Articulações do discurso corporal | Articulations of the body discourse

Desde março de 2009, quando foi implantado pela Universidade de Caxias do Sul (UCS) o Programa de Ciências e Artes do Corpo, e com ele criado o Grupo ArticulAções, Caxias do Sul, na serra gaúcha, vem realizando uma experiência inovadora e instigante. A aproximação de arte e ciência, com enfoque nos estudos do movimento humano, vem mobilizando 10 estudantes do curso de Educação Física, que têm aprimorado o exercício de sua formação a um pensamento pautado pela investigação científica em busca de novas abordagens de suas práticas corporais.

A inovação é desenvolvida pelo Centro de Ciências da Saúde e se articula em dois vetores, um grupo de práticas do movimento e outro de estudos teóricos e avançados em ciências e artes do corpo. O projeto tem coordenação da coreógrafa Sigrid Nora e de Paulo Eugênio Gedoz de Carvalho, diretor do centro. O duo entre teoria e prática tem tomado forma principalmente no Grupo ArticulAções. Selecionados através de testes práticos e entrevistas, estes estudantes recebem bolsa de estudo para trabalhar com profissionais da área do movimento em atividades rítmicas, dança, instalação e aulas teóricas.

O primeiro resultado coreográfico do ArticulAções é a composição cênica idem[variáveis]ibidem. O trabalho é resultado das pesquisas desenvolvidas a partir de movimentos pendulares e citações de outras obras – Loud, do coreógrafo alemão Thomas Plischke, e da coreografia de What We Did Last Summer, do cantor britânico Robbie Williams. A performance foi gerada a partir da organização de diferentes características do movimento humano, observadas, medidas, controladas e manipuladas em uma unidade experimental, que discute como informações extraídas de outros textos e outras fontes se processam e se instalam num discurso corporal para esclarecer, reforçar ou ilustrar o que se quer dizer.

Para se ter uma ideia da performance: na primeira cena aparece aquele brinquedo que alguns chamam de bate-bola, com duas bolas presas por uma corda. Suspensas, uma bate na outra, impulsionadas pelos movimentos da mão de uma intérprete. Cena seguinte, um corpo masculino está em suspensão, preso pelos pés, sendo movido por outro intérprete. Instaura-se uma segunda instância da mesma questão, o movimento pendular. Surge no telão um vídeo do cantor inglês Robbie Williams, no qual ele também aparece pendurado de cabeça para baixo, ao som de What We Did Last Summer. Citação feita, organiza-se o discurso coreográfico de idem[variáveis]ibidem,cuja estreia nacional foi no projeto Primeiro Passo, em fevereiro deste ano, no Sesc Pompeia, em São Paulo.

Em sua estrutura, idem[variáveis]ibidem organiza diferentes possibilidades de apropriação e organização do movimento corporal. O trabalho é composto por quatro variáveis coreográficas, criadas por Magda Bellini, Ney Moares, Verónica Gómez e Sigrid Nora, que também assina a direção artística. Estas quatro variáveis são dançadas numa primeira sequência que, depois, podem ser reorganizadas a partir de um sorteio ou de um pedido do público, gerando novas configurações, dançadas sob o pêndulo do idem e ibidem.

Após a apresentação paulista, no debate coordenado pela pesquisadora Christine Greiner e a crítica de dança Helena Katz, esta indagou aos intérpretes: “Perceberam a encrenca que em que vocês se meteram?” A pergunta se referia à descoberta da potencialidade para outros movimentos, inclusive a dança, dos corpos dos estudantes de Educação Física. A questão contextualiza, também, a discussão sobre habilitações para o exercício e o ensino da dança por esses futuros profissionais.

Os integrantes do grupo descobriram, sim, que estão lidando com um novo momento de suas formações.

Nicole Giovanella, 21 anos, integrante do ArticulAções, que acaba de se graduar no bacharelado em Educação Física, desenvolveu seu trabalho de conclusão, Aptidão Física Relacionada à Saúde (AFS) no Grupo Articulações, a partir desta nova experiência vivida.

– Danço jazz há 15 anos, dou aula e sempre fui apaixonada pela arte e pela dança. Porém, confesso que, durante a minha graduação, pouquíssimas vezes falou-se em arte, em dança, até o surgimento do ArticulAções. Ao ingressar no grupo, percebi que minha visão como profissional de Educação Física mudou significantemente. O surgimento do grupo serviu para apresentar e explicitar as novas oportunidades e possibilidades de atuação no mercado de trabalho, voltadas ao movimento artístico, que até então, era desconhecida pela grande maioria deste grupo em questão – diz Nicole.

