Gustav Mahler

The immediate impression of "Gira" was of the semi-circle of lights designed by Gabriel Pederneiras and Paulo Pederneiras (the Grupo Corpo artistic director) and their somber illumination of the twenty dancers—an impressively large cast—that heightened the ceremonial tone of the very repetitious choreography. The music by Metá Metá varied from ominous rumbles to full-out thumping Latin rhythms. The dancers filled the stage with stomps, twisting torsos, wildly abandoned runs and quickly morphing groupings.  They formed circles around soloists and spread across the stage in their recurring movement patterns, quite effective dramatically in a sweaty, sensual way. The audience was bowled over by "Gira" as they were, for different reasons, by the other works on this very varied program. [more]