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Copyright by Agatha Silvia Nogueira e Oliveira 2019 The Dissertation Committee for Agatha Silvia Nogueira e Oliveira Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Dissertation: Black Brazilian Female Dancer-Choreographer-Educators: Creating Alternative Axes of Action in the African Diaspora Committee: Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, Supervisor Rebecca Rossen Laura Gutierrez Charles Anderson Omoniyi Afolabi Black Brazilian Female Dancer-Choreographer-Educators: Creating Alternative Axes of Action in the African Diaspora by Agatha Silvia Nogueira e Oliveira Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2019 Dedication For Oya, who moves my life To Gustavo Melo Cerqueira, Mowumi Oliveira Melo and Ayodola Oliveira Melo with infinite love. Acknowledgements I am indebted to my family who keep supporting all my dreams: Jaciara Ornélia Nogueira de Oliveira, Ernande Melo de Oliveira, Alice Nogueira e Oliveira Brandão, Antonio Vicente Nogueira e Oliveira, Ernayde Melo, Cintia Oliveira, and Ivo Brandão. I am also grateful to Iya Nla Beata de Yemonjá, Babá Adailton, Iyá Doia, Iyá Ivete, and my asé family from the Ile Omiojuaro and Ile Asé Omi for their spiritual advising. My unending gratitude to my Supervisor, Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones, for her advising and efforts in making this Ph.D. dissertation and my academic work better than I conceived. My gratitude also to Dr. Rebecca Rossen, Dr. Laura Gutierrez, Charles O. Anderson, and Dr. Niyi Afolabi, my dissertation committee members, who have provided transformative comments about my research throughout this process. My special thanks to Rebekah Fowler an amazing editor and friend. My special thanks to Edileusa Santos and Rosangela Silvestre for the inspiration and collaboration, Jorge Alberto for the design, and Fátima Carvalho, Tânia Bispo, Sandra Santana, Sueli Ramos, Stephanie Silva, Deko Alves, Vera Passos, Leigh Jones, Moriah Flagler for the amazing testimonies. My gratitude to all generous and talented faculty members, Students, and Staff, for making my journey more pleasant and to my friends who helped me to keep healthy and strong while facing the challenges during my time in Austin. Specially to my Brazilian partners of journey: Daniela Gomes, Amely Branquinho, Matheus Laureano, v Carla Ramos, Davi Nobre, Giovana Risos, Daniela Perdigão, Zeca Dom, Carla Muhamed, Dora Santana. My scholarship was possible due to the CAPES Foundation of Brazilian Ministry of Education, which subsidized four years of my graduate study. vi Abstract Black Brazilian Female Dancer-Choreographer-Educators: Creating Alternative Axes of Action in the African Diaspora Agatha Silvia Nogueira e Oliveira, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2019 Supervisor: Omi Osun Joni L. Jones This dissertation examines the potential of black women dancer-choreographer- educators to re-imagine their artistic, cultural, and sociopolitical identities in the African diaspora. By introducing the concept of alternative axes of action as spatial longitudinal oblique lines established slightly outside of a mainstream vertical axis where bodily balance and motion – and sociopolitical actions – are often assumed to be performed, I argue that black women in the African diaspora have continuously faced systemic “pushes” off of this mainstream vertical “center-line” which expose them to what M. Jacqui Alexander calls the “nodes of instability.” I contend that by playing with this instability in corporeal and sociopolitical dimensions, black women are developing the ability to find balance in motion and creating alternatives for their actions. By looking at Rosangela Silvestre’s and Edileusa Santos’s choreographies, methodologies, and participation in the history of dance – with especial emphasis on their travel and exchange between Brazil and the U.S. – I identify alternative movement languages, ways of performing Brazil, and ways of continuing to forge a black dance diaspora. vii Table of Contents List of Figures ......................................................................................................................x Chapter 1: Introduction .....................................................................................................1 Re-thinking the Central Line of Body's Alignment ...................................................9 Black Feminisms and Instability: The Sociopolitical Dimension ............................19 Alternative Axes: Startegies For Sel-affirmative Actions ........................................24 The Unity of The Moving-body-self: Existential Physicality and Social Identity ...33 Chapter 2: Edileusa Santos's and Rosangela Silvestre's Interventions Upon the History of Dance in Bahia, Brazil: From Salvador to the World .......................................45 Prologue ...................................................................................................................45 Federal University of Bahia Dance School: 60 Years of Pioneering and Ethnocentrism ....................................................................................................56 Santos's Active Participation Within Academia: Creating Alternative Ways to Include African-rooted and Popular Dances in The Academic Curriculum .......76 Silvestre and the Forging of Black Dance Diaspora: From Salvador to the World ..86 Living in Motion: Silvestre's Butterfly Spirit in the Forging of Diasporic Artistic Identity ..............................................................................................................101 Santos and the Dance Brazil ...................................................................................106 Final Considerations ...............................................................................................111 Chapter 3: Terreiro Corporealities and Dance Methodologies:Suggesting Alternative Movement Grammar/Language …………………………………………………………….113 Prologue .................................................................................................................113 Terreiro Corporealities: Inspiring Concert Dance and the Creation of Alternative grammar/languages ........................................................................117 viii PART I ..............................................................................................................132 Dança de Memória e Corpo Universo: Silvestre Technique and Symbology of the Orixás, Embracing Memory and Re-Imagining Body ......................................................................................................132 Silvestre's Universal Approach ...................................................................152 Symbology of The Orixás: spiritual as Political in Silvestre's Approach ...159 Pedagogical Premises and Aspects of Black Feminisms ............................162 How the Encounters Flow: Silvestre's Classes Structure/Organization......171 PART II.............................................................................................................177 Edileusa Santos's Dance of Black Expression: corpo/tambor and tambor/corpo (body/drum and drum/body) as Decentering Notions of the "black dancing body" ..................................................................177 Improvisation: A Space for Investigation of Multiple Alternative Languages .............................................................................................187 Teaching the Traditional: Santos and Her Own Way of Approaching the Orixás in Her Teaching of Afro-Brazilian Dance .................................192 Final Considerations ...............................................................................................195 Chapter 4: Choreographing Brazil: moving in 'Other' Direction .....................................197 Prologue .................................................................................................................197 Edileusa Santos and Mulheres do Asé: Performance Ritual - a work to be perceived through the five senses .....................................................................204 Silvestre and the Balé Folclórico da Bahia: Africanista Approaches .....................213 Edileusa Santos and the Dance Brazil: Serra Pelada and Alternative Representations of Black Brazilian Female Body ............................................222 Silvestre in the U.S.: Choreographing Brazil .........................................................230 ix Chapter 5: Playing with Instability: Resonances of Silvestre's and Santos's Work in My Own Practice .............................................................................................................234 Instability as Inspiration: Connections Between The Playing with Instability and Bigidi Dance in the Work of Léna Blou ...........................................................239 Examining My Corporeal Proposal and The Responses of U.S. Black Women to The Playing with Instability ..............................................................................243 References ........................................................................................................................252 Vita ...................................................................................................................................262 x List of Figures Figure 1: Gottschild's Africanist Aesthetics ................................................................13