Dance, Bravo! Magazine, the Education of the Public: cultural reverberations of pedagogical ideas

La Danse, le Magazine Bravo!, l’Éducation du Public: réverbérations culturelles d’idées pédagogiques

ABSTRACT

In order to analyze the relationships between dance and education from a perspective not limited to teaching the artistic practice, this study examined articles on dance published in the cultural magazine Bravo! (1997 to 2013). From the categorization of three major themes - classical ballet and its disciplinary content; ethnic and popular aspects of Brazilian contemporary dance; and the building of an audience for dance - an analysis of the material verified the emergence of a pedagogical bias in the magazine’s discourse, expressed in a proliferation of imperatives aimed at educating the dance audience.

Keywords:
Dance; Education; Media; Pedagogization

RÉSUMÉ

Afin d’analyser les liens entre danse et éducation selon une perspective qui ne se limite pas à l’enseignement de cette pratique artistique, la présente recherche s’est focalisée sur les articles sur la danse publiés dans le magazine culturel Bravo! (1997 à 2013). À la suite de la catégorisation de trois thèmes majeurs - le ballet classique et son caractère disciplinaire; les aspects ethniques et populaires de la danse brésilienne contemporaine; et la formation du public de la danse -, l’analyse de la matière a permis de vérifier l’éruption d’un biais pédagogique dans le discours du magazine à travers la multiplication d’une série d’impératifs visant l’éducation du public consommateur de danse.

Mots-clés:
Danse; Éducation; Médias; Pédagogisation

RESUMO

Com o intuito de analisar os vínculos entre dança e educação segundo uma perspectiva que não se ativesse ao ensino de tal prática artística, a presente investigação focalizou as matérias sobre dança publicadas na revista cultural Bravo!, de 1997 a 2013. A partir da categorização de três grandes temas - o balé clássico e seu caráter disciplinar; os aspectos étnicos e populares na dança contemporânea brasileira; e a formação do público de dança -, a análise do material permitiu verificar a irrupção de um viés pedagogizante na discursividade da revista por meio da proliferação de uma série de imperativos voltados à educação do público consumidor da dança.

Palavras-chave:
Dança; Educação; Mídia; Pedagogização.

Dance and Education: a brief configuration

In the opening of the book Dançando na Escola, Isabel Marques (2012), one of the most influential researchers studying the encounter between dance and education, declares that in Brazil there is, one the one hand, a gap in the production of this field of knowledge and, on the other, a growing demand for references by dance teachers. A brief review of articles on education published over the last few decades in Brazilian journals allowed us to readily identify the distinction between dance in school as a field of research/artistic language, and its additional use for other pedagogical intents. Some studies focus on dance in a rather reductionist manner, shedding light on how one type of dance was performed among activities focused on other purposes. The following excerpt is illustrative of how dance is usually employed in schools: “When analyzing information about dance in [school] planning, three categories were established: dance for parties and celebrations; a fragmented knowledge of dance; and the depreciation of dance” (Finck; Capri, 2011, p. 257).

Dance also appears in research as a privileged element of certain popular cultural manifestations in schools. In this case, the studies focus on the manifestation itself, which may be accompanied by other elements aside from dance. Sometimes, the term dance is preceded by a qualifier: regional dance, Iemanjá¹ dance, etc. Also, the term may be evoked as an appeal for the recognition of the importance of popular knowledge in education: “Little has been written so far about the lessons produced and transmitted within the groups themselves, in social practices and in popular manifestations, without necessarily relying on the presence of traditional mediators” (Pessoa, 2007, p. 65).

In a number of these cases, the idea of dance is evoked alongside the defense of a multicultural education more permeable to the context and the communities in which it occurs, being regarded as an emancipatory practice (Pais, 2009). Another recurrent topic concerns the field of physical education, in which dance appears as a didactic resource (Bortoli; Behring, 2013).

There are also studies that focus on the specificities and possibilities of the intersection between dance as an artistic practice and dance as an element of physical education (Vieira, 2014). As for the studies that approach dance as a field of knowledge, research subjects vary greatly, sometimes involving case studies of specific, dance-related themes. An example is a study focused on the use of dance for developing the memory of children with Down Syndrome (Santos; Viotto Filho; Félix, 2017).

At other times, investigations lay emphasis on the purpose of dance in education, as in the following:

Dance as a pedagogical practice should be employed during classes as dance/education - school dance - taking into consideration the subjects and their subjectivities, and the technique as well, which is also important in its practice, not as content that is an end in itself but rather as a possibility for expression and body language, and also in terms of the formation of the subject in his or her entirety, providing opportunities for the integral development of the individual (Santos; Alves; Oliveira, 2014, p. 248).

