Dance, memory and freedom:

an art-educational experience from the Aljube Museum

Abstract

This article presents a pedagogical experience that articulated a visit to the Museu do Aljube in Lisbon – a space of memory of resistance and political imprisonment during the dictatorship in Portugal – with choreographic creation in a school context. Developed with a 7th grade class of Specialized Artistic Education in Dance, the project used methodologies by Rudolf Laban and Isadora Duncan to transpose sensitive museum contents to the dance studio. Through action-research and the A/r/tographic approach, the author – simultaneously dancer, teacher and researcher – followed the creative process of the performance New Paths to Freedom. Performance and the memory of gestures are central devices for mediating between historical memory and artistic expression, embodying affections and narratives that verbal discourse cannot reach. The results show that the articulation between museum and dance enhances critical thinking and democratic awareness among young people, allowing historical memory to take shape through gestures and become contemporary in the performative experience.