The dancer's body: ethnography among dance learners in FUNCEB dance school

• Grant number: 17/16574-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: January 15, 2018
• End date: July 14, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Urban Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Henrique de Toledo
• Grantee: Yasmine Ávila Ramos
• Supervisor: Georgiana Sarah Gore
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université Clermont Auvergne (UCA), France
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/13625-7 - The dancers body: etnography among dance learners in FUNCEB Dance School, BP.MS

Abstract

The research associated to BEPE aims to discuss the relations between the technical qualification of a dance school students and their social construction as a person. This research focuses on the process of learning specific dance techniques, which are necessary to modify the way the body moves, and by doing so be able to became a professional. The fieldwork is in the city of Salvador-BA, in a public dance school counting with a majority of black students, many of them coming from the outskirts of the city. Located in Pelourinho, in the historical center, the FUNCEB Dance School is a reference in the north and northeast of Brazil, and it was the first public dance school in that region. This school has been chosen because it allows to analyze the corporal experience of those who are beginning the process of professionalization. The school's guidelines includes an instruction based on dance technical aspects and a wide curricular structure, including five obligatory dance techniques: ballet, modern dance, contemporary dance, afro-Brazilian dance and Brazilian's popular dances. This research's objective is to study the corporal experience of these young dancers, considering the school as a learning space for corporal techniques but also as a place where the person is socially constructed. The methodology of this research is based on three points. One of them is the observation, allowing me to do a movement analysis, being sensitive to the way these bodies with different backgrounds get adjusted to the different dance techniques proposed by the school. Moreover I was important to get closer to the students' experiences through my own body, so I joined the students during the majority of their classes, in order to better understand the dynamics of the dance classes. Finally, the research also includes doing interviews with the students, to unveil the personal dynamics that are not usually visible during the classes: their trajectory in dance, their corporal experiences and their comprehension about the dance professionalization's process. The fieldwork is in the city of Salvador-BA, in a public dance school which the majority of the students are black, many of them coming from the outskirts of the city. Located in Pelourinho, in the historical center, the FUNCEB's Dance School is a reference in the north and northeast of Brazil, and it was the first one in that region of this kind. This school has been chosen because it allows to analyze the corporal experience of those who are beginning the process of professionalization, thanks to some school's guidelines such as an instruction based in dance's technical aspects and a wide curricular structure, including five obligatory dance techniques: ballet, modern dance, contemporary dance, afro-Brazilian dance and Brazilian's popular dances. This research's intention is to study the corporal experience of these young dancers, by understanding that the school is a space to learn corporal techniques necessaries to became a dancer, but also a place where the person is socially constructed. The methodology of this research is based on three points. One of them is the observation, allowing me to do a movement analysis, sensitive to the way which this bodies with different backgrounds get adjusted to the different dance techniques proposed by the school. It was also important to put my body in the research, so I joined the students during la majority of their classes trying to better understand the dynamics of the dance classes. Finally, the research also envisage doing interviews with the students, so it could be more clear the personal dynamics that usually are not seen during the classes: their paths on dance, their corporal experiences and their comprehension about the professionalization's process in dance. (AU)