My House / Foto: Cláudio Etges

The transit between dance languages, territories and styles is not new. And more than provoking an identity crisis, which seems to me a fact overestimated by many, it has been promoting new arrangements, experimentations, combinations and, consequently, new forms of action and assertion for street dance in Rio Grande do Sul. This has already been happening in Brazil and the world, but around here these changes have only recently been perceived effectively and they have been promoting some of the most startling and enthusiastic dance productions, especially in the last four years.

One of the oldest street-dance companies, Hackers Crew, has already been on the Road for 25 years. It was one of the first to invest in other production alternatives. From break dance circles in the 80’s, in Esquina Democrática (“Democratic Corner”, a crossing of two traditional streets in the city’s center where large musical and dancing celebrations take place on Friday nights), and in the black music party circuit, the company made history as the first to have a show season at a theater. The show O Ritmo pulsante das ruas (2005) ended up giving Ted (Odoni Borges), the company’s choreographer and director, four nominations for Prêmio Açorianos de Dança, in the best dancer, best choreography, best stage settings and best soundtrack categories. It was a historic fact for an award that had until then favored ballet, jazz and contemporary dance.

But the company didn´t stop there, bravely fighting to maintain the group, it has been dedicating itself to a new production, Barbaridade! The show that premiered in November 2009 dives into the issue of Brazilian Southern regionalism to find an interface with street-dance. And that´s how traditional Southern music became the soundtrack for popping, locking and b-boying choreographies. Even though the research may need to mature, it reveals a sharp cultural perception and promises to provoke conservatives (in street-dance and in traditional Southern culture) by tensioning the urban scene and the pampa scene, together on stage.

But, if Hackers have been paying for their productions independently and with financial difficulties, other groups have been qualifying for public funding. Created in 1997 by Carlos Nunes, who until 2007 had stood out in competitive festivals, from which he collected several awards, the group Batida de Rua took a new step. The group was the first to send a project and to be selected to FUMPROARTE (City Support Fund for Porto Alegre’s Artistic and Cultural Production). The award ensured resources for production of the show Batida de Rua 10 anos, which had two seasons at Renascença Theater and Câmara Theater. In the 15 years of the Fund’s financing, it was the first time a street-dance project was awarded, which reveals street-dance’s disposition to conquer its place, not only a physical one, on stages, but also in the city’s cultural policy.

Another path was followed by group Grupo My House, which debuted with a same-named show, occupying one of the capital’s noble spaces, the CIEE Theater. The two weeks of performances showed a careful, professional production and a refined, humorous and clever choreographic result. That yielded seven nominations for Prêmio Açorianos de Dança, including best show, best choreographies, best dancer. For the first time, street-dance has the chance to get recognition as the year’s best dance production.

But the street-dance transit has also been crossing the local borders. For the last years, group Art & Dança had already been turning the transit between street-dance and contemporary dance into fruitful dialogue. The group had already revealed its potential with choreographies that made Eduardo Menezes win the Crossover Choreographer Award, at Joinville Dance Festival. Even with Eduardo’s withdrawal, as he has been working outside Rio Grande do Sul, the group continued with its researches, already being considered strange in the street-dance category for being “too contemporary”. And along this path, in 2009, Art & Dança was the only Southern group to be selected for Itaú Cultural’s Rumos Dança project, in São Paulo, with a project called Conseqüência do som, created by Carini Pereira, Mickael Ramos, William Freitas and Stéfanie Telles (Click here to visit the project’s blog).

Side by side with productions, public initiatives are becoming aware of this movement. In 2005, Porto Alegre’s first street-dance showcase took place, promoted by the City’s Culture Office. Without being competitive, the event proposes the encounter and exchange between the participants. Besides the showcase, the projects Dança de Domingo (“Sunday’s Dance”) and Quartas na dança (“Wednesday in Dance”) already selected shows in this gender for its annual programming, with much public success. At the same time, academic production in dance undergraduate courses (currently, there are 5 in the state) have been producing countless and important reflections, such as those produced in the graduation projects of Fernando Faleiro, Carol Laner and Tassiana Rodrigues.

The groups and companies ahead of this scene have been establishing new conditions for organization, production and diffusion. Struggling with public funding programs for seasons, awards, tax rebate laws and financing, are starting to take new steps. Steps that have been configuring a fresh and welcome panorama for dance on the streets, the stages and the cultural scene.

My House