Capoeira as an Emerging Possibility to Decentering Contemporary Dance Experiences (Workshop)

Abstract

Capoeira is a Brazilian art, expressed by game, fight, and dance. Its movements comprise a wide range of possibilities, alternating planes, turns, balances, supports, and floor-work, pointing to its relevance for technical processes in dance. However, capoeira is also deeply marked by an aesthetic that goes beyond the movement itself. Values, beliefs, habits, and Brazilian customs are rooted in its practice. Authors such as Frigerio show characteristics such as theatricality and malice, noting that a certain ritual role of capoeira seems to be more important in practice than a combative efficiency. In the Unicamp Physical Education Faculty, a survey is being developed in which capoeira serves as contribution to the dancer's work. Besides the physical skills, we are identifying the formation of an aesthetic expression corresponding to this identity in the process of capoeira, which sent us to the concepts of “kinesthetic transit” and “resonance.” Our proposal for this conference is to present our practical research that understands capoeira, including its rituals, theatricality, and values, as an emerging possibility to decentering dance experiences, due to this traditional phenomenon as not being exclusively a local practice anymore, but also a possible source to contemporary dance in the current cultural interchange.