Sensual, subversive, sunny and surprising

The 20 dancers of Brazil's Grupo Corpo stayed rag-doll loose, soft muscled and relaxed no matter how contorted a position they swam into nor how fast their feet were flying. They brought a lighthearted grace and lovely line to the most down-and-dirty eroticized moves.

Their performance at Meany Theater was an exciting glimpse into what another country and culture is developing out of current trends in dance.

Grupo Corpo borrows moves from African and Portuguese traditions and from the martial arts, and blends them with theatrical and modern dance styles from ballroom to butoh. It sounds like chaos, but the two 40-minute pieces on the Meany program — choreographed by Rodrigo Pederneiras, with lighting by Paulo Pederneiras and scenic design by Pedro Pederneiras, his brothers — showed a unified and distinctive style.

Review

Thursday night, Meany Theater

The first piece, "Lecuona," offered a series of 13 swift duets that were both sensual and comical. The tempo was quick-time and jazzy, almost staccato, while in sync with the sultry love songs by Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963.) Any ballroom-dance expectations created by the women's extremely high heels and Freusa Zechmeister's pretty dresses in an array of bright colors were constantly being broken by unexpected movement: a woman dropped flat on her back or being hopped across the floor in a backbend by her partner.

The second piece struggled harder for its big effects. Titled "Onqotô" (which means "where am I") and set to music and songs by Caetano Veloso and José Miguel Wisnik, it was, according to the almost incomprehensible program notes, inspired by the composers' idea of the creation of the universe and the broken conversation between the explosion and the void.

Never mind all that. There is some intriguing choreography here. Groups in hard shoes create rhythms as they move in a huddle along a parabola and break off in clusters. They seem to disappear through a deceptively solid background cut into long strips. They come leaping back, galloping on their hands and feet like lions. A naked man inches forward on his knuckles, contorted, with his head between his legs. He stands as the lights fades.

Toward the end, a hip-hop inspired song includes the repeated words "big bang," which seemed apt because Grupo Corpo gives you a lot of bang for your buck.