Pedagogy of the Possessed: re-thinking the Dancer-Researcher-Performer (BPI) method in dance curricula in Brazil

Authors

  • Ana Paula Hofling (University of North Carolina – Greensboro, Estados Unidos da América) University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Keywords:

BPI, Alterity, Dance, Choreography, Research

Abstract

This paper calls into question the central tenets of the Dancer-Researcher-Performer (BPI) method taught at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) in Brazil. The analysis problematizes the underlying assumption that students lack an awareness of their own Brazilianness, which they must find through BPI, and questions a choreographic methodology where students are coached to be possessed by the dance. The paper draws attention to the power imbalances inherent in BPI’s co-habitation experience, where students research marginal others who are understood as the source of authentic Brazilian culture. The paper invites BPI students and teachers to reconsider the ethics of this research methodology, and to consider the possibility of choreographic research that engages both mind and body critically and consciously. 

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Ana Paula Hofling (University of North Carolina – Greensboro, Estados Unidos da América), University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Assistant Professor of Dance, University of North Carolina, Greensboro (2014-)

Postdoctoral Fellow in Latin American Studies at Wesleyan University (2012-2014)

PhD in Culture and Performance Studies from UCLA (2012)

Master of Fine Arts from University of Hawai`i (2003)

Fulbright scholar at the Academia Superior de Artes de Bogotá, Colombia (1999)

Master of Arts in Dance from UCLA (1997)

Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from UC Berkeley (1993)

 

Downloads

Published

2022-10-12

How to Cite

Hofling (University of North Carolina – Greensboro, Estados Unidos da América), A. P. (2022). Pedagogy of the Possessed: re-thinking the Dancer-Researcher-Performer (BPI) method in dance curricula in Brazil. Brazilian Journal on Presence Studies, 6(2), 287–308. Retrieved from https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/presenca/article/view/62864

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 2 (2016): May/Aug. 2016

Section

Other Themes

License

Readers are free to transfer, print out and use the articles published in the Journal, as long as there is always explicit mention to the author(s) and to the Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença and as long as there is no alteration of the original work. Any other use of the texts needs to be approved by the author(s) and by the Journal. By submitting an article to the Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença and having it approved, the authors agree to assign, without compensation, the following rights to the Journal: the rights of first publication and the rights to redistribute the article and its metadata to the indexing and reference services that the editors deem appropriate.

Licença Creative Commons This journal use a Licença de Atribuição Creative Commons.