Since the end of the last century, feminist and gender-based debates have been a trend in studies on the teaching of dance: they range from works by Shapiro (1998) and Stinson (1998) to those by Bernardes; Carlos; Accorssi (2015) and Souza (2018). Other texts, more theoretically inclined, show the emergence of theories of corporality. As in the case of studies by Strazzacappa (2001) and Domenici (2010), as well as of a text based on Michel Foucault’s ideas, which presents an important problematization of the idea of the body in the teaching of dance.

Here, we suggest the possibility of analyzing dance teaching practices from the perspective of biopolitical technology: as control operations that act on the way people live. We can think, for example, of the pedagogical actions that connect the production of dance and the encouragement for living as a promoter and improver of life (Falkembach; Icle, 2016, p. 640).

In general, the primary (if not exclusive) focus of the studies involving the dance-education dyad is on the school, which is explored through different theoretical and/or practical approaches. Aiming at analyzing the bonds between dance and education from a perspective that is not limited to the teaching of that artistic practice, this study adopted a different analytical horizon - Bravo! magazine - which would allow us to produce a kind of documentation of the diffusion of dance practices in Brazil over the last decades. Our objective is to analyze, according to the hypothesis of this study, the discursive articulations of dance and pedagogical ideas. Our analysis thus focused on the dance-education dyad, while also considering a third element: the press media.

In other words, this study is interested in investigating a specific type of pedagogizing action aimed at the field of dance, which is supposed to permeate both the internal dynamics of the field and that of its teaching. In this sense, this study is anchored in the general hypothesis that there is a pedagogizing intentionality in the discursivity of Bravo! magazine. This intention is expressed in the main goal of the magazine: to establish itself as a mediator between the ordinary public and the universe of (high) culture. It would be its responsibility, therefore, to guide the public, to provide cultural references, to share events; in other words, to teach, to persuade, to incite. In this sense, the discursivity of Bravo! - according to the hypothesis we will present here - was aimed at creating a specific audience through the promotion of its cultural competencies; promotion which is carried out in a pedagogizing effort scattered throughout its pages.

Bravo! magazine was chosen because it was a prominent cultural artifact in the recent history of art in Brazil. Founded by the publishing company D’Avila and later published by Editora Abril, the magazine circulated monthly from 1997 to 2013 in print. The magazine’s purpose was to bring ordinary citizens closer to the ongoing cultural practices at that time, so that these would not be restricted to the upper classes. Editor Luiz Felipe D’Avila (1997, p. 3), in the inaugural edition of the magazine, stated that “[...] the time had come to make a great cultural magazine in the country.”

The magazine was discontinued in 2013, returning in 2016 in digital format and with a different editorial approach: themed reports released every fortnight add up to compose an online season. For this reason, this study focused on its first phase (1997-2013). There was, in each of its editions, a section dedicated to the following themes: plastic arts, cinema, books, music, literature, as well as an exclusive section for theater and dance. The corpus of the study consisted of 117 editions - out of a total of 192 - which featured articles on dance.

The presence of dance in the magazine is significant: in each number, there are articles, notes, and critiques, usually covering from two to five pages. In addition, it should be mentioned that editor Ana Francisca Ponzio was responsible for the authorship of half of the articles on dance in the magazine. Thus, many of the excerpts are signed by her.

In retrospect, Bravo! embraced statements that appeared, disappeared, and reappeared; others were present the whole time. For this study, we aimed to identify, throughout the 17 years of the magazine’s existence, each time a pedagogizing statement took shape - explicitly or not - among the discursive profusion examined.

The option of focusing on an exogenous source, which differs from those usually used in dance and education studies rests on three major conceptual standpoints: pedagogical society, cultural pedagogies, and social pedagogization. Regarding the first, we begin with the recognition of a solid centrifugal movement of educational practices nowadays, which results in the emergence of a pedagogical society, as in the proposition by Beillerot (1985). For example, according to Libâneo (2001, p. 154):

There are pedagogical practices in newspapers, in radios, in the production of informative material such as textbooks, encyclopedias, tourism guides, maps, videos, and magazines; in the creation and elaboration of games, toys; in companies, there are work supervision activities, trainee guidance, in-service professional training. There are pedagogical practices in gyms, in clinics. In public services, various pedagogical practices of social workers, health agents, social promotion agents in communities, etc. are disseminated. These are typically pedagogical practices.

