Research Lines and Research Groups

Line 1- Dance, Body and Cognition

Syllabus: The purpose is to understand dance as a cognitive action of the body in its relational, communicational and systemic fluxes as well as in political and biopolitical contexts. We are interested in investigating memories, gestures, images, different ways of organizing movement, composition strategies, improvisation and performance and artistic and pedagogical procedures.

Line 2- Artistic Processes and Configurations in Dance

Our studies are dedicated to the characterization and critical analysis of both the processes involved in the compositional practice of dance and the resulting artistic configurations considered within the contextual articulations, technological interfaces, political and aesthetic implications.

Line 3- Cultural and Educational Mediation in Dance

Studies that create a dialogue between dance and other areas of knowledge using an inter and transdisciplinary perspective. Our investigations approach conceptions, compositions and political, cultural and educational implications, in different contexts that develop and mediate processes and forms of organization in Dance.

Line 4 - “Dance and the African Diaspora: Poetic, political, educational and epistemic forms of expression”

Gathers research that approaches the production of dance in diaspora territories. It promotes the development of critical knowledge regarding creation and know-how of pan African dances conceived as political poeticism that articulate and intersect afro-diasporic ways of life, traditions, aesthetics, corporeality and worldviews. It also acts in agreement with critical reflections of research dedicated to the experimentation of dance creation procedures, the elaboration and constitution of training, the analysis of corporeal techniques and its specificities, the strategies of cultural and artistic production, the affirmative and ethnoracial representation policies in the arts field, the creation of one’s own epistemologies, the process of structuring and spreading of learning methodologies and pedagogies, the dialogues and mediations between tradition and the contemporary, the ties between memory and ancestrality, as well as the possible correlation of these themes in diaspora territories of Brazil and outside of its borders.

Research Groups

1. Eletrico- Cyberdance Research Group

Foundation: Jan.01.2001

First leader: Ludmilla Pimentel

Second leader: Mirella Misi

Scope of Study: The “Eletrico- Cyberdance Research Group” was developed by the school of Dance’s LAPAC (Laboratory of Advanced Research on the Body). Our group’s main research object is contemporary dance interfaced with the language of analogical and digital technology, either being interactive or not.

This group aims to fill an existing gap in research and undergraduate studies regarding the subject, with the objective of deepening and constructing specific knowledge regarding dance and new technologies, observing, but also producing these new contemporary hybrid forms; inserting and contextualizing the School of Dance in the technological and digital setting which we live in.

The group has as its goal theory based production linked to matters related to Cyberculture and Cyberdance as well as choreographing for videos, installations and shows.

2- Interinstitutional Research Group: The Body and Ancestrality- GIP

Foundation: 2002

Second Leader: Lara Rodrigues Machado

Created: 2002

We have greatly contributed to academic production, bringing together both professors and students. The research groups allow for meetings that aim at academic studies about Dance and related approaches. In an interinstitutional way, our local research groups promote events and seminars, constructing a network between the Graduate and Undergraduate courses through artistic performances and academic events. Focusing on dance as the main source of reference, with its characteristics grounded on diversity, the PPGDança’s Master’s and Doctorate programs promote and put out various perspectives and their epistemic axis. The research groups continuously contribute to academic production in Dance through permanent actions.

3- Coadaptive Lab Research Group- LabZat

Foundation: 2006

First Leader: Fabiana Dultra Britto

Second Leader: Adriana Bittencourt Machado

Since 2006, the group has focused on the study of the co-implied relations between academic research and artistic practice in Dance. Founded when Dance was inserted in the Brazilian academic graduate system, it historically and critically situates historical, epistemic, methodological and conceptual aspects which are enveloped in what have been four hypotheses thus far: of similarity, of specificity, of contradiction and of co-implication.

4- PROCEDA- Policies, Educational and Corporographic Processes in Dance

Foundation: 2007

First Leader: Lúcia Matos

Second Leader: Cecília Accioly4

Created in 2007 by Professor Leda Iannitelly, PROCEDA has three main areas of interest: corporographic processes, educational processes in dance and public policies.

Over the course of thirteen years, we hold a total of twenty-five thesis defenses, six monographs, twenty degree final projects, fourteen works of scientific initiation, and two permanence scholarships.

The researcher Leda Iannitelly produced ten shows, two of which received prizes in competitions, with national and international presentations and an arts residency in the USA.

5- Corponectives in Dance

Foundation: August 2010

First Leader: Lenira Peral Rengel

Second Leader: Carmen Paternostro Schaffner

CORPONECTIVES in Dance is organized around a multiplicity of connections and the unyielding relations between them, united by the common, non-dualistic (corponective) and non-dichotomous understanding of the body.

The thematic, conceptual and methodological nature of Corponectives’ actions converge in the sense of ‘is to’ (the / symbol), for a singularity only has effective action when not in isolation. The academic works of the group propose the connection of the system University/Society as coexistence and an overlap of research/education/extension. Corponectives’ lines of research have terminology that position the bodies in concreteness; terminology of action and theory; terminology with dance; terminology in the artistic and educational scenes; and virtual and in person terminology, placed in a scientific and cognitive nucleus situated in epistemologies of non-hegemonic cultures. This nucleus flows through interest hubs such as the arts, bodies/context, electronic devices, enacting, education/learning encompassing all ages, philosophies, contemporary thoughts, situational political ethics.

