Corpos Artísticos do Estado presents "Balés Brasileiros" at Teatro Amazonas

With performances Wednesday through Friday (Nov. 27, 28 and 29) at 8 p.m., and Sunday (Dec. 1) at 7 p.m., the show has free admission and a 10-year indicative rating.

Bringing together the Youth Ballet Claudio Santoro, Balé Experimental do Corpo de Dança do Amazonas, Corpo de Dança do Amazonas, Coral do Amazonas e Amazonas Filarmônica, the show "Brazilian Ballets will soon have its premiere at the Amazonas Theaterwithin the programming of the Guaraná XVI Series. With performances from Wednesday to Friday (27, 28 and 29/11), at 8pm, and on Sunday (1/12), at 7pm, the show has free admission and the indicative rating is 10 years old.

Lasting two hours, "Balés Brasileiros" will present "Alvorada na Floresta Tropical" (Heitor Villa-Lobos), with choreography by Sumaia Farias; the world premiere of the scenic cantata "Romance das Icamiabas" (Nivaldo Santiago), with choreography by Monique Andrade; the symphonic poem "Imbapara" (Oscar Lorenzo Fernández), choreographed by Adriana Goes; and the ballet "Maracatu de Chico Rei" (Francisco Mignone), choreographed by Nonato Mello and Remilton Souza.

Conductor Luiz Fernando Malheiro talks about the Philharmonic's tradition of performing a show with ballet: "Every year, always in November, the Philharmonic puts on a show with CDA, or with Balé Experimental. In recent years we have performed many ballets by Russian composers, Stravinsky among them, but this year I decided to do a repertoire of only Brazilian composers," he says. "We have many works from the 19th century until today, contemporary compositions that remain unseen, we play some excerpts in concerts, but they are rarely performed as ballets, as the composers idealized them", he comments.

About the choice of repertoire, Malheiro highlights the similarities of the works. "Villa-Lobos, Lorenzo, and Mignone are composers from more or less the same period, all of them focused on nationalist music, on indigenous themes. Villa-Lobos' piece, for example, is called 'Alvorada na Floresta Tropical' (Dawn in the Tropical Forest); Lorenzo's is an Amerindian poem, 'Imbapara' (Imbapara); Mignone's is a maracatu, 'Maracatu de Chico Rei' (Chico Rei's Maracatu). All works are focused and thought about historical subjects such as nature, indigenous people, and the maracatu, too, with the slavery period and the influence of other rhythms," he points out.

"The work by maestro Nivaldo, 'Romance das Icamiabas', is a totally Amazonian work, a very beautiful poem by João de Jesus Paes Loureiro, and Nivaldo made a song that, as he says, is a musical abstraction on top of the poem. It's a very interesting piece, and one that escapes from the standards, quite different from the others.

The choreographies

The symphonic poem "Imbapara", by Oscar Lorenzo Fernández, is an Amerindian poem, with a plot that tells about the escape of an Indian who ends up being captured. Choreographer Adriana Goes talks about the process of creating the choreography.

"Despite the indigenous context, I talked to the maestro and had the freedom to create the choreography based on the melody. This way, I brought as a theme the essence that involves the four elements of nature (earth, fire, water, and air), which is invisible, but is there, making them communicate and manage to exist. And this in common with the fauna and flora," he comments. "It is a much more imagetic ballet. I imagine that we are producing images in the air, which flirts a lot with visual arts. This work is much more contemplative, which portrays this ode to nature," he explains.

For the scenic cantata "Romance das Icamiabas", by Amazonian conductor Nivaldo Santiago, which makes its world premiere in the show, choreographer Monique Andrade takes to the stage, in a contemporary language, an indigenous story with traces of Western culture.

"They are readings that both refer to an indigenous ritual and bring a little of the behavior of Western society. We are not telling the story of the Icamiabas, we are talking about a unique moment in their lives, which happens once a year, on a full moon night, when they meet the warriors and there is procreation. It is a unique moment and the poem is an exquisite because it talks about this desire, this eroticism, but in an extremely poetic way," he explains.

"Romance das Icamiabas" will also feature the soprano Mirian Abad, and the poets Celdo Braga and Dori Carvalho.

For Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Alvorada na Floresta Tropical", Sumaia Farias was inspired by the grandeur of the forest, but without omitting current events and the treatment of the forest.

"I focused on the forest, with a wealth of details. I based myself on the sound of Villa-Lobos, a magical work for exalting the forest, our beauty. I divided the choreography into two parts: in the first, I looked for the birds, nature, dawn, in the ballet; in the second, I focused on the devastation of the forest, in a more figurative way, because, in terms of movement, I am not using anything too aggressive, but a very plastic line of work", she points out.

For "Maracatu de Chico Rei", by Francisco Mignone, choreographers Nonato Mello and Remilton Souza plunged into folkloric dance to re-reading the work in which Chico Rei is represented by the orixá Oxalá, God of Creation, bringing the liberation of slaves.

"We decided to bring a little of the Maracatu tradition to the present day. The Maracatu that we see in the carnival blocks, quadrilha, frevo, xaxado, all in a single work to talk about this trajectory of the slaves, what they went through and their life perspective, which many of them didn't even have, but they tried to live through these dances," he says. "It's a dive into folk, folk dance, with a little bit of classical, contemporary and jazz dance."

Program

Oscar Lorenzo Fernández (1897-1948)

Imbapara, symphonic poem (1928)

Nivaldo Santiago (1929)

Romance das Icamiabas, scenic cantata (1970) - world premiere

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)

Alvorada na Floresta Tropical, overture (1953)

Francisco Mignone (1897-1986)

Maracatu de Chico Rei, ballet (1933)

Technical Record

Mirian Abad, soprano (Romance das Icamiabas)

Celdo Braga and Dori Carvalho, narrators (Romance of the Icamiabas)

Monique Andrade, choreography (Icamiabas)

Adriana Goes, choreography (Imbapara)

Sumaia Farias, choreography (Dawn in the Rainforest)

Nonato Melo and Remilton Souza, choreography (Maracatu de Chico Rei)

Balé Jovem Claudio Santoro

Balé Experimental do Corpo de Dança do Amazonas

Corpo de Dança do Amazonas (Amazonas Dance Corps)

Choir of the Amazonas

Amazonas Philharmonic

Luiz Fernando Malheiro, conductor

Service

Show "Brazilian Ballets", with Balé Jovem Claudio Santoro, Balé Experimental do Corpo de Dança do Amazonas, Corpo de Dança do Amazonas, Coral do Amazonas e Amazonas Filarmônica

• Date/Time: November 27, 28 and 29, Wednesday through Friday, at 8pm; and Sunday (12/1), at 7pm.
• Venue: Teatro Amazonas (Av. Eduardo Ribeiro, 659, Centro)
• Admission: Free
• Indicative rating: 10 years

With information from the press office