The second standpoint refers to the notion of cultural pedagogies, which describe the connection between pedagogical ideas and media culture in the formation of contemporary subjectivities. Hence the emergence of a whole field of study - that of cultural studies in education - arising from the hybridization between education and communication practices; a field that

[...] has contributed to a significant discussion about pedagogies, highlighting the implication of artifacts that make up what has been called media culture in the formation of subjects nowadays. Television, journalistic, radiophonic, advertising, photographic, and film texts, as well as those from the so-called new media, connected to the World Wide Web, are only some elements of this ever growing media universe (Andrade; Costa, 2015, p. 52).

At the same time, a third conceptual standpoint emerges: social pedagogization, also known as social educationalization. This is an analytical path explored by authors such as Ball (2013) and Depaepe and Smeyers (2016), among others, and updated in the Brazilian context by researchers such as Lockmann (2016), Vieira and Aquino (2016), and Camozzato (2018).

This perspective rests on the proposition that educational practices, far beyond the school domain, have been operating diffusely across the social space. Hence the expansion of the pedagogical modus faciendi towards social practices that previously had no educational purposes, fostering the idea of learning as a factor for improving contemporary lifestyles, including the artistic-cultural universe. The Colombian researchers Noguera-Ramírez and Parra León (2015, p. 73) offer a synthesis of the prevailing role that pedagogical ideas have been playing in social exchanges nowadays:

Contemporary social pedagogization means the centrality of learning processes in people’s daily lives, the centrality of knowledge and information in social, political, and economic practices; such centrality has generated an intensive and extensive proliferation of practices and discourses of educational character expressed in an uncountable number of ‘pedagogies’.

The three conceptual standpoints - pedagogical society, cultural pedagogy, and social pedagogization - converge on the understanding that shared cultural experiences are an effect of a discursive construction that is as persuasive as it is diligent. Understanding this mechanism provides a critical matter for us to examine. That is the topic of the next section.

Dance in Bravo!

In 2012, the special 15th-anniversary edition (n. 182) of Bravo! was dedicated to listing the 15 most relevant facts of the Brazilian cultural universe since the launching of the magazine in 1997. Together with the flourishing of writing, the renewal of the documentary, and the dissemination of group theater, the magazine highlighted the explosion of dance as a distinctive fact of the period. Dance went through a moment of expansion, followed by its dissemination everywhere around the country. Public policies, sponsorships, and festivals grew in number; dance events and performances occurred more frequently. In those 15 years, there was an unprecedented transformation.

Even if not always backed by cultural policies for providing effective support to the area, there are dance groups in 56% of the cities of the country, according to a 2009 survey by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The number is expressive, considering the large size of our country, and it confirms that the activity has expanded in the last 15 years (Ponzio, 2012, p. 37).

Festivals also became the locus for dance popularization in Brazil. Moreover, they were credited with helping dance resist commodification, preserving its investigative aspect, which is distinct from that of mass culture. Likewise, the notion of progress in the field was associated not only with public financing and policies for ensuring the viability of the practice, but also with the expectation that dance would finally be recognized and valued as an art form.

This moment of supposed progress also meant the expansion of contemporary dance beyond the Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo-Belo Horizonte corridor. Such aspiration involved considering, in the creation of the performances, the the country’s geographical diversity and elements of the so-called Brazilian identity: “Major events have made the so-called distant cultures their theme” (Ponzio, 1998b, p. 119).

The Brazilian scenario at that time, besides the expansion of theatrical seasons and festivals, also evidenced the maturing of companies, dancers, and artists, as well as the emergence of new researchers. That also involved the scope of cultural public policies:

Behind the scene, the formation of an association of professionals of the area, in São Paulo, demonstrates an unsuspected power of articulation. Surrendering to the facts, even the government admitted the autonomy of dance, during the last Brazilian Culture Meeting held last month: for the first time, the Ministry of Culture established specific measures for the segment, up to now diluted amid the performing arts (Ponzio, 1997, p. 126).

The new phase of dance in the country in the late 1990s was seen as an expression of vivacity due to the proliferation of dance seasons, the emergence of different languages in productions, and the creation of professional companies. This included an increase in productions, but also inspiration in foreign models. One decade later, the following was noted:

In the São Paulo region that includes the Luz and Bom Retiro neighborhoods, there are hearts, bodies, and minds beating at an enthusiastic pace, as if it were possible to live a golden dream; a dream that recalls events in the Paris Opera or, perhaps, the Palace of Versailles, the seat of the French royalty. Since the beginning of the year, when the state government announced the creation of the São Paulo Companhia de Dança (SPCD), those involved in the project gained an aristocratic perspective. With an annual budget of R$ 13 million, the group has unprecedented resources for dance in Brazil (Ponzio, 2008, p. 106).

