Reflections on Dance Practice as Research

Abstract

How are dance practices configured as research? What knowledge can emerge from such practices? What tools or methods can help support practice as dance research? These and other questions permeate this paper, which is based on the methodological discoveries made in the doctoral process that resulted in the thesis entitled “Entre o cultivo e a espera: caminhos para uma poética de permanência e transformação na dança” (Barbosa, 2019). Here, one finds reflections that help in a brief delimitation of the field of Practice as Research (PcP) as a possibility of methodological horizon for research in dance. In addition, a synthesis of the Creative Articulation Process (CAP), by Jane Bacon and Vida Midgelow (2014), is presented as a method that is receptive to the autonomy of researchers in its use, by precisely encouraging the discovery of paths as one progresses with the research. The text points to the need for a movement “outwards” from the research process that helps to untangle the threads of this creative maze. Such a movement, in turn, requires a turn “inwards”, in the sense of exercising the ability to looking, recognizing and naming what is done in creative dance practices.