PRESS RELEASE:
Bruno Beltrão/Grupo de Rua

DANCE THEATER WORKSHOP
presents
Bruno Beltrão/Grupo de Rua
as part of their U.S. Debut Tour

H3

Feb 20 – 23 at 7:30pm

New York, NY, December 15 – Dance Theater Workshop presents Brazilian choreographer, Bruno Beltrão / Grupo de Rua in their New York City debut as part of a greatly anticipated first ever U.S. tour. Beltrão is known for his remarkable fusion of hip-hop, capoeira, and street dance vocabularies with contemporary dance choreographic ideologies. Beltrão‘s latest work, H3, 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).

H3 will be performed by Bruno Duarte, Bruno Williams, Charlie Felix, Danilo Pereira, Eduardo Hermanson, Filipi De Moraes, Kristiano Goncalves, Luiz Claudio Souza, and Thiago Alemida. Collaborators include lighting design by Renato Machado, set design by Gaulter Pupo, costumes by Marcelo Sommer, and music composed by Lucas Marcier and Rodrigo Marcal – ARPX.

Performances will take place at Dance Theater Workshop in the Bessie Schönberg Theater, February 20 - 23 (Saturday - Tuesday) at 7:30pm. There will be a Pre-Show Talk on February 20 (Saturday) at 6:30pm, a Post-show Talk on February 23 (Tuesday), and a free wine reception following every performance (Saturday - Tuesday). Fee-free tickets are $15 and are available online at dancetheaterworkshop.org, over the phone at 212.924.0077, and in person at the box office. Dance Theater Workshop Members, Students, and Seniors are eligible for a 20% discount ($12 Tickets). Box office hours are Monday – Friday from 5pm – 9pm and Saturday – Sunday from 12pm – 8pm. Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 West 19th Street between 7^th and 8^th Avenues.

About the Artist

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.

Funders
H3 is funded, in part, by the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

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Dance Theater Workshop is the preeminent U.S. based center for dance and performance that maintains an uncompromising mission to identify, present, and support independent contemporary artists and companies to advance dance and live performance in New York and worldwide. Dance Theater Workshop supports innovative artists through all facets of their creative process and offers audiences the opportunity to experience and engage with artistic expression in bold and evocative ways.

Dance Theater Workshop’s 2009-2010 Season Supporters   (as of July 1, 2009)

Private support provided by: American Masterpieces: Dance Initiative of the New England Foundation for the Arts; The Carnegie Corporation of New York; Chervenak-Nunnalle Foundation; The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; The Ford Foundation; French United States Exchange in Dance of the New England Foundation for the Arts; The Howard Gilman Foundation; The Mertz Gilmore Foundation; The Greenwall Foundation; The William Randolph Hearst Foundations; The Jerome Foundation; The Lambent Foundation; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts; National Performance Network; The New York Community Trust; New York State DanceForce; The Jerome Robbins Foundation; Rockefeller Brothers Fund; The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; The Scherman Foundation; The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; The Trust for Mutual Understanding; and The Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund.

Corporate support provided by: Bloomberg L.P. and Consolidated Edison Company of New York.

Public support provided by the following government agencies and elected representatives: National Endowment for the Arts; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; Kate D. Levin, Commissioner; Speaker Christine C. Quinn; New York City Council; New York State Council on the Arts; New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; Senator Thomas K. Duane, New York State Senate.

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