With new public policies, an increasing number of festivals, and the founding of companies, the new era gave rise to key debates in the field, such as the opposition between classical ballet and contemporary dance. In a context in which professional companies were focused on contemporary dance, the alignment of SPCD with classical dance was the subject of much debate. Even though the Company was the result of the expansion of Brazilian dance, its purpose was to focus on classical dance - which was seen as a setback, since groups at the time were devoted to a certain freedom in dance, which was not deemed present in classical ballet because of its supposedly formal characteristic and technical nature. In other words, classical dance was reputed as a practice opposed to autonomy, movement research, creation and, therefore, to the reinvention of the field. In this context, the ethnic and popular inspiration of the productions meant subscribing to the motto of the reinvention of the national dance.

As a background for debates about the classical versus contemporary dance dilemma, audience building emerged as a fundamental preoccupation related to the increasing presence of dance in that cultural scenario.

It is possible therefore to state that three major themes emerged in Bravo! concerning the configuration of the field of dance in Brazil: 1) classical ballet and its disciplinary character; 2) the ethnic and popular aspects of contemporary Brazilian dance; and 3) the building of a dance audience. These themes were present throughout almost all the period in which the magazine circulated, often appearing as the main topic of articles and interviews, as well as of the controversies and proposals discussed in it.

Debates in the Field and the Education of the Public

Most discussions about dance in Bravo! seemed to have been primarily concerned with building an audience for this art form. The very existence of a magazine of such relevance, published by one of the main publishing companies of the country, can be comprehended as a coordinated effort aimed not only at expanding the access to artistic goods and services at the time but also at increasing the cultural repertoire of the public. In order to do so, it was necessary to educate it, offering a bigger picture of what was available. More specifically, it was a question of associating an edifying direction with the enjoyment of artistic artifacts, thus promoting the cultural competencies of its readers. In short, it was about building an audience through a kind of continuing education.

It was not rare for calls to readers to let themselves be touched by personal transformations when attending dance shows to appear in the pages of Bravo!. The promise of such transformation appeared subtly through the suggestion that dance would be capable of adding something valuable to their lives. For instance: “Taking a look at the choreographic thoughts of these three dance artists [Jérôme Bel, Thomas Lehmen and Felix Ruckert] is, above all, an opportunity to refine our perceptive apparatus and to give ourselves a more intelligent role in an art and consumer society” (Brito, 2002, p. 122).

In this sense, dance performances had, according to what was glimpsed there, the potential to act on the way people perceived the world, aiming at expanding their critical conscience. That is, “[...] the work of an artist must be to make people think differently [...],” as the Belgian choreographer Jan Fabre (apud Eichenberg, 2002, p. 121) argues. In short, dance was portrayed as an activity that had the potential to entice people, to make them feel things. Such as in the following description:

A spotlight captures [Antônio] Nóbrega as he enters the stage playing his violin in the show Naturalmente. An immediate feeling of exaltation dominates our body, making it move to the rhythm. The distance between the artist and the audience disappears. We feel comfortable, happy, and electrified. Our natural defenses surrender. During the next hour, we know we will be transported, entertained, and illuminated (Rosenwald, 2011, p. 61).

This alleged transformative power of dance would not operate, however, without the promotion of certain debates on the social aspects of dance. That was the case of ballet, treated in the pages of Bravo! as an essential, yet controversial topic. The theme was the focus of a debate on the hegemony of a European tradition of dance in Brazil, being regarded as the standpoint from which one could judge what was, in fact, true dance or not. Ballet was a synonym of technique and solid training.

Corpo dance company choreographer, Rodrigo Pederneiras, for instance, identified a worrying lack of technique in Brazilian productions. When asked if classical technique was fundamental in its job, he answered: “[...] yes, because it gives many more possibilities if [it’s] linked to a more particular, loose way of moving” (apud Ponzio, 1998e, p. 96). According to him, “[...] with the excess of conceptualization, of opening, that dance allows today, there is also a certain tendency of escaping from the technique. [...] It’s usual to justify all this with research and more research” (apud Ponzio, 1998e, p. 96).

Yet, the opposite was also affirmed with the allegation that ballet imposed on bodies a rigid and freedom-lacking training, the reason why it was viewed as a practice that did not stimulate creativity. Rigidness and discipline are the characteristics of this technique that guides itself according to a vocabulary of specific moves, disallowing improvisation. Thus, the technique restricts what bodies could do when dancing. The Ballet Stagium director Marika Gidali (apud Ponzio, 2001, p. 34) contrasted the movement limitations of classical ballet with the movements executed by hip-hop dancers: “They represent the current moment and bring oxygenation to dance itself. They are capable of generating movements without the rigidness and codification of conventional techniques, like classical ballet, and that is admirable”.

