Far from
street stereotypes
ROBERTO PEREIRA
REVIEW
Every reference to the work that choreographer Bruno Beltrão has been developing always points to a supposed relationship that he would be inaugurating in an exemplary way between street dance, his starting point, and contemporary dance. With H3, his new show that premiered in Rio de Janeiro as part of the Panorama de Arte Festival program, on Friday and Saturday, at Teatro Villa-Lobos, one has the opportunity to realize that this supposed relationship is just a most comfortable way of dealing with something absolutely new that Beltrão offers us.
What is shown there is a living, changing, and therefore contemporary, street dance, as is any genre of dance in which creation and discovery are part of its constitution.
Every reference to the work that choreographer Bruno Beltrão has been developing always points to a supposed relationship that he would be inaugurating in an exemplary way between street dance, his starting point, and contemporary dance. With H3, his new show that premiered in Rio de Janeiro as part of the Panorama de Arte Festival program, on Friday and Saturday, at Teatro Villa-Lobos, one has the opportunity to realize that this supposed relationship is just a most comfortable way of dealing with something absolutely new that Beltrão offers us.
In fact, it is rather a “contemporary street dance”, a nickname that would perhaps help us think about what is being promoted in the scene in H3. What is shown there is a living, changing, and therefore contemporary, street dance, as is any genre of dance in which creation and discovery are part of its constitution. Forget about aging hip hop, which still insists on seeming like a music video. In Beltrão's scene, the discussion is different, and the old vocabulary explodes into nuances that are choreographic thoughts.
The lighting is of unique sophistication. The costume is more than the usual street dancing clothes. The soundtrack really works as a kind of trail to be followed. And the scenario is effective in its economy. But what has an impact are the new advances in occupying space that the excellent dancers are creating on the scene. The duo of Eduardo Hermanson and Danilo Pereira attests to this with the expertise of someone who knows exactly what texture their dance is made of.
Every movement that is presented is permeated by the thought of a dance so alive, so contaminated by current issues in the world, that it is impossible not to recognize that it is not street dance in dialogue with contemporary dance, although it is occupying a place in the program of a festival dedicated to the latter. In H3, what we have is contemporary street dance. But, beyond that, there is actually a dance whose quality is something intrinsic, which makes it definitively dispense with labels.