São, de fato, geradas muitas articulações entre corpo, dança e pensamento a partir deste programa. Outra iniciativa que o projeto contemplou, em outubro do ano passado, foi a atividade denominada Imersão, reunindo pesquisadores da universidade para o debate em torno de novas abordagens e estudos sobre o corpo, com a participação da pesquisadora Christine Greiner. No início de maio, nova frente de atuação. Desta vez, num programa denominado Grupo ArticulAções e Convidados, que estabeleceu inter-relações, aproximou pensamentos, na perspectiva da formação de redes de cooperação.

Além de idem[variáveis]ibidem ser apresentado em duas noites no Teatro Pedro Parenti, em Caxias do Sul, foram reunidos no mesmo palco outras quatro formações da dança caxiense, mais um convidado nacional, o coreógrafo-intérprete Vanilton Lakka, de Uberlândia (MG). Dança moderna, de salão e a fusão entre elementos da dança de rua, clássica e contemporânea do solo Dúbbio, de Vanilton Lakka, deram uma mostra das múltiplas possibilidades de criação do movimento corporal. As duas noites de apresentação foram complementadas pela mesa temática Diálogos, para público e intérpretes refletirem sobre as diversas estéticas corporais, suas conexões e implicações.

O grupo em cena / Foto: Jonas Ramos

O grupo em cena / Foto: Jonas Ramos

Nesta reunião de informações e procedimentos, o Grupo ArticulAções tem se tornado um dos vetores da renovação da dança caxiense, com possíveis ecos estaduais e nacionais. Conjugando grupos e registros diversos, o projeto abre não só uma perspectiva para esse segmento de formação profissional, focando mais do que o desempenho corporal, mas, ao mesmo tempo, dá vigor e inovação às pesquisas artísticas dentro e fora da academia, reorganizando uma nova cartografia para a dança local, que teve momentos de emergência na cena nacional, experimentados nos primeiros oito anos da Cia. Municipal de Dança de Caxias do Sul.

A experiência modificou a compreensão sobre as possibilidades corporais, profissionais e artísticas de Lander Artur da Silva, 27 anos, estudante de Educação Física e integrante do grupo, que tem feito da experiência o mote de sua Prática de Pesquisa, disciplina que, pelo currículo que cumpre na universidade, corresponde ao trabalho de conclusão do curso.

– Há um ano, quando entrei no grupo ArticulAções, não tinha noção da abrangência da dança contemporânea, e na verdade não tinha muito conhecimento. Entrei no grupo com intuito de adquirir experiência em uma área diferente do movimento humano, pois até então trabalhava somente com musculação de academia e treinamento personalizado. Agora, meu trabalho terá como tema “Treinamento de resistência isométrica para membros superiores em bailarinas contemporâneas”. Todas as experiências que estou tendo no grupo deram-me uma nova direção profissional. Dança e Educação Física parecem complementar-se, talvez por serem pluridisciplinares ou por mesclar emoção e sentimento com técnica e treinamento. Após um ano no grupo, percebo mudanças físicas, mentais e culturais em minha rotina, vendo inúmeras possibilidades para meu futuro profissional – avalia e planeja Lander.

Desenvolvido com recursos captados através da Lei Municipal de Incentivo à Cultura, o Programa de Ciências e Artes do Corpo foca, ainda, a perspectiva de fomentar a produção de saberes sob o enfoque da indisciplinariedade, eliminando molduras e promovendo misturas em busca da produção de novos pensamentos artísticos por meio da dança. Esta iniciativa encontrou oportunidade de desenvolvimento através da Universidade de Caxias do Sul que, atenta à potencialidade de inovação dos procedimentos acadêmicos, investe no diálogo entre corpo, ciência e arte.

– O grupo ArticulAções foi proposto com o propósito dos seus integrantes vivenciarem práticas corporais artísticas para, através deste processo, adquirirem a capacidade de aplicar estes fundamentos a favor de um condicionamento físico que atenda à pluralidade de experiências da contemporaneidade para o corpo que dança – diz a diretora artística, Sigrid Nora.

Significativamente, a primeira aparição pública do Grupo ArticulAções foi no programa Raízes: história, memória e movimento (leia aqui a reportagem que o idança fez), realizado em julho de 2009, com debates, exposição e um espetáculo que revisitou coreografias do Grupo Raízes, formação histórica de dança caxiense que nasceu há 25 anos, justamente dentro do campus universitário. Se acreditarmos que dança também é memória em movimento, o pêndulo desta história balança entre tradição e reinvenção.