In the same way, the choreographer Fréderic Flamand (apud Ponzio, 1999a, p. 108) has even considered academic dances, whose maximum expression is classical dance, as facilitators of clichés, bad habits, and even imitations:

Taking the creators of the Belgian dance as an example, we see copies of Win Vandekeybus and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker all the time. This situation is as academic as classical or neoclassical dances. What matters to me is the mixing of techniques and, at the same time, the creative development of the dancer, which has been curtailed by choreographers. This statement may be monstrous, but, above all, choreographers have been imposing their phantoms without realizing that they are providing little to the creativity of the dancers.

With regard to the dancers’ role in the creative processes, Deborah Colker stated that to ensure precision and virtuosity in her performances, she became more demanding: “Before, I was an ‘adaptographer;’ I created movements according to the possibilities of the dancers. Now, I don’t make concessions anymore” (apud Ponzio, 1999b, p. 136). Next, the interviewer Ana Francisca Ponzio added that, of the original Cia. Deborah Colker cast, only two dancers remained, and that “[...] without disregarding the resources that differentiate them, both of them submit themselves, together with the other cast members, to the rigor of classical dance classes taught daily in the company” (Ponzio, 1999b, p. 136).

Throughout the 17 years of Bravo! focused by this investigation, it always seemed to be necessary to evoke ballet - whether to condemn its supremacy or to worship it. The mention of ballet was so recurrent that, even if the artist did not evoke it regarding his/her work, another one did it. An example is a statement by Maurice Béjart (apud Ponzio, 1998a, p. 89), to whom classical technique was the key to movement: “Today, for instance, we have Pina Bausch’s art, which I very much admire. Her creations are performed by the Paris Opera Ballet. But Bausch’s group would not be able to dance a classical repertoire piece”.

Pina Bausch herself, when referring to her work, said to have great respect for classical dance; using it with moderation, though. In the article, the interviewer Fabio Cypriano (1998, p. 127) added: “[...] despite the moves being simple and quotidian, and connected to theatrical elements, their dancers practice classical ballet every day”.

The adaptation of ballet to the new era of dance in Brazil required its renovation by contemporary groups and companies, in order to provide it with a new meaning. Some considerations regarding the work of the North American choreographer William Forsythe, for example, headed towards that direction. When questioned if his dancers had gone through classical ballet training, Forsythe (apud Lopes, 2003, p. 44) stated:

[...] all of them; it’s almost inevitable. The physical and mental operations of my method are very demanding. The best part for the interpreters is that they also have a big space to make their own decisions in the scene, but it is also the most painful one because it requires a lot of preparation time with a specific vocabulary and very clear rules. [...] There is certainly a part of the audience which goes to our shows only because the name says ‘ballet’ (laughs).

In this phase of a renewal of ballet, the inclusion of dancers as an active part of the creative process was also contemplated - such as in the case of Balé da Cidade de São Paulo, in which the cast should not only be efficient but also join the creative process (Ponzio, 1998c). The same trend was reported in other countries. Maurice Béjart (apud Ponzio, 1998a), for example, even said that his dancers were not his pupils, but his masters.

If in conventional ballet the dancer should only perform movements within the limits of the technique, it was now argued that he/she should have an active voice in the creative process. Hence, the defense of creativity and autonomy emerging in the wake of the discussion about the personality and personal identity of each artist. It is possible to suppose, therefore, that a certain type of education with a critical bias emerges then, aimed not only at the public but also at the dance protagonists themselves. As a consequence, both parts of the process would have equal participation in decisions.

In the wake of a democratizing process that expanded dance horizons, another recurring discursive trend advocated that such movement of renewal was characterized by the fusion of the classical ballet vocabulary and elements of popular manifestations. The Brazilian popular character was thus emerging as a kind of opposite to classical ballet. Faced with this established opposition, many groups started to merge such elements into their productions.

Regarding the group Balé Folclórico da Bahia, for example, Ana Francisca Ponzio (1998b, p. 118) stated: “Dances like maculelê, capoeira and samba de roda were integrated into choreographic compositions whose vocabulary denotes a fusion of techniques originated in modern or classical ballet. The transformation of the archaic into the contemporary happens in this symbiosis”.

The work of the Corpo dance company was described as follows: “Over the course of 30 years, the group evolution constitutes, among other achievements, a movement that borrowed and incorporated new forms of expression from folklore and street dance into the classical base of the group” (Calsavara; Ponciano, 2005, p. 51).

