Press Release: Bruno Beltrão: CRACKz, Sadler's Wells, 3 & 4 June 2014

[Jan McNulty]

 

Bruno Beltrão: CRACKz
UK PREMIERE 
Sadler's Wells, EC1R

Tuesday 3 & Wednesday 4 June 2014
Performances: 7.30pm
Tickets: £12 - £27
Ticket office: 0844 412 4300 or www.sadlerswells.com

 

“Bruno Beltrão knows how to transform hip hop dance, using it as a choreographic tool that has never been seen before" Le Monde

One of Brazil’s finest young choreographers Bruno Beltrão and his dance company Grupo de Rua de Niterói returns to Sadler’s Wells with CRACKz on Tuesday 3 & Wednesday 4 June 2014.

CRACKz marks Beltrão’s second visit to Sadler’s Wells, after his debut with the award-winning H3 in 2009. His latest work is dedicated to the cultural dissemination and appropriation that has been made possible through the use of computer technology. In the making of the piece, Beltrão asked his dancers to select choreographic material found on the internet; including movements, gestures and informal routines, then used these as the basis for his choreography, resulting in a remarkable fusion of street and contemporary dance.

 

Bruno Beltrão has gained international acclaim for his unique style, questioning the established, masculine structures of movement and the stereotypes of hip hop. Combining elements of this urban dance form with contemporary influences; his work straddles the border between the analytic and the physical.        

                                                                                                            

Bruno Beltrão was born in Niterói, Brazil, in 1979. In 1993 he began his first street dance lessons with the Israeli teacher Yoram Szabo and at 16 formed his own hip hop dance company with Rodrigo Bernardi. In 2000 whilst reading dance at university Beltrão created the duet Do Popping ao Pop ou Vice-Versa which premiered at the Duos de Dança no SESC Festival in Rio de Janeiro in 2001, and marked his entry into contemporary dance.

Since 2001 Beltrão has solely directed Grupo de Rua de Niteroi and in 2002 the company began a successful international career touring both in Europe and East Asia. He has received many awards including Upcoming Choreographer of the Year by Balletanz in 2005 as well as Best Choreographer by APCA (São Paulo’s Association of Arts Critics) in 2008. Most recently he was awarded New York's prestigious Bessie Award for H3 in 2010.

 

CRACKz is part of LIFT 2014. LIFT is a festival of international theatre and performance that connects the World with London and London with the World. LIFT turns the city into a stage on which artists with radical imaginations conjure visions of other lands, enthralling us with stories born in the worlds from which they come. Extraordinary global stories and intense visual and personal experiences come from dynamic new international voices, linking Londoners with artists around the world in events and productions that take place in 15 venues across the breadth of the city.