Carlinhos Santos é jornalista e autor da coluna 3por4 no Jornal Pioneiro, de Caxias do Sul. Especialista em Corpo e Cultura, Ensino e Educação, atualmente curso Mestrado em Educação, estudando corpo e dança, na UCS

Since March 2009, when the Science and Arts of the Body program was implemented at Universidade de Caxias do Sul (UCS) and Grupo Articulações (“ArticulActions Group”) was created, the city of Caxias do Sul, in Southern Brazil, has been having some innovating and instigating experiences. The combination of art and science, focusing on human movement studies, has mobilized ten students of the Physical Education course, who have improved their education with scientific investigation in search of new approaches to their body practices.

The innovation was developed by the Health Science Center and is articulated in two axis, a group dedicated to movement practices and one focused on theoretical and advanced studies in sciences and arts of the body. The project is coordinated by choreographer Sigrid Nora and Paulo Eugênio Gedoz de Carvalho, the director of the Center. The duo of theory and practice has been shaping up especially in Grupo Articulações. The students were selected through practical tests and interviews. They receive a scholarship to work with professionals of movement areas, in rhythmic activities, dance, installation and theoretical classes.

The first choreographic result of the groups was the scenic composition idem[variáveis]ibidem. The piece is the result of the research developed upon pendulous movements and references to other works – German choreographer Thomas Plischke’s Loud and singer Robin Williams’ choreography for What We Did Last Summer. The performance was created after the organization of different characteristics of human movement, which are observed, measured, controlled and manipulated in an experimental unit that discusses how information extracted from other texts and other sources are processed and installed in a body discourse to clarify, reinforce or illustrate what they want to convey.

A brief description of the performance: a toy with two balls attached by a rope appears in the first scene. One ball hits the other, they are suspended, propelled by the hands of a performer. In the following scene, a masculine body is suspended, hanging by his feet, being moved by another performer. A second version of the same issue, the pendulous movement, is established. A video of British singer Robbie Williams appears on the screen. He is also hanging upside-down, to the sound of What We Did Last Summer. After the reference is made, the choreographic discourse of idem[variáveis]ibidem is established. The show premiered in the Primeiro Passo project, last February, at SESC Pompéia, in São Paulo.

In its structure, idem[variáveis]ibidem organizes different possibilities of appropriation and organization of body movement. The work is composed by four choreographic variables created by Magda Bellini, Ney Moares, Verónica Gomezjurado and Sigrid Nora, who is also the artistic director. The four variables are dances in a first sequence, which can later be organized after a lottery or a request from the audience, creating new configurations, danced under the pendulum of idem and ibidem.

After the presentation in São Paulo, in the debate coordinated by Christine Greiner and dance critic Helena Katz, the latter asked the performers: “Do you realize the trouble you got yourselves into?” The question was referring to the possibilities of other movements, including dance, for the bodies of Physical Education students. The question also contextualizes the debate about licenses for practicing and teaching dance for these future professionals.
The members of the group realized they are dealing with a new moment in their training.

Nicole Giovanella, a 21 year-old member of ArticulAções who just got her Physical Education degree, developed her final project, called Health Related Physical Aptitude, within Grupo Articulações, based on this new experience.

“I have been dancing jazz for 15 years, I teach and have always been in love with art and dance. However, I must confess that during college, art or dance were very rarely mentioned until ArticulAções came up. When I became part of the group, I realized my views had changed significantly. The group introduced and made explicit the new opportunities and possibilities of the work marketplace, aimed at artistic movements, which were unknown to most of the group until then”, says Nicole.

Many articulations between body, dance and thought are actually generated after this program. Another initiative the project contemplated last October was an activity called Imersão (“Imersion”), gathering researchers from the University for a debate about new approaches and studies about the body, with the participation of Christine Greiner. In the beginning of May, a program called Grupo ArticulAções e Convidados (“ArticulActions Group and Guests”) established inter-relations, bring thoughts together, in the perspective of creating cooperation networks.

In addition to idem[variáveis]ibidem being presented on two nights at Pedro Parenti Theater, in Caxias do Sul, four other dance groups from Caxias were reunited and also a national guest, choreographer-performer Vanilton Lakka, from Uberlândia. Modern dance, ballroom dancing and the fusion of elements of street, contemporary and classic dance in Vanilton Lakka’s solo Dúbbio, provided a sample of the multiple creative possibilities of body movement. Both evenings were complemented by the thematic roundtable Diálogos (“Dialogues”), aimed for audience and performers to reflect upon different body aesthetics, their connections and implications.