This type of inclination even appeared as a pedagogical argument. That is the case of the allegation about a dance piece called Milágrimas, which was developed together with young people from the Dança Comunidade project. When commenting on the piece, the choreographer, Ivaldo Bertazzo (apud Sallum, 2005, p. 91), stated:

Years ago, I saw some wonderful black people singing and dancing a cappella at a festival in Durban, in South Africa. I went crazy with the possibility of using this type of art to awake the interest of my students, whose capacity for recognizing the richness of their own tradition and culture is so often massacred by imported and stultifying visions.

Popular manifestations encompassed folk dances, street dances, and hip-hop-like movements known as a true manifestation of artistic and spontaneous popular expressions, which should be contemplated by professional groups. That was the case of Cia. Oito Nova Dança, which “[...] learned to play and dance the fandango and encouraged the preservation of an endangered cultural value. Based on this experience, Cia. Oito created Trapiche, a piece conceived to promote the fusion between popular culture and contemporary art” (Antunes, 2003, p. 104).

Moreover, the so-called popular manifestations, in the way they appeared in the magazine, seemed not to be considered dance as such, but as an element to be incorporated into the performances. An example is how hip-hop was mentioned in one of the few articles that discussed it: “Bruno Beltrão, director of Balé de Rua de Niterói, investigates the language of urban dances, specifically hip-hop, which can contribute to the contemporary dance” (Fontes, 2004, p. 106).

However, a tendency to recognize the artistic potential of these popular or urban dance modalities was slowly emerging: “By absorbing urban manifestations, [French-Spanish choreographer José] Montalvo confirms what the European intellectuality has already been admitting: dances like hip-hop are no longer fads, but artistic renewal movements” (Ponzio, 1999c, p. 125).

In the same way, at the beginning of the 2000s, the interest of choreographers in the fusion of western and oriental cultures emerged as a trend associated with multiculturalism and cultural exchange. Choreographers were interested in observing, according to the Ivory Coast choreographer and dancer Sylvain Zabli (apud Ponzio, 2000a, p. 109), “[...] how African traditions can be transformed when mixed with Western contemporary dance.”

A significant example of multicultural interest in dance is the case of the Balé Folclórico da Bahia (BFB), which gained international recognition “[...] due to the exaltation of the African-Brazilian culture and elements of Candomblé integrated into the vocabulary of Classical or Modern Ballet” (Ponzio, 1998b, p. 113). At the same time, in Brazil, the group faced a loss of prestige to the point that its folk character was viewed pejoratively, it was “[...] worshipped by the critique and by foreign audiences as the reinvention of the so-called Ethnic Dance” (Ponzio, 1998b, p. 119).

The same ethnical bias was also attributed to Belo Horizonte’s Corpo dance company. The group’s choreographer, Rodrigo Pederneiras (apud Ponzio, 1998e, p. 97), stated that the more Brazilian, the more universal, and that such cultural elements have always been part of the Brazilian essence: “Maybe today I give more attention to popular expressions. Like every Brazilian, I guess I saw and lived a lot of our cultural manifestations. I searched many things deep inside me, where they were resting and waiting to be reclaimed”.

At that time, the notion of Brazilianness in dance was not yet clear. It was known to be distant from European traditions and ballet. It was also known to be close to cultural characteristics of ancient peoples and communities, but regarding the Grupo Corpo, for instance, the critics had trouble explaining the so-called Brazilian character of the group’s work. In this sense, on another occasion, Pederneiras (apud Calsavara; Ponciano, 2005, p. 51) stated: “We have a language that is admittedly Brazilian, but it’s difficult to define it. It’s a language of its own, recognized as such. It’s something completely new, that’s what has been told us abroad”.

The same happened to Antônio Nóbrega, an artist from Pernambuco, who “[...] spent his life illuminating the rich Brazilian cultural heritage in performances that opened the eyes of the audience to often neglected wonders” (Rosenwald, 2011, p. 61). Nóbrega’s work, as with Balé Folclórico da Bahia, was not initially valued in Brazil, since it was pejoratively associated with folklore. That situation changed, as evidenced by Antônio Nóbrega’s intense schedule in 2011.

Other groups that were considered singular for having these characteristics ended up entering the contemporary dance scenario. Quasar, a company from Goiás, is another example:

Sounds, songs, and chants born in the streets of Brazil, played and sung by popular and anonymous artists, are the common thread of Henrique Rodovalho’s new performance [...] Repentes, maracatu, frevo, and coco rhythms, in addition to emboladas performed by a group of blind singers from Paraíba, compose the collection of treasures that, in Coreografia para Ouvir, functions as bodies of sound as important as the dancers’ (Ponzio, 2000b, p. 133).

