dance techniques already influenced Sentinela at a time when they were almost unknown in Rio de Janeiro.

Serenata do Adeus

(1985)
Choreography: Arnaldo Alvarenga and Lydia del Picchia
Music: Serenata do Adeus by Vinícius de Morais
Length: 7’

This duet belongs to the repertoire of this company from Belo Horizonte: Trans-Forma. The group was founded by Marilene Martins and was one of the first contemporary dance initiatives in the federal state of Minas Gerais. Dudude Hermann, Cristina Machado and the Pederneira brothers danced in the piece (among others); they later went on to found the Grupo Corpo.

Valsa Volúpia

(1988)
Choreography: Ana Maria Mondini
Assistant: Ângela Nolf
Music: Johann Strauss
Costumes: Murilo Sola
Length: 11’20
Thanks to: Ana Maria Mondini and Ângela Nolf

This waltz was created especially for the Ballet Ópera Paulista by Ana Maria Mondini, a choreographer from Southern Brazil who lived in São Paulo. This important company brought together important dancers from the São Paulo dance scene and was directed by Ângela Nolf from 1984 to 1991. The premiere was danced by Adriana Almeida, Angela Nolf, Beth Resoléu, Carmen Gomide, Deborah Furquim, Marta César, Miriam Druwe and Holly Cavrell. The following quote by Clarice Lispector was printed in the original program: “I don’t want to communicate a message, but rather an intuitive sense of desire that is hidden in nature and that I sense exists in it.

Companhia de Dança da Cidade

Marise Reis is a sports pedagoge specialized in dance didactics for children and adolescents. She received her diploma from the UniverCidade in Rio de Janeiro in 2005. Her own dance training began in 1980 with Jazz dance and Modern dance, some of her most important teachers being Carlota Portella, Marly Tavares, Lenny Dale, Regina Sauer, Clarisse Abujamra, Ismael Guiser, Wanda Garcia, Eliana Karin, Nora Esteves, Ceme Jambay, Graciela Figueroa, Dudude Herrman as well as Sônia Mota. She danced in the ensemble Nós da Dança, with Victor Navarro and also in the Atelier de Coreografia under the artistic direction of João Saldanha, with whom she worked for 15 years and who was most influential for her. As a dance pedagoge for contemporary dance she worked in various schools in Rio de Janeiro, as well as in the ensembles of the choreographers Dani Lima, Deborah Colker and João Saldanha. Since 2002, she has been teaching contemporary dance in the UniverCidade in Rio de Janeiro and is overseeing the study-accompanying internship. Furthermore, she has been directing the university’s ensemble Companhia de Dança da Cidade since 2003.

Roberto Pereira did his doctorate about communication and semiotics (PUC/São Paulo) and studied philosophy in Vienna. For ten years now he has been a dance critic for the Jornal do Brasil. Furthermore, he is coordinating the dance degree program of the UniverCidade (Rio de Janeiro) and co-directing the university ensemble Companhia de Dança da Cidade together with Marise Reis. In addition to this, he has written several works about dance, among them "A formação do balé brasileiro" ("The emergence of Brazilian ballet"), FGV, 2003, "Giselle, o vôo traduzido" ("Giselle, the translated flight"), UniverCidade Ed., 2003, "Eros Volusia, a criadora do bailado nacional" ("Eros Volusia – the founder of Brazilian dance" , Ed. Relume Dumará, 2004.