Parabelo, Grupo Corpo
The secod act sizzled away my distate for the first. It was like watching a completely different cast. Parabelo (1997) began with similar irritating floor work as act one, but it quickly was erased by, springing, engaged bodies. The overwrought arabesques in ímã (the first act) were definitely missing in action as the dancers exerted intense control over their limbs in the most precarious transitions.
It was breathtaking.
The ghost of Lenny Dale continued to appear on the stage, but by now, some of his famous bossa nova "backward samba" breaks were turned into choreographic kernels: extrapolated, refined, deconstructed, muddled, refined again, then shifted to another plane.
To find out more about Lennie Dale and his troupe Dzi Croquettes, check out this movie trailer! The film is coming back to LA soon in the Brazilian Film Festival!
There was quite a bit of partner work, affording the choreography opportunities to repeat a phrase at a 90 degree angle to the floor on a dancer's body 45 degrees to another.
Both pieces were built into the music, but there was more space in its orchestration for the second piece than for the 2009 Ímã, just as there was more space on the stage. I realized sitting there in the first act that what Susan Rose had once told me was true: "Any thing looks good if you have enough of them lined up next to each other." Thankfully, the second act showed us why there are so many dancers in this company; each one of them is a virtuoso and can hold an entire 40 foot stage on their own.
Great recovery in Parabelo, but it is a shame that the company has not settled into Ímã yet; there are a few gems hidden in that work that they have yet to excavate.
Opening of Ímã, Grupo Corpo.
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