Parabelo evokes a part of Brazil designated by an untranslatable term, Sertão. Stretching from the center of the country to the Northeast, Sertão is a vast and very arid interior region, covering almost a quarter of the country, with ill-defined outlines, sparsely urbanized, sparsely populated, but strongly marked by a tradition of craftsmanship. Parabelo illustrates more precisely the Sertão Nordestino, a region regrouping the states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Ceará: a fallow region, drier than the central Sertão of Minas Gerais, and more severe and austere than the coastal strip, cradle of Samba.

Source: Maison de la Danse de Lyon

“It was only in 1988, when working in Uakti, that I started thinking about what it would be like to make a dance which would be more inside our body”.
 

Rodrigo’s words define a crucial moment not only for his career but also for Grupo Corpo as well. His work, since, can be seen in a variety of exploration of this “dance inside our body” – which is the dance of Corpo.
 

“Our body” learned how to dance on the street and the language of Rodrigo is essentially a modern one. In his own way he harbors the xaxado, the samba, the ball room dance, the celebrations, the capoeira. Everything is translated into a private world, where, dynamics and balance, have even more meaning than movement. Everything with  a certain amount of joy and  humor, which, even though joyous and good humored, does not hide the violence and the  ambiguity  of our condition.
 

Always guided by music, Rodrigo “breaks” the classical movements in an intensely brazilian way, however, entirely free from the exotic, from boastful and from easy identities. One or more dancers separate from a group, as if  pulled by a strong force. The group then reorganizes itself until pressure from another impulse comes on. Circles are rare in such choreography. The stage is built as a central point and the front space is well defined. The lines are the result of the dancers movements and they are formed without a pre-established shape, from the first moment of the creation.   

Source: The company Grupo Corpo 's website

More information : grupocorpo.com.br

Born in 1977, Fabien Plasson is a video director specialized in the field of performing arts (dance , music, etc).

During his studies at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (joined in 1995) Fabien discovered video art. He was trained by various video artists (Joel Bartoloméo Pascal Nottoli , Eric Duyckaerts , etc).
He first experimented with the creation of installations and cinematic objects.

From 2001 to 2011, he was in charge of Ginger & Fred video Bar’s programming at La Maison de la Danse in Lyon. He discovered the choreographic field and the importance of this medium in the dissemination, mediation and pedagogical approach to dance alongside Charles Picq, who was a brilliant video director and the director of the video department at that time.

Today, Fabien Plasson is the video director at La Maison de la Danse and in charge of the video section of Numeridanse.tv, an online international  video library, and continues his creative activities, making videos of concerts, performances and also creating video sets for live performances.

Sources: Maison de la Danse ; Fabien Plasson website

More information: fabione.fr

Artistic Director: Paulo Pederneiras

Creation: 1975

The contemporary Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo, founded by Paulo Pederneiras in 1975, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, debuted its first work, « Maria Maria », the very next year. The ballet go on to spend six years on stage and tour fourteen countries. But even though the piece was an immediate critical, popular and commercial success, the group´s distinctive artistic identity, its long-term popularity and its artistic achievements have been the fruits of a long, arduous journey. As a result, the group started operating in its own premises as of 1978. The company´s distinctive features and personality were chiefly molded by Paulo Pederneiras, the man responsible for sets and lighting the group´s performances and its artistic direction and the dancer Rodrigo Pederneiras, who left the stage in 1981 to assume the role of full-time choreographer.

Today, having created 35 choreographies and more than 2,300 pieces, the Brazilian dance company maintains ten ballets in its repertoire and gives 80 performances a year in places as distinctive as Iceland and South Korea, the United States and Lebanon, Canada, Italy, Singapore, the Netherlands, Israel, France, Japan and Mexico. The minimalism of Philip Glass (« Sete ou Oito Peças para um Ballet »); the vigorous pop and urban sounds of Arnaldo Antunes (« O Corpo »); the primordial experimentalism of Tom Zé (« Santagustin » and, with Wisnik, « Parabelo »); the African sensibility of João Bosco (« Benguelê »); the metaphysical verse of Luís de Camões and Gregório de Mattos; the light touch of Caetano Veloso and Wisnik (« Onqotô »); the rootsy modernity of Lenine (« Breu »); the poetry of polarities (« Ímã »): Grupo Corpo has drawn on all of these elements and more to produce shows of a very diverse character – cerebral, cosmopolitan, primitive, existential, tough – while always keeping in sight the company´s distinctive traits.

Source: Grupo Corpo 's website

More information : grupocorpo.com.br