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The Press

 

'Cassi Abranches effectively catches the pulse of the music and the soul of the band, creating a vocabulary of low bends, little kicks and twitchy, weighted jumps to match the rhythm of the songs but also their spirit' on Black Sabbath - the Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet - Sarah Crompton, The Guardian

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'Cassi Abranches manages to make Sabbath Bloody Sabbath beautiful. It has always been a powerful, doomy, driving anthem. Abranches employs it to lift her dancers sky-high. Also notable in part two is the use of the finger-picked Orchid, showcasing Tony Iommi’s delicate side, and Lachlan Monaghan’s soaring operatic rendition of Planet Caravan. It doesn’t have the raw-throated power of an Ozzy vocal, but it is gorgeous and unexpected.' -  Chris Lilly, The Review Hub, Oct, 2023

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'Suite Banca is a contemporary dance of epic 

proportions, filling the stage one moment; almost emptying it the next, and although abstract, it overflows the stage boundaries with life....Here, the whole is far more than the sum of its parts.... Overriding it all is the choreographic intelligence that inserts ‘echoes’ when they’re least expected, including one at the piece’s conclusion that is simple, brief, and a visual knockout that ties it all together.' Fall for Dance New York City, Jerry Hochman, criticaldance.org

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'Set to an original instrumental score by Samuel Roasa, the frontman of Skank, one of Brazil's best know pop rock bands... Abranches managed to take Suite Branca in differing and interesting directions... a testing of the laws of gravity.' - Steve Sucato, Arts Air, Cleveland

 

'Não há nada de evanescente nessa busca, e quando mostra uma linha frontal de corpos, explicita esse ímpeto para circuitos sem rejunte porque eles devem nascer sem vãos.  - Suite Branca - Helena Katz, O Estado de Sao Paulo

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' The two dancers didn’t just couple physically — they seemed to enjoy their playful partnership, spinning together through quicksilver turns and lifts that coiled up and over. After that, it was easier to note a theme of vulnerability and resilience – leans that tipped almost off balance, falls and recoveries time and again, and these breathtakingly trusting backwards swoons into awaiting arms.' Suite Branca - Karen Campbell,  Boston Globe

 

'Much of the appeal of the carefully crafted Suite 

Branca was in the repetition. The dancers repeated alot of the same phrases, but they altered dynamics and direction. The movement married social dance 

with ballet, club dance with studio exercises. It made me want to get up and dance...And the arms and 

sharp knife-like lifts frequently resembled those you’d see in ballet. It was an intriguing amalgam.' Carmel Morgan,  College Park, Maryland, Criticaldance.org

 

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Cassi Abranches

 

 

Cassi's video reel is here

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Born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1974, Cassi Abranches began her dance studies in 1982 at Escola Municipal de Bailados, SP. As a dancer, Cassi performed with Brazil's Raça Cia de Dança, Balé do Teatro Castro Alves and Balé do Teatro Guaíra, before she joined Grupo Corpo in 2001, where she danced until 2013.  

 

As a choreographer, Cassi has created numerous works for Grupo Corpo that have toured the world. Other creations include Contracapa (2009) – Ballet Jovem Palácio das Artes, Belo Horizonte;  Ariana (2013) – Cia Jovem Bolshoi Brasil; Oblivion (2013) – Cia Sesc de Dança, Belo Horizonte;  Plano (2014) – Cia Sesc de Dança, Belo Horizonte; Gen (2014) – São Paulo Cia de Dança;  Ensejo (2015) - Cia Jovem Bolshoi Brasil and  Suíte Branca (2015) for Grupo Corpo.
 
Besides her work for dance companies, Cassi has choreographed for film, commercials and music videos, including the creation of Pas-de-Deux from the movie Rio, I Love You.  She was Director of Movement and Choreographer of Rio 2016 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony. 

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In June, 2019, Cassi's Agora, was premiered by São Paolo Cia de Dança and then toured to the Moviemento Festival in Wolfsburg, Germany. Agora received the APCA Award 2019 in Sao Paolo for Best Choreography/Creation. In November 2020, Cassi created Respiro, her response to lockdown for São Paolo Cia de Dança which premiered at Teatro Alfa and on line. That same year, Cassi virtually staged a pas de deux from A Rosa, performed by Erdem Sandakov and Haruka Yamada of the Buryat State Ballet in Ulan-Ude for Bolshoi Ballet on Culture Channel, Russia.

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Productions in 2023 included Me despido, a creation for Ballet Nacional Chileno and  Black Sabbath - The Ballet for Birmingham Royal Ballet for which she contributed a section to this critically acclaimed new ballet which in 2024 tours to the Holland Dance Festival.

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In 2024, Cassi is on the Jury of the Stuttgart Solo Competition in Germany and creating a new work to the music of Philip Glass in Rome.

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From September 2021 through May, 2023, Cassi was the Artistic Director of Balé da Cidade de São Paulo in Brazil. More recently, her newest work, Motriz, received Brazil's top APCA award for Best Dance Performance of 2022.

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In 2023/24, Cassi was named Resident Choreographer for Brazil's Grupo Corpo.

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www.cassiabranches.com.br/

@cassiabranches

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