Grupo Corpo

Grupo Corpo

Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Mary Brennan

HOW these Brazilian dancers move! They slink and they shimmy, spin and snap-kick, go into slow, languorous prowls and undulations or, as the rhythm takes them, they ratchet up the energy in a flurry of flicking limbs and slick, precise footwork. This being Grupo Corpo, they also specialise in the feet dancing to one beat, while the hips sway and the upper torso flows into a rhythmic counterpoint that looks meltingly easy, but is the product of unstinting hours in the studio.

It's not just how they dance, but what they dance that sets the seal on this company's inimitable style and cultural identity. This double bill - Sem Mim (2011) and Parabelo (1997), both choreographed by co-founder Rodrigo Pederneiras - catches at aspects of Brazil's way of life that are rooted in history but remain relevant today.

In Sem Mim, it's the sea that influences the ebb and flow of the choreography. The 13th-century songs, now incorporated in a commissioned contemporary score, speak of the men leaving, the women waiting and the brief, joyful moments of reunion where skin-toned unitards (all printed over with tattoos) are brightly skirted over - kilted, for the guys - and the mood is breezily buoyant. If this depicts a community, there is a kernel of private intimacy in the central duet where designer Paulo Pederneiras's overhead 'cloud' drops down and becomes church-like in its tented architecture as the bodies couple in close, lyrical sensuality.

The land is evoked in Parabelo, where groups move in sharply defined patterns as if soldier-labourers drilling the relentless fields. Here too, the choreography overlaps styles melding the balletic, the athletic and the folk-loric - but never wrong-footing these exquisitely lithe dancers.