Projects
FUNDED PROJECTS
Staging gender and debating identities: Forum theater and working with the differences.
Coordinator: Dr. Antonia Pereira
Starting date: 2018
Funding: PQ / CNPq
About: Theater creation is the object of this research with emphasis on the aesthetic and social-political dimensions, especially with the students of Theater Interpretation and Direction and of License in Theater, at the School of Theater from UFBA, in the scope of Theater of the Oppressed and Research in Performing Arts. The group envisions the practice of collaborative creation in its dramaturgical and scenic dimensions, based on individual memories. Those memories are explored and reframed in play montages of forum theater on gender and identity issues. The practical result of the research foresees three plays of forum theater, an emblematic technique of Augusto Boal's Theater of the Oppressed, elaborated with subjects from different realities/contexts (academic, community, and business) that will integrate three focus groups constituted specially for the research.
An improviser’s perception: studies on cognition situated for creative and aesthetic enhancement.
Coordination: Dr. Ivani Santana
Starting date: 2016
Funding: CNPq – Edital Universal 2016
About: The project studies the context of dance improvisation from the theories researched in Embodied Cognition or Situated Cognition, both from Cognitive Sciences. We seek to understand the perception of the improviser-dancer in conventional environments of this field, as well as in dance spectacles with technological mediation. This research investigates the process of embodiment of the improvisation dance. It seeks to understand the perception of the improviser-dancer in this situation to propose possible strategies to increase creativity and aesthetics in dance pieces. This research is based on the perception/action studies and varieties of presence proposed by Alva Noë (2006, 2012), the understanding of coupling and the concept of cognitive artifact by Andy Clark (1998, 2003), and on the distinction of body image and scheme proposed by Shaun Gallagher (2005).
The theater of improvisation and scenic readiness: from somatic readiness to dramatic readiness
Coordination: Dr. Daniel Becker
Starting date: 2016
Funding: PNPD / CAPES
This investigation analyzes the body preparation of the actor through the Pilates Method, in a somatic education approach. The goal is to understand what Professor Becker defines as the state of Scenic Readiness, which is fundamental to the work practice. He added to the research the improvised text/action and the knowledge of dramaturgy as a way to broaden the state of Scenic Readiness seeking to understand how the articulation between body work and dramaturgical improvisation helps to promote repatterning. This understanding facilitates the performer's creative interaction with all aspects of theatrical performance in the context of the relationships between performers, text, dramaturgy, interaction, and exchange with the audience. The research shows the importance of scenic readiness as an element for theatrical improvisation, both in the training process and in the development of scenic styles for the performing arts. An actor in readiness state is open to a broader imaginative-practical horizon. This allows the development of a Somatic Readiness. From Dr. Becker’s point of view, the body in Somatic Readiness (which could also be defined as a constant physical and mental alertness in the actor's grammatology) is a Scenic Readiness body because it involves the dramatic artistic element. So, the theatrical improvisation consists of a scenic readiness that is both somatic and dramatic.
UNFUNDED PROJECTS
The Social Circus Methodology
Coordination: Dr. Fábio Dal Gallo
Starting date: 2018
About: Postdoctoral research project developed in Italy in 2018. The project analyzes the methodological proposals of the social circus pedagogy. By proposing an articulation between elements of circus arts pedagogy, social education, and the ludic and educational elements present in circus techniques, this pedagogy promotes the development of educational processes in performing arts for specific groups. The research was carried out from a bibliographic review and a field research that considered the study of case and the descriptive and evaluative analysis of the methodological proposals of circus teaching used in the project AltroCirco, from the Association “Giocolieri e Dintorni”, in Italy.
CéLULA – Ludic Lab Center of Creative Processes
Coordination: Dr. Célida Selume
Starting date: 2017
About: The project continues the scientific initiation activities that involve theoretical research, study meetings, workshop/laboratory development, artistic presentations, production of academic texts, and organization of seminars. The seminars are carried out by CéLULA in different themes through the work plans proposed by the students of this group. Students who are approved at the Masters in Performing Arts and have participated in the undergraduate Scientific Initiation Projects are more likely to draw up preliminary draft projects to entry into these programs. This contributes to the expansion acceleration and renewal of the board of researchers, professors, and students, as many continue researching the objects that they started during their undergraduate studies.
CELULA investigates creative processes in the educational context based on its ludic aspects and the use of different materialities, expanding the theater teaching training. Working with an active presence mobilizes theater students by helping them react to established experiences. We verified the effectiveness of using different materialities in theatrical creation pathways, through the offer of workshops for professors and students, the development of creative processes, and the report of experiences created by recent graduates from the Theater Course.
Somatic alignment and the environment: the somatic-performative approach to performing arts research
Coordination: Dr. Ciane Fernandes
Starting date: 2014
About: The project seeks to outline, structure, and consolidate the Somatic-Performative Approach of research in performing arts, based on integrated processes of creation in scene and writing, combining Somatic Education, Performance, and Sustainability. In the context of Practice as Research (BARRETT and BOLT, 2007) and Performative Research (HASEMAN, 2006), the somatic-performative proposal attenuates the separation and conflict between body and mind, art and science, rehearsal and spectacle, process and product, technique and aesthetics, dynamic multidimensional movement and fixed linear record, and artistic creation and theoretical reflection. It establishes a quantum spacetime of Total Body Integration (HACKNEY 1998) or creative somatic wisdom. In this integrated methodological context, the proposal associates different possibilities and fields, in a Multi-Inter-Transdisciplinary approach or MIT-Disciplinary (FARIAS, 2012), creatively exploring contemporary issues pertinent to the human being in relation to the environment (ecology and sustainability), education, healing, identity, collectivity, etc. KEYWORDS: Somatic Education, Performance, Principles of/in Motion, Environment, Sustainable Development, Somatic-Performative Research.