Think Brazil and you think – well, heat and rhythm and movement, adding up to dance (oh, and football, but that’s another story.) Sao Paulo Dance Company may be deeply rooted in its native Latin culture, but the influences of African music and western ballet are visible too, fusing a distinctive style played out with muscular energy and elegance. The three pieces in this performance each brought a different musical mode to the fore, matching movement to sound to idea. “Anthem” proffered a dramatic account of social interaction, life events and collective identity as relationships, couples, leaders and groups merged, separated and re-united in the different formations of humanity’s social relationships. After so large-scale an ensemble piece, “Gnawa” called up another kind of identity via the hypnotic, ritualistic music of North Africa, which travelled along with slaves to reinforce a mystical sense of fellowship and spirituality. “Agora” united drums, Afro-Brazilian percussion and rock music to create a beat-driven soundscape where the sheer physical discipline controlling all that energy was at its most apparent. The characteristic stretches, with muscles sculpting form and outlining pose, created the sense of timeless grace shifting into compelling movement under the spell of the music. This was part of a tour long postponed by the outbreak of Covid, but definitely worth waiting for.

Gail-Nina Anderson