In this sense, one of the few articles dedicated to hip-hop stands out. It identified hip-hop dancers as stage intruders, since this modality was on the brink of breaking the barriers of peripheral areas to enter the great theaters (Ponzio, 2001). In such cases, according to the magazine, dance has a saving power, given the fact that, in the peripheral context in which it emerged, it made a life away from crime possible to its practitioners: “The signs are clear: hip-hop dance is strengthening in Brazil, and - in addition to being able to divert young people from violence, leading them to an activity that involves pleasure, coexistence, and self-affirmation - it emerges at this beginning of millennium as a vital source of artistic renewal” (Ponzio, 2001, p. 133).

Dance was supposed to also offer the chance of broadening citizenship for dancers and the audience alike. When explaining the project -Dança das Marés - in which he worked in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Ivaldo Bertazzo (apud Albea, 2002, p. 125) declared:

My job is cultural, but I recognize that it brings social benefits, too. With educational purposes, we have developed a project devoted to high-quality artistic creation. [...] Here we take more risks because we don’t work with a trained artist. We transform the children, little by little, into true citizens.

The idea of dance as a way of building a citizen-oriented awareness also echoed in the debate about the relations between choreographers and dancers. In the discussion, the former were viewed as those that should engage in critical teaching, encouraging the latter to get to know and express themselves through art. This approach would result in a creative practice based on freedom, autonomy, and on a dialogue between choreographers and dancers.

Associated with such movement, the occupation of spaces primary designated for classical dance, like the great theaters, summarized the renewal movement of Brazilian contemporary dance, which gained autonomy, instead of merely reproducing foreign standards. For example, the Balé da Cidade de São Paulo (BCSP) underwent a transformation that precisely illustrated this debate, as it was a classical dance ensemble in its origins: “In 1974, under Antonio Carlos Cardoso’s direction, the company decided to quit being a ‘museum of dances’ - as the press at the time referred to the repertoire of the company’s first phase” (Ponzio, 2008, p. 106).

Such need for renewal, as observed earlier, led to the inclusion of aspects of Brazilianness in the productions to be seen as a sign of the national dance’s authenticity. This seems to suggest, among other reasons, an effort to expand the audience for dance performances, since presenting renewed styles was a strategy of the groups to guarantee the success of its shows.

In the case of Balé Folclórico da Bahia, this trend became evident when Anna Kisselgoff, a North American dance critic whose name is renowned in the field, published an article about the group. From then on, it started to be the object of a dispute between several international producers and was almost unable to respond to all the requests. In an interview with Bravo!, the group director, Vavá Botelho (apud Ponzio, 1998b, p. 116), stated:

After Anna published the critique on BFB’s presentation in Lyon, we received, in Salvador, ten foreign managers interested in hiring us for world tours. It was crazy. We were disputed by all, and each one of them tried to offer us more advantages.

An article on the 10 years of Brasília’s Festival Internacional da Nova Dança affirmed that attending a classical dance show was an exercise of pure contemplation of technical perfection, which had its importance in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. However, nowadays, a transformation of the audience’s attitude was necessary:

It is also an invitation to abandon comfort. It is not just about sitting and enjoying a choreography, but also participating in it at different levels: it can be by simply facing a dancer eye to eye; it can be by entering the scene and dancing together [with the artist] or helping the artist to jump (Antunes, 2006, p. 90).

Furthermore, we consider that there is an unequivocal pedagogizing accent operating through some recurring imperatives in the dance field; imperatives that are embodied in a defense of the dancers’ creative autonomy, in a dialogic relationship between them and choreographers, and in dance as a promoter of critical awareness both for its practitioners and the public.

Specifically regarding to the theme of audience building, Bravo! wished to facilitate the public’s access to dance performances, pointing out whether or not the pieces demanded specific knowledge. For instance, for the directors of São Paulo Companhia de Dança, Inês Bogéa and Iracity Cardoso,

[...] the creation of a permanent dance culture is a concern as important as maintaining the company’s quality and the growth of its popularity [São Paulo Companhia de Dança]. Therefore, the programs of each performance bring not only information on the piece, but also draw attention to aspects of the dance that at first might go unnoticed (Rosenwald, 2010, p. 88).

With respect to the audience, there was always something to be said: the audience rarely attended dance performances. The audience started to attend dance performances. The audience received that performance well. The audience has not received well that performance. The audience is ready. The audience is not ready. The performance is easy for this audience. The performance is difficult for that audience. Expanding the audience is the goal. Expanding the audience by cutting prices is the goal. Expanding the audience by offering free performances is the goal.

