In the 2001 edition, Oriente Occidente had already chosen to explore contemporary Brazilian dance by hosting the Companhia Vacilou Dançou led by Carlota Portella, a choreographer based in Rio de Janeiro. However, little is known about the vibrant Brazilian dance scene in our country. Brazil is known for its musical and choreographic folklore, grand carnivals, and popular dances influenced by Portuguese colonizers and African rhythms brought by slaves. Yet, over the last twenty years, there has been a significant growth in the contemporary dance sector, with names like Grupo Corpo and the Companhia of Paula Nesterov gaining international recognition.
One of the leading groups of the new generation is Companhia Balé de Rua from Uberlândia, which the Festival is hosting this year. This nearly all-male ensemble was founded in 1992 as an amateur group of young people from the suburbs under the guidance of Fernando Narduchi, the current artistic director. These street dancers, who engage in various day jobs to survive, gradually won over the audience and gained critical acclaim.
In recent years, the company has joined the major circuits of Brazilian dance events and started gaining recognition worldwide. Achieving the ambitious dream of becoming a professional group, they have been financially self-sufficient since 2000, thanks to sponsorship from Telemig Celular. Despite this, they have not lost their original spirit and conviction that dance is more than just the exploration of movement in time and space—it is an effective means of communication and social critique. Thus, they are not just a dance company but a lifestyle example, renewing itself daily through training courses taught by Balé de Rua dancers to young people from the suburbs and raising awareness among the public and the less fortunate citizens.
The ensemble's popular roots are evident in their choreographic style, instinctiveness, and the vibrant energy of their performances. At Oriente Occidente, they will present two Italian and European premieres before heading to the Lyon Biennale dedicated to Latin America this year: "E Agora José?" and "O Cubo." The former, from 2001, is inspired by the poem by José Carlos Drummond de Andrade, describing the beliefs, habits, and surprises of a country man facing the modern world. This poem-manifesto is considered Brazil's most vigorous denunciation of contemporary human conditions.
The group’s choreographer, Marco Antônio Garcia, synthesizes street dance with more refined forms, constructing a score based on unexpected breaks, language fusion, and a renewed use of objects on stage. The performance intertwines lightness and humor with profound reflections on pressing issues such as poverty and racism. The thirteen dancers on stage offer unpredictable combinations and surprises, alternating in virtuosic solos, such as the poetic one danced to a version of the Brazilian national anthem.
"O Cubo," on the other hand, is the latest creation, still in progress, debuting in Rovereto. It focuses on the possible relationships between movement and sound. The music, performed live by the dancers, emerges from non-traditional instruments, everyday objects, and urban waste like tin cans of various sizes, plastic boxes, pieces of iron or wood used to strike different surfaces. Music and dance grow together, blurring the boundaries between the two arts, between who is playing and who is dancing, in the relentless rhythm of the most heartfelt street tradition.
