TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN’S
ARTES AMÉRICAS PROGRAM PRESENTS

BRAZILIAN CONTEMPORARY HIP-HOP DANCE COMPANY
GRUPO DE RUA

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2010, 8:00 P.M.
AT HOGG MEMORAL AUDITORIUM

“Brazilian choreographer Bruno Beltrão . . . is set to inflict seismic shock waves upon the hip-hop world.” —Ballet World

Texas Performing Arts presents Brazilian choreographer, Bruno Beltrão’s Grupo de Rua in their Austin debut as part of a greatly anticipated first ever U.S. tour, Tuesday, February 9 at Hogg Memorial Auditorium. Beltrão is known for his remarkable fusion of hip-hop, capoeira, and street dance vocabularies with contemporary dance choreographic ideologies. Grupo de Rua will be performing Beltrão‘s latest work, H3, which is structured by a series of highly physical duets performed by his all male company, and has been hailed as “fifty minutes of raw energy” (Ballet Magazine).

Bruno Beltrão was born in Niterói, near Rio de Janeiro, in 1979. In 1993 he began his first street dance lessons, in Niterói, with the Israeli teacher Yoram Szabo. From 1995 on, he engaged in research to get thoroughly acquainted with this dance style, still quite unheard of in Brazil.

In 1996 he created the company, Grupo de Rua de Niterói, with his partner Rodrigo Bernardi. During its first two years, the company was devoted to competitive dance festivals and special appearances in several events and TV shows. In 2000 GRN participated in the international tour of “Metrópole” with the Midnight Circus, from the French director Pierrot Bidon. This was also the year when Beltrão enrolled in the dance university.

In 2001 the duet “Do Popping ao Pop ou Vice-Versa” premiered at the festival “Duos de Dança no SESC”, in Rio de Janeiro. With this piece Beltrão made his official début in the contemporary dance scene in Rio. It was also a turning point in the choreographer’s career – the first step to set streetdance free from sheer virtuosity and from the patterned reproduction of choreographic structures that are inherent to this dance form. Since then his research has been oriented by the exchange between hip hop and the reflexive and inventive environment of contemporary dance. At the end of the year Beltrão assumed the sole direction of Grupo de Rua when his partner Rodrigo left the company to develop his own projects.

Grupo de Rua started touring internationally in 2002, with presentations at Rencotres Choreographiques de Seine-Saint-Denis, MC93 in Paris and the festival “Danças na Cidade” in Lisbon. In 2003, the company was invited by the French choreographer Jérôme Bel to perform at Klapstuk Festival in Belgium. In the same year, the company performed at Springdance (Utrecht), Ile Danse (Ajaccio), Tanz im August (Berlin) Internationales Tanzfest (Hanover), Yokohama Dance Summit (Japan), Hebbel Theater (Berlin) and Opkomst (Utrecht). The company has also performed at La Ferme du Buisson (Noisiel), Kunsten Festival des Arts (Brussels), Ruhrfestspiele (Recklinghausen), Tanztage (Bern), CSS Theater (Udine), Rencontres de la Villete (Paris), Kampnagel (Hamburg) and at the Festival Breakin’Walls (Amsterdam).

Besides his creative work as a choreographer, Beltrão also works in many other different spheres to promote street dance, whether working as a curator or taking part in social programs. He has also written the essay Breakdance: Fissão e a Reação em cadeia for the book Lições de Dança 2, published by Beltrão’s university, UniverCidade.

In 2002, Beltrão was selected Upcoming Choreographer of the Year and the company is considered “one of the most creative of the new generation” by O GLOBO (second largest Brazilian newspaper). BATTETANZ YEARBOOK selected him Upcoming Choreographer of the Year in 2005.

The presentation of Grupo de Rua is made possible by the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the National Dance Project, a program administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts. Major support for the National Dance Project is also provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

This performance is a part of the ArtesAméricas program.

In partnership with the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Austin’s ArtesAméricas program promotes cultural dialogue in the Americas through the performing arts. The ArtesAméricas program brings exceptional Latin American and US Latino artists to Texas Performing Arts for exciting performances as well as collaborations with University students, faculty and Austin audiences. For more information on ArtesAméricas, please visit www.TexasPerformingArts.org/artes.

CALENDAR LISTING

Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 8:00 pm –Texas Performing Arts presents Grupo de Rua at Hogg Memorial Auditorium (2300 Whitis Ave). A map of the campus:
http://www.TexasPerformingArts.org/visit/maps_directions. Tickets ($26 / $10 student tickets / discounted tickets available for UT faculty & staff, seniors and Military) are on sale now at authorized ticket outlets, which include the Bass Concert Hall Box Office, most H-E-B stores and all Texas Box Office outlets, online at www.TexasPerformingArts.org, or by calling (512) 477-6060 or (800) 982-BEVO.

PRESS CONTACT:
Gene Bartholomew
512.471.0632 gbartholomew@TexasPerformingArts.org

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