Review: São Paulo Dance Company's Debut UK Tour at Newcastle Theatre Royal
One of Brazil's finest dance companies made its UK debut this spring
Dance Consortium returned to Newcastle Theatre Royal to present São Paulo Dance Company on Tuesday 5th and Wednesday 6th March, as part of their premiere UK tour. While we frequent many ballets thanks to the theatre’s annual offering, we’re strangers to the South American contemporary dance scene, so myself and my partner aren’t sure what to expect.
We’re told the company will showcase the work of three choreographers with three performances. The first is the intensely emotional Anthem. Created in 2019, this piece portrays life cycles and collective identities, inspired by songs that become hymns or anthems. The stage is bare and with no set or orchestra it’s up to the dancers to fill the vast space with only their bodies. There’s no need for any other distractions as our eyes are transfixed on their every movement as they move from corner to corner and spread right across the stage. The first dance begins with heavy breathing followed by symbols of freedom and protest (all of which is subjective of course). The dancers don’t miss a beat as they mirror each other’s movements, and as we listen to the music, we feel we recognise familiar sounds from anthems we know.
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After 25 minutes of heartfelt, passionate and gripping performance we reach the interval where one thing is the hot topic – the stage. Newcastle Theatre Royal has what theatre buffs and those in the know call a proscenium stage – this essentially means it has an architectural frame, and such stages are often very deep and sometimes raked (which means the stage is on a slope). If you’re interested, the Theatre Royal’s rake ratio is 1:24! We have noticed this before of course but never paid real attention to it until now, with the stage so bare and no bells and whistles needed. With elements of classical ballet mixed in with the sleek seduction of Latin American dance, balance is key to the dancers’ precise movements. That alone is impressive, but performing such moves on a slope is spectacular. We’re keen to head back to our seats to see more.
The second dance is Gnawa, created by Nacho Duato (now artistic director of the Mikhailovsky Ballet) in 2005. This brings the flavours of Valencia and music of North Africa to the stage with hypnotic motions that leave us in a trance. But, in our humble opinion, the company have saved the best ’til last. If we thought the dancers had been energetic in the first two performances, the third was out of this world thanks to Brazilian choreographer Cassi Abranches. The flirtatious Agora is a thrilling finale focused on ticking sounds and and rhythm as the dancers’ bodies move to varying Afro-Brazilian percussive beats. The dancers move backwards, forwards, running, sliding and tapping all at different speeds in different directions. I have never seen any dance like this before but it was seriously enchanting and it filled the room with such energy and vibrancy you could only associate with São Paulo.
In a fantastic addition to this show, audience members are offered the opportunity of a free post-show talk in the auditorium after the first performance. We of course don’t want to miss out on that, so we head down to the front of the stage where that rake is far more noticeable. In a Q&A session we find out much more about the company and its dancers: they’ve taken various classes to inform their movements including fencing and taekwondo, they have to learn all of the parts for all of the pieces to cover for others and remembering them is down to muscle memory, and although they’re clearly very fit at least one member of the ensemble has been able to enjoy the North East delicacy that is a Greggs baguette.
What’s most applaudable is that when they saw the inclination of the stage before rehearsals, they (unsurprisingly) found it daunting, especially with dancers having suffered some recent injuries, and this is the first theatre that has had such a rake on this tour! Even without that knowledge, the company were awarded three prolonged and generous applauses following their three dances, and if you’re ever offered a post-show talk in the future, we recommend sticking around.
Having been fully immersed in the electricity of São Paulo Dance, we suggest anyone who’s into dance follows the company on their tour of the UK – and we’re hoping they return to the region soon!
