Danças afro-brasileiras: diálogos sobre memória e identidade

Abstract

This research, entitled “Afro-Brazilian Dances: Dialogues on Memory and Identity”, investigates the artistic, ethno-racial, and political dimensions present in Afro-diasporic dances in the Brazilian context, taking as its point of departure the author’s own artistic trajectory. The study is grounded in the concept of Escrevivências (EVARISTO, 2020), understanding academic and poetic writing as a space for elaborating individual and collective experiences deeply marked by Black memory and ancestry. The dissertation focuses on the practices of Afro-Brazilian dances in the city of Salvador, particularly in two key training spaces: the Dance School at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and the Dance School of the Cultural Foundation of the State of Bahia (FUNCEB). These institutions are conceived not only as educational environments but also as territories where knowledge circulates, and where tradition is preserved, reinterpreted, and reinvented in dialogue with contemporary contexts. The research articulates the categories of Body and Ancestrality (SANTOS, 2021), employing the language of performance as an analytical tool to reflect on processes of artistic creation. The body is approached as a site of memory, inscription, and resistance, capable of translating historical and social experiences into singular aesthetics that reshape the field of the arts. In a comparative perspective, the study establishes a dialogue with the dances of the Republic of Guinea, analyzing them as central to the construction of cultural identity, as well as the role of Les Ballets Africains in the political context of the post-independence period. This transnational approach broadens the scope of the research, revealing how different Afro-diasporic experiences generate corporeal repertoires that affirm identities and project futures. The study thus understands Black dances and performances as powerful tools of self-construction and affirmation for Black subjects in the diaspora, functioning simultaneously as spaces of memory, resistance, and innovation. Beyond their artistic dimension, these practices embody a pedagogy of the body, a mode of learning shaped by the relationship between body, ancestry, and collectivity. In this sense, Afro-Brazilian dances transcend the limits of the stage and performance, asserting themselves as a vigorous field of knowledge production, where art, politics, identity, and ancestry intertwine in the creation of new ways of existing and resisting in the world.