CINCO, seis, sete, ...: vontades de verdade sobre a dança e os corpos que dançam fora da ordem do discurso dominante.

Abstract

Dance is permeated by meanings originating from hegemonic discourses that build territorialities and set boundaries, especially regarding relations of race, gender, sexuality and social class. Thus, it writes itself as a language shaped and composed by different discourses in society that, consequently, permeate the ways in which subjects will live it and comprehend it throughout their lives. There are, in dance, wills to truth that set boundaries on who may and who should dance, and, still, on what to dance. There are, then, relations of knowledge and power that delimitate and limit possible dance/body/subject relations, especially of those who lie outside of the dominant discourse. Considering this, this research strives to answer the question: How is the dance/body discursive relation built in regards to subjects who lie outside of the order of dominant discourse in society and/or in dance? To answer this question, we chose dance teachers as subjects of this research, since they have an intimate and singular experience with that language, as dance extends from their personal to their professional lives. As such, these subjects often take central and model roles, experiencing different perspectives on dance, which contributes to achieving the general goal of this research: to understand the dance/body/subject discursive relation in the formation of dance teachers, especially those who lie outside of the order of dominant discourse. In that regard, this research aimed to fulfill, through the use of narrative interviews, the following specific goals: a) To recognize, in the materiality of interviews done, elements that refer to dominant and non-dominant wills of truth about the relation between dance and bodies that dance; b) To characterize the discursive formations that sustain the teachers’ narratives about the dance/body relation; c) To discuss the power/knowledge relations implied in discourses about dance and dancing bodies. This research follows theoretical and methodological frameworks of foucauldian discourse studies (Foucault, 1996, 2008, 2015). Through the lens of foucauldian discourse studies, this research highlights dominant wills of truth that reverberate in dancing bodies and are spread through discourse, sustained by excluding discursive formations such as racism, sexism, and class, gender and sexual prejudice. These discursive formations impose boundaries on who may and may not dance, on which bodies are better suited for dancing and which dances they are allowed to engage in without being labeled “intruders” and becoming vulnerable to violence derived from it. Throughout this investigation, the bodies-territories participating in this research were perceived as more than subjects outside of the order of dominant discourse, and their narratives are examples of resistance in face of power exercised over their bodies. This research also highlights perspectives that make it possible to look at dance as a language in society especially regarding subjects engaging in it as social practice, demonstrating relations of power and resistance that permeate their bodies-territories in dance.