With this gathering of information and procedures, Grupo ArticulAções has become one of the vectors for the renovation of dance in Caxias do Sul, with possible echoes estate and country-wise. Combining different groups and records, the project not only opens a perspective for this segment of professional training, focusing on more than body performance, but at the same time, strengthening and innovating artistic research inside and outside the academy, reorganizing a new cartography for local dance, which emerged in the national circuit with the first eight years of Cia Municipal de Dança de Caxias do Sul.
The experience changed the understanding about the body and about the professional and artistic possibilities of 27 year-old Lander Artur da Silva, Physical Education student and member of the group. The experience became the theme of his Research Practice, which is the final project.

“A year ago, when I became a member of ArticulAções, I had no idea about the scope of contemporary dance and actually I didn´t now much about it. I got into the group wishing to acquire more experience in a different area of human movement, because until then I had only worked with bodybuilding and personal training. Now, the theme of my final will be “Upper limb resistance training for contemporary dancers”. Every experience I´m having in the group gave me a new professional direction. Dance and Physical Education seem to complement each other, maybe because they are multidisciplinary or because they mix emotion and feeling with technique and training. After a year in a group, I can see physical, mental and cultural changes in my routine and I see countless possibilities for my professional future”, Lander plans and evaluates.

The Sciences and Arts of the Body Program was developed with resources from City’s Culture Incentive Law. It also focus on the perspective of fostering interdisciplinary knowledge production, eliminating frameworks and promoting mixtures in search of new artistic ideas through dance. This initiative found opportunities for development though Caxias do Sul Federal University, which is aimed at the innovative possibilities of academic procedures and invests in the dialogue between body, science and art.

“ArticulAções was proposed with the goal of having its members experience artistic body practices. Through this process, they would be able to acquire the ability to apply these elements in favor of physical conditioning that serves the diversity of contemporary experiences for the body that dances”, says Sigrid Nora, the artistic director.

The first public presentation of Grupo ArticulAções was in Raízes program, which took place last year, with debates, an exhibition and a show that revisited choreographies of Grupo Raízes, a historical groups from Caxias do Sul that was created 25 years ago, in the University. If we believe dance is also memory in movement, the pendulum of this history swings between tradition and reinvention.

Carlinhos Santos is a journalist and author of the 3por4 column at Pioneiro newspaper, in Caxias do Sul. A specialist in Body and Culture, Teaching and Education, he is currently a masters degree candidate at Caxias do Sul Federal University.

Since March 2009, when the Science and Arts of the Body program was implemented at Universidade de Caxias do Sul (UCS) and Grupo Articulações (“ArticulActions Group”) was created, the city of Caxias do Sul, in Southern Brazil, has been having some innovating and instigating experiences. The combination of art and science, focusing on human movement studies, has mobilized ten students of the Physical Education course, who have improved their education with scientific investigation in search of new approaches to their body practices.

The innovation was developed by the Health Science Center and is articulated in two axis, a group dedicated to movement practices and one focused on theoretical and advanced studies in sciences and arts of the body. The project is coordinated by choreographer Sigrid Nora and Paulo Eugênio Gedoz de Carvalho, the director of the Center. The duo of theory and practice has been shaping up especially in Grupo Articulações. The students were selected through practical tests and interviews. They receive a scholarship to work with professionals of movement areas, in rhythmic activities, dance, installation and theoretical classes.

The first choreographic result of the groups was the scenic composition idem[variáveis]ibidem. The piece is the result of the research developed upon pendulous movements and references to other works – German choreographer Thomas Plischke’s Loud and singer Robin Williams’ choreography for What We Did Last Summer. The performance was created after the organization of different characteristics of human movement, which are observed, measured, controlled and manipulated in an experimental unit that discusses how information extracted from other texts and other sources are processed and installed in a body discourse to clarify, reinforce or illustrate what they want to convey.

A brief description of the performance: a toy with two balls attached by a rope appears in the first scene. One ball hits the other, they are suspended, propelled by the hands of a performer. In the following scene, a masculine body is suspended, hanging by his feet, being moved by another performer. A second version of the same issue, the pendulous movement, is established. A video of British singer Robbie Williams appears on the screen. He is also hanging upside-down, to the sound of What We Did Last Summer. After the reference is made, the choreographic discourse of idem[variáveis]ibidem is established. The show premiered in the Primeiro Passo project, last February, at SESC Pompéia, in São Paulo.

In its structure, idem[variáveis]ibidem organizes different possibilities of appropriation and organization of body movement. The work is composed by four choreographic variables created by Magda Bellini, Ney Moares, Verónica Gomezjurado and Sigrid Nora, who is also the artistic director. The four variables are dances in a first sequence, which can later be organized after a lottery or a request from the audience, creating new configurations, danced under the pendulum of idem and ibidem.

