The body actively listening to space:

freerunning as an aesthetic experience and performative art

Abstract

This article investigates freerunning as a bodily practice and field of aesthetic experimentation in the performing arts, understanding creative movement as a form of thought embodied in the relationship between body and environment. The research starts from the artistic experience of movement and develops from methodological approaches of practice as research and research-creation, articulating bodily experiences, process records, and theoretical reflection. The study engages with the perspectives of aesthetic experience, embodied cognition, and performativity, drawing on authors who investigate the relationships between gesture, memory, and sensory experience. The experiments were carried out in different spatial contexts, including urban, natural, and institutional environments, allowing the body, in a state of presence, to transform itself and be transformed by the environment in a process of co-evolution and communication with the surroundings. More than simply gathering choreographic elements and discussing techniques, theories, or concepts associated with different bodily practices, the research focuses on the body as a starting point for the production of knowledge of oneself and the world. The results show that the emerging gesture in movement updates bodily memories and expands the perceptive and creative possibilities of the body in interaction with the environment. The study contributes to broadening investigations into diverse bodily practices and creative processes within the epistemological field of performing arts in the Brazilian context.