Somatic performances and improvisational practices in dance: experiments on a feminist aesthetics of existence

• Grant number: 24/22704-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: December 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Dance
• Principal Investigator: Sílvia Maria Geraldi
• Grantee: Sílvia Maria Geraldi
• Host Investigator: Victoria Perez Royo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain

Abstract

This study starts from an investigation of walking backward practices - or "somatic performances" as proposed by artist and dance researcher Sondra Fraleigh - in dialogue with Feldenkrais' somatic method. It studies the intersections between somatic performances, real-time composition in dance, and feminist practices in their modes of subjectivation in art and life. Based on the concept of "feminist aesthetics of existence" by historian and feminist activist Margareth Rago, it seeks to understand how these "arts of existence" gain materiality in contemporary artistic practices. By focusing on the epistemology of Dance Improvisation as Research, the investigation is woven through collective praxis that aim at the inventive encounter between artists and non-artists, communalizing ways of producing research and knowledge in the arts of presence.