TESTIMONIAL DANCEAS A PEDAGOGICAL ALTERNATIVE IN A FIELD ACTION

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN DOING THIS OR A BIODRAMA?

Abstract

This article is part of a study carried out during the postdoctoral internship at the Faculdad de Filosofía y Letras of the Universidad de Buenos Aires, which addressed the border territory between biodrama and testimonial dance.The term biodrama was coined by the Argentine director Vivi Tellas, based on her project Ciclo Biodrama, of which she was the creator and curator, that explored the interconnections between the autobiographical and the theatrical. Testimonial dance is a term coined by the present researcher who, in his doctoral research, observed that there is a type of choreography that is recurrent in contemporary dance, in which dancers present, in a spoken form, autobiographical testimonies, using few dance movements within the scene. The scenicconfigurations of a testimonial dance present characteristics that are often identical to those found in biodrama. One point that can be highlighted is that a testimonial dance brings the body-archive approach as its primary focus. This is done by focusing on how memories affect the state of the body that is in performative action. To support this hypothesis, this article takes as its main reference the author and researcher Helena Katz (2005), who uses studies of Cognitive Sciences as her theoretical basis. Thechoreographic work O jogo da dança israeli(2020), developed in the research field of the aforementioned doctorate, is used as the central artistical reference for analysis.The result of this choreographic work came about through a need for pedagogical review by the director with his cast during his field action.