Thinking the Dance beyond the form... (Auto)biographical report of an artistic journey

Abstract

Thinking about dance beyond form... that's another way of putting it: thinking about dancers beyond the way they dance. In this space, I propose to approach autobiography as a process of catharsis about experiences that oscillate between 1974 and 2023, during approximately half a century. Taking advantage of the moment I'm going through, inspired by Walter Benjamin's journey, clearly evident in his work Travelling Diaries (2022), in which we learn about the process of writing in exile, between and during wars, through texts that recount the experiences of that period and where there was no shortage of conversations with Bertolt Brecht, I set out to reflect. Moving on to practice in the "studio" was just another step driven by the desire to draw a life through movement, using video as a record. This procedure, which differs from a written record due to the possibility of immediately capturing the moving image, gives us a different look and, with it, a new vision of the work in progress. This factor has a different value and impact on the actor (the one who dances, records the process, and then observes and analyses it) than a written record, however complete it may be. [...]