Quebra cabaças, espalha sementes: cultivando saberes afrorreferenciados e práticas educativas em dança

Abstract

This research, developed within the scope of the Professional Master’s Program in Dance at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), proposes the creation of a transdisciplinary didactic material based on Afro-Brazilian dances, aimed at Basic Education teachers, especially those working in Early Childhood Education. The study emerges from the development of the Dança Afrormativa methodology, which interweaves ancestral knowledge, corporeality, orality, and playfulness as pedagogical and political pillars. Grounded in an Afro-referenced approach and guided by action research methodology, this investigation is built through formative experiences, sensitive listening, and exchanges with educators, artists, and traditional masters. It seeks to support teachers in the effective implementation of Law 10.639/03 — whose enforcement, more than two decades after its enactment, remains largely limited to isolated commemorative activities. This proposal understands Afro-Brazilian dance not only as an artistic language, but also as ancestral technology, an educational tool, and a bridge for identity reconnection for children, youth, and adults. Inspired by the epistemologies of Leda Maria Martins (2021), who conceives the body as a projector of memories; the principles of Pretagogia by Sandra Petit (2015); the Afro-civilizational values outlined by Azoilda Loretto (2010); and the National Common Curricular Base (BNCC), this research reaffirms the Black body as a territory of resistance and knowledge production. Quebra Cabaças, Espalha Sementes ("Breaks Gourds, Spreads Seeds") is a pedagogical gesture that breaks silences, fertilizes the soil of schools, and sows worlds where Black belonging blossoms with identity, affection, and strength.