[Off the Beaten Path: A Jazz & Tap Odyssey] [Delfos Contemporary Dance] [Ballet X] [Robert Michaels] [Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Co.] [Nikolais Dance Theatre] [Quasar Cie De Danca] [Rhythm in Shoes] [Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company] [Michael Bashaw's Theatre of Sound] [Teatro De Ciertos Habitantes]

Quasar Cie De Danca

Quasar is a vehicle for artistic manifestation. By developing a multifaceted aesthetic approach, the company has prompted audiences in Brazil and around the world to reflect on contemporary issues by means of a global language. Founded in 1988 by Vera Bicalho and Henrique Rodovalho, Quasar Dance Company originated in Grupo Energia, which had been established in Goiânia, Brazil, in the early 1980s.  Throughout the period of Quasar's creation, a quest for freedom from academic straitjackets and a need to break free from pre-established models were the major driving forces guiding the actions of its creators.  New approaches enabled Quasar to bypass  purely aesthetic concerns in dance and to engage in reflections on social reality.

Henrique Rodovalho has authored all 18 pieces presented by Quasar Dance Company. Coming from a background in martial arts and physical education at the Federal University of Goiás, he performed as actor and dancer, before becoming a choreographer. A line of creative research, based on the existential complexity of body and soul led has to the creation of unmistakable rhythmic "signals" that give Quasar its unique identity.  His choreography alternates vigorous and lacerating moments with humor and simplicity. Early involvement with video and theatrical production has stimulated his talents as a director.  In addition to traditional dance production scenarios, Rodovahlo utilizes multimedia strategies to forge an interaction between the real world, the imaginary universe recreated on stage, the audience, and the dancers.

2009-2010 TOURING PROGRAMS:

Choreography For Listening:
Based on the series Sons da Rua (Street Sounds), aired by TV Zero, Quasar preserves the musicality of things, people and words to usher in a performance in which the sounds of the Brazilian people are heard. Choreography for Listening is an encounter between regional cultures and the post-modern aesthetics of dance. It is also a dialogue between the popular music of Northeastern Brazil and the body language of the urban individual. This performance stands out as a thematic landmark of the social-cultural issues raised by Quasar in recent years and it relates to a deeper understanding of issues pertaining to the reality of our people. Choreography for Listening has been seen in over 10 countries.

Women:
Three women on stage strive to preserve their individuality in the midst of shared lives.  They are confronted with all sorts of emotions, but these are reticent feelings that unfold in suggestive actions that may cast doubt over the nature of relationships. The public is invited to appreciate the peculiarities of the female universe by observing the conflict from the privileged perspective of the onlooker.  The performance acquires density as the exchanges between the women alternate in different combinations. Yet the narrative remains open, offering multiple interpretation possibilities until the very end.

An Invisible Story
The complexity of human relations is the backbone to “An invisible story”, the new performance by the Quasar Dance Company, from Brazil. The 19^th performance created by choreographer Henrique Rodovalho for the company is inspired in the five senses to develop the movement of characters caught up in a plot that is at the same time delicate and intense. For this production, the Quasar Dance Company is being sponsored by the Brazilian Post Office, Petrobras and Instituto Alfa de Cultura, which staged the performance’s premiere on November 11, 2006, in Teatro Alfa, São Paulo.

Always in pursuit of innovation in his creative process, the choreographer set out to put together this performance with the aim of creating a story featuring a beginning and an end. To achieve this, he crafted the main narrative structure around three acts, and let the plot develop. “The creative process chosen allowed the performance to emerge gradually and randomly, open to the possible interferences of time and space,” explains Rodovalho. 

The five characters on stage are people whose features were inspired in qualities found in the five senses. It was from this metaphor that the choreographer conducted movement, contemplating emotions that derive from rationality, intuition, superficiality, subtleness, freedom. Physicality remains present in the work of Rodovalho who, in the course of almost two decades, has developed a unique style based on the loose articulation of the body.  

"The central axis of the narrative is the conflicting relationship between sight and touch," explains Rodovalho. This is the cue for the spectator to dive into the story which is deliberately not presented in an obvious package, but is still there, being told with a beginning, middle and an end, during fall, winter and spring. Designed by architect Letycia Rossi, the conception of space in the sets is abstract and explores depths and perspectives in ambiguous environments, which change from season to season. According to the choreographer, the light design stresses and contributes to the flexibility in the dimensions of space and image, and also provides temperature variations during the performance.   

Ambiguity is also the characteristic in Cássio Brasil’s costumes, which are timeless, placeless and clearly distinguishing each character, who undergo modifications in each new season. After choreographing the entire album Elis & Tom, in the performance It had to be with you (2005), now Rodovalho’s musical stimulus is diversified, ranging from the piano of Polish composer Arvo Pärt, to the electronic beat of Brazilian Amon Tobin and the Japanese percussion of Ryuchi Sakamoto and Kodo.

Só tinha de ser com você (It Had To Be With You)
Produced by Henrique Rodovalho and Quasar Dance Company, Só tinha honors two of the greatest Brazilian artists of all time: Elis Regina and Tom Jobim. Using the music as a soundtrack, Rodovahlo adds dance as a poetic element to the seminal work on the album entitled, "Tom & Elis", recorded in 1974. The result is an extremely elegant movement, produced with sophistication and worthy of the music which enables the spectator to travel on a journey filled with memories. It Could Only be With You is a romantic and very Brazilian spectacle.

RESIDENCY ACTIVITIES:

Movement Technique

Contemporary Dance Technique

Classical Dance Technique

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

"Quasar's dancers seem to turn themselves inside out, upside down and move in such an inventive way that it shouts imagination and craftsmanship. Impulses in the body start in one place and jump to another part of the body and then suddenly explode, lifting the dancer airborne and sending him off in another direction...The company's latest works, Coreografia para Ouvir (Choreography for Listening), Mulheres (Women), and Só tinha de ser com você (It had to be with you) are flowing textures and reflections of contemporary Brazil. Unpredictable, good humored, and abundant in contrasts, Brazil consists of the modern with the traditional, urban with the rustic, the sky scraper with the horse drawn carriage, the educated with the illiterate, the hot with the, well, very much hotter, and these differences are reflected in Quasar's dynamic choreography which cross both media and physical limitations."  Dance Magazine

"Expert physical comedians with quirkily expressive faces and bodies, the nine dancers of Quasar are also full-throttle yet stylish movers who look as if they have spent as much time on a soccer field as in the dance studio." New York Times

"...a force of nature." The Portland Oregonian

"...a genuine stunner...it's the style of movement here that sets the pulse racing...for 75 minutes, they lent us their sinews and their souls." Voice of Dance

"...spectacular energy...the eight dancers in Brazil's Quasar Dance Company don't look like any other dancers we've seen before...they sprang horizontally from the floor like fish leaping from the water, twisted and jerked like multi-jointed insects, arched and tumbled with each other like athletic cats."  The Miami Herald

"...Quasar is one of the best dance companies in the country."  Correio Braziliense (Brasilia Daily)

TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

Choreography For Listening

Women