6- UMBIGADA- Dance, Culture and Contemporaneity Research Group- GPDACCO

Foundation: 2012

First Leader: Daniela Amoroso

Second Leader: Denilson Neves

UMBIGADA- Dance, Culture and Contemporaneity Research Group- GPDACCO started as an UFBA School of Dance research group under the guidance of Professor Daniela Maria Amoroso. In 2012 and 2014, the following research project was ‘Aesthetic Configurations of Dance in Brazil- the body in the context of tradition and contemporaneity’, which has been awarded three scientific initiation scholarships from PIBIC (Scientific Initiation Institutional Scholarship Program). In 2015, from Daniela Amoroso’s post-doc research, the following project: ‘From miudinho to umbigada- the creative processes in dance through the study of the steps and gestures of samba in the Reconcavo Baiano region’.

In 2017, the group had two PIBIC scholarship students linked to the research project. In September 2019, we started two research projects. The first, for which Professor Daniela Amoroso received the CAPES-PRINT research grant, was titled “The women dance from miduinho to pizzica: interculturality, gestures and poetics in worship, parties and healing rituals”. The second, tied to the doctoral research project of Denny Neves, “Rapadura, Urucum, and Dendê: Procedures of Choreography in Dance”, already has two completed creative processes: “Abois” and “Chão ser Tão”.

Currently, the group focuses its studies in the broader area of Arts, specifically in the area of Brazilian traditional dances. The repercussion of a research group dedicated to the study of traditional dances, whether rural, urban, festive or ritualistic, is the amalgamation of academic research that helps cement an epistemology that is still fragile in the broad spectrum of the Arts. In other words, it is about the understanding of the aesthetic and poetics of tradition, relative to dance and interdiscipline.

UMBIGADA welcomes the creative processes originated from traditional aesthetics that differ but also dialogue with the aesthetics of modern and contemporary dance.

7- Gira Group: Studies of Indigenous Cultures and Traditional and Afro-Brazilian repertoires.

Foundation: August 2nd, 2017

First Leader: Amélia Vitória de Souza Conrado

Second Leader: Fernando Marques Camargo Ferraz

The group fosters academic production regarding the arts and indigenous peoples, traditional culture and the African diaspora. It analyses the unfolding of these subjects in the area of education and the arts and their intercessions and translations in contemporary times.

The group is interested in producing, registering and spreading poetic, ethic, educational and political knowledge shared by the communities in this field. Our purpose is also to investigate episteme of traditional and indigenous peoples’ culture as well as the intercession of these in institutional curricula. The group incorporates studies of know-how and creations produced by the pan African diaspora aesthetic in the field of dance and its historical, philosophical and anthropological correlations.

It gathers professors with national and international Ph.Ds. and master’s, as well as doctoral, master’s, professional master’s, and scientific initiation students (undergrad) along with artists and independent researchers into two lines of research: line 1- ‘traditional dances and indigenous cultures: artistic-pedagogical intercessions, translations and production of knowledge.

Line 2- black political poeticism and mediations between tradition and contemporaneity.

8- ENTRE Research Group: The Arts and Entwinements

Foundation: August 28th, 2017

First Leader: Rita Ferreira Aquino

Second Leader: Ana Elisabeth Simões Brandão

The ENTRE Research group’s objective is to develop theory and practice based multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary investigations in the Arts field.

These investigations would broach matters relating to artistic creation, education, the curriculum, mediation, curation, and social participation.

The group’s principles are: dialogism, cooperation, collaboration, complementarity and solidarity. The group’s developed activities promote the integration between education, research and outreach, uniting the Graduate and Undergraduate programs with the objective of acting in tandem with artistic, community, formal and nonformal education settings, in order to qualify individuals and contribute to a more critical society with an emancipatory perspective.

9- Agora Research Group: Ways of Life in Dance

Foundation: March 3rd, 2018

First leader: Gilsamara Moura

Second Leader: Márcia Virgínia Mignac da Silva

The group aims to welcome research related to Dance, Art, Cognition and Politics under the Greek concept of Agora, which denotes a meeting, assembly, a public space, or a vast location like a small city within the constellation of UFBA. The group endeavors to unite artists, researchers, students, individuals involved in Culture, and the community in general, contributing to academic qualification and increasing research and studies in the field of Dance so as to aid its expansion in the area. As part of the Federal University of Bahia, an institution with 3 distinct undergraduate courses (including a distance learning modality) and a specialization, Master’s and Doctorate Degree program in Dance, we intend to meet the demands of researchers, managers, and artists from other institutions for future collaborations.

10- CORPOLUMEN Research Group: Study Network of the Body, Imagery and Creation in Dance

Foundation: July 2018

First Leader: Daniela Bemfica Guimarães

CORPOLUMEN research group works with the interaction between education, research and outreach. Our focus is on artistic-academic production in Dance, linked to the undergraduate and graduate programs and artists in general, with an interest in investigating Scenic Improv, Dance and Audiovisual Media (Cinema/Video), and Somatic Education. In an opened environment for reflection and theoretical and practical academic production, Corpolumen carries out the following actions: study meetings, creative spaces, workshops, movie development, study sessions and weekly practices, publications, research and conception of didactic materials, translation of texts and books pertinent to the group’s topics and events joining the University and Society.