After the presentation in São Paulo, in the debate coordinated by Christine Greiner and dance critic Helena Katz, the latter asked the performers: “Do you realize the trouble you got yourselves into?” The question was referring to the possibilities of other movements, including dance, for the bodies of Physical Education students. The question also contextualizes the debate about licenses
for practicing and teaching dance for these future professionals.

The members of the group realized they are dealing with a new moment in their training.

Nicole Giovanella, a 21 year-old member of ArticulAções who just got her Physical Education degree, developed her final project, called Health Related Physical Aptitude, within Grupo Articulações, based on this new experience.

“I have been dancing jazz for 15 years, I teach and have always been in love with art and dance. However, I must confess that during college, art or dance were very rarely mentioned until ArticulAções came up. When I became part of the group, I realized my views had changed significantly. The group introduced and made explicit the new opportunities and possibilities of the work marketplace, aimed at artistic movements, which were unknown to most of the group until then”, says Nicole.

Many articulations between body, dance and thought are actually generated after this program. Another initiative the project contemplated last October was an activity called Imersão (“Imersion”), gathering researchers from the University for a debate about new approaches and studies about the body, with the participation of Christine Greiner. In the beginning of May, a program called Grupo ArticulAções e Convidados (“ArticulActions Group and Guests”) established inter-relations, bring thoughts together, in the perspective of creating cooperation networks.

In addition to idem[variáveis]ibidem being presented on two nights at Pedro Parenti Theater, in Caxias do Sul, four other dance groups from Caxias were reunited and also a national guest, choreographer-performer Vanilton Lakka, from Uberlândia. Modern dance, ballroom dancing and the fusion of elements of street, contemporary and classic dance in Vanilton Lakka’s solo Dúbbio, provided a sample of the multiple creative possibilities of body movement. Both evenings were complemented by the thematic roundtable Diálogos (“Dialogues”), aimed for audience and performers to reflect upon different body aesthetics, their connections and implications.

With this gathering of information and procedures, Grupo ArticulAções has become one of the vectors for the renovation of dance in Caxias do Sul, with possible echoes estate and country-wise. Combining different groups and records, the project not only opens a perspective for this segment of professional training, focusing on more than body performance, but at the same time, strengthening and innovating artistic research inside and outside the academy, reorganizing a new cartography for local dance, which emerged in the national circuit with the first eight years of Cia Municipal de Dança de Caxias do Sul.

The experience changed the understanding about the body and about the professional and artistic possibilities of 27 year-old Lander Artur da Silva, Physical Education student and member of the group. The experience became the theme of his Research Practice, which is the final project.

“A year ago, when I became a member of ArticulAções, I had no idea about the scope of contemporary dance and actually I didn´t now much about it. I got into the group wishing to acquire more experience in a different area of human movement, because until then I had only worked with bodybuilding and personal training. Now, the theme of my final will be “Upper limb resistance training for contemporary dancers”. Every experience I´m having in the group gave me a new professional direction. Dance and Physical Education seem to complement each other, maybe because they are multidisciplinary or because they mix emotion and feeling with technique and training. After a year in a group, I can see physical, mental and cultural changes in my routine and I see countless possibilities for my professional future”, Lander plans and evaluates

The Sciences and Arts of the Body Program was developed with resources from City’s Culture Incentive Law. It also focus on the perspective of fostering interdisciplinary knowledge production, eliminating frameworks and promoting mixtures in search of new artistic ideas through dance. This initiative found opportunities for development though Caxias do Sul Federal University, which is aimed at the innovative possibilities of academic procedures and invests in the dialogue between body, science and art.

“ArticulAções was proposed with the goal of having its members experience artistic body practices. Through this process, they would be able to acquire the ability to apply these elements in favor of physical conditioning that serves the diversity of contemporary experiences for the body that dances”, says Sigrid Nora, the artistic director.

The first public presentation of Grupo ArticulAções was in Raízes program, which took place last year, with debates, an exhibition and a show that revisited choreographies of Grupo Raízes, a historical groups from Caxias do Sul that was created 25 years ago, in the University. If we believe dance is also memory in movement, the pendulum of this history swings between tradition and reinvention.

Carlinhos Santos is a journalist and author of the 3por4 column at Pioneiro newspaper, in Caxias do Sul. A specialist in Body and Culture, Teaching and Education, he is currently a masters degree candidate at Caxias do Sul Federal University.