The dancers of Companhia Urbana de Dança moved dynamically around the stage Monday night, smiling and interacting with one another as they performed complicated steps combining hip hop and other styles of dance. The mixture of styles including contemporary street style and capoeira, a Brazilian martial art dance form, is what makes Urbana so unique and exciting to watch.
Companhia Urbana de Dança is a dance group from Brazil that will be performing in the Moore Theater, following their Monday night performance and workshop in Collis Common Ground.
Sonia Destri Lie, the creator of the company, said the idea for the company was not one that developed overnight. In fact, at the time of its creation, Destri did not want to lead a company because of the difficulty of running one. However, the opportunity looked promising, so she ultimately decided to pursue it. From there, Destri began merging different techniques into the choreography.
Hopkins Center programming director Margaret Lawrence said that Urbana takes hip hop and enriches it by fusing various styles.
In addition to different styles of dance, the group also likes to experiment with different themes for each of their pieces. While at Dartmouth, they will be performing a piece called “I. You. We ... All black!” which explores the idea of racial tensions present in Brazil, Lawrence said. They will also be performing the upbeat and fun piece, “Na Pista.”
“It’s not pointed out to you,” Lawrence said. “It’s used just as any other piece of vocabulary is used and it’s over in a flash and moves into the next thing very organically.”
Destri says the subltely of the pieces results from collaboration within the group. Though she was originally the main choreographer, Destru now also works with the dancers to create performances.
“Normally the ideas are mine,” Destri said. “Then they read what I’m trying to do and remake the interpretation.”
The dynamic of the group has led to their success, and they have performed in both large and small settings, Destri said. The company also frequently travels to colleges, where they not only perform but also hold workshops like the ones they have led this week at the College.
Lawrence specifically looks for performers who will not only perform but lead other engagement activities and workshops. Lawrence said that Urbana was excited about their non-performance work because of their passion for engaging all types of people in dance.
This was evident at Monday’s workshop at which the company collaborated with students from two dance groups on campus, Fusion, a contemporary dance group that incorporates all styles of dance, and Raaz, a South Asian dance group. Both groups had similar reasons for participating in the workshop and collaborative performance.
Vivian Chen ’16, a member of Fusion, and Nivi Nagaraj ’16, the captain of Raaz, both said that their groups were interested in the event because they wanted to experience new styles.
While the students certainly learned new moves at the workshop, they also got the chance to collaborate with professional dancers. Students were asked to improvise with Urbana, and both the students and the professionals were eager to learn from each other.
Chen said that the workshop was better than she expected because of the collaborative aspect of the event.
Nagaraj seconded Chen, saying that it was fun to bounce ideas off and share styles with Urbana.
While some students were nervous at first, eventually everyone began to relax and enjoy themselves.
“It was a lot of fun,” Nagaraj said. “It definitely got us out of our comfort zones.”
Chen agreed that the experience was especially enjoyable because it was all about “being yourself.”
The collaboration and freestyling that eventually resulted in choreography during the workshop excited Destri.
“This is beautiful,” Destri said. “The way we work is sometimes better than going on stage.”
Companhia Urbana de Dança will perform again in the Moore Theater tonight and tomorrow, April 8 and 9, at 8 p.m.
