An invitation to a whole-body reading:

commitment, fury, dance and education in a passionate thesis

Abstract

The doctoral thesis Formalismo Selvagem: artista-docente, dança e a solidariedade entre os discursos (“Wild Formalism: artist-teacher, dance, and the solidarity among discourses”), by Mabile Borsatto, presents an intense and passionate writing that breaks with academic conventions by proposing a dance-writing. The author discusses the domestication of bodies and proposes a wild formalism that unites dance, education, and life, questioning traditional hierarchies and formats. The thesis values the experience of the moving body, sensitive listening, and collectivity as forms of resistance and creation. Through provocations and clues, Borsatto invites an engaged, affective, and context-aware reading driven by desire. The writing incorporates diverse voices and reveals risk as a pedagogical force, inspiring freer, more critical, and embodied educational practices. This review, aligning with the author's invitations, refuses an objective and distant reading, opting instead for a body that reads, thinks, dances, and feels. More than a critical reading, it is a transformative experience.