The theme of low-cost performances appeared since the early 2000s in the magazine: “Popular prices, contacts with companies and agreements with public schools, longer seasons (due to the permanent support by Vila Velha) are some of the strategies that have worked” (Spanghero, 2002, p. 125). Another example: “There is also the commitment to offering tickets at low prices (maximum 20 reais) for certain performances as a strategy to expand the dance audience in the country” (Rosenwald, 2010, p. 88).

The need to expand the dance scene led artists and companies to seek to attract more and more audience, as illustrated by the dancer Ana Botafogo (apud Ponzio, 1999d, p. 50):

It is good to dance for fans, but it is also very motivating to conquer new audiences. I like to attract people to the theater, and for that, one needs to stimulate interest in dance. I feel strengthened when I can communicate with less specialized audiences.

The Brazilian audience was also an object of consideration by foreign companies. Momix, an American company, conquered a faithful audience around the world, and also in Brazil. Its director, Moses Pendleton (apud Pavlova, 2002, p. 75), proud of this fact, stated in an interview:

When the company gets ready to travel to Brazil, I feel as if we’re going home, and the reason for that is that there’s a certain mysticism in the air. In Brazil, there’s a great interest in nature, rhythms, music, colors, dance. Brazil and Italy are two of the best audiences, and that happens because these are two people that let themselves get carried away by emotions.

The choreographer Lia Rodrigues (apud Brito, 2002, p. 123) stated that “[...] if you offer quality products throughout the year, with good prices and good press coverage, the audience ends up coming”. After having visited places like Acre, Tocantins, and Roraima, which the interviewer pointed out as places unfamiliar with dance, Lia added: “My shows are not easy, there are naked people and much more. You should have seen how people reacted well to it. The audience there is ready. Do you know what a large-size market such as Brazil’s means?” (Rodrigues apud Brito, 2002, p. 123).

The expansion of dance in the late 1990s led to a significant increase in sponsorships, shows, festivals, and higher education dance courses. This expansion was responsible for triggering a transformation in the typical audience for dance performances. Attending dance performances, for the main figures in the field, was a common activity for Brazilians. The cultural manager Sonia Sobral (apud Brito, 2002, p. 123) stated that “[...] a young man, with no direct connection with dance and cultural production, has started to attend ballet performances just like he attended the cinema or the theater.”

Indeed, audience building figures solidly in the pages of Bravo! as a concern of artists, cultural promoters, the dance market, and, of course, the Bravo! magazine itself. An unequivocal evidence of this is the fact that, in the magazine, at the end of articles in sections dedicated to the various art forms, there was a chart with suggestions for performances, exhibitions, or films. In the case of dance, a selection of the month’s performances was presented. The subsections of this chart were entitled: on stage, shows, where, when, why to go, pay attention, and enjoy it.

The column on stage informed which artists, companies, or directors had shows running. The column shows provided synopsis-like descriptions of the pieces on stage. When and where provided information on the time, date, and place. What stands out the most, for the purposes of this investigation, are the last three subsections (why to go, pay attention, and enjoy it), which offered the reasons why certain performances should not be missed, therefore inducing how the audience should enjoy the pieces.

An example is the article on the 1997’s dance piece called Bailes do Brasil, directed by Naum Alves de Souza, in which Bravo! informed that it was worth watching “[...] because of the opportunity of getting to know the richness of Brazilian popular dances” (Revista Bravo!, 1997, p. 161), and also that the audience should pay attention to the soundtrack made up by “[...] regional music, recorded by Violla when he crossed Brazil from south to north” (Revista Bravo!, 1997, p. 161). Finally, the column enjoy it recommended: “Go up Augusta Street, up to Fernando de Albuquerque Street. At number 267 you will find the bistro La tartine, and it is worth a visit. Its French menu is one of the good surprises in the city” (Revista Bravo!, 1997, p. 161). In general, this last subsection directed the public to certain restaurants, cultural centers, cafés, and bars.

The pedagogizing intentionality of Bravo! also emerges in its self-assigned task of mediating the relationship of the public with the performances. Its tips assured that certain pieces should not be missed, since they provided a chance to refine the reader’s cultural repertoire.

One last example: throughout its 17 years of circulation, the magazine published some special issues in addition to its 192 original editions. Once again, the titles of those issues suggest a clear pedagogizing intent: 100 essential films (Revista Bravo!, 2007a); 100 essential places in culture (Revista Bravo!, 2007b); 100 essential world design objects (Revista Bravo!, 2008b); 100 essential Brazilian popular music songs (Revista Bravo!, 2008a); 100 essential erudite music works (Revista Bravo!, 2008c); 100 essential paintings from around the world (Revista Bravo!, 2008d).

The magazine informed the public, and, at the same time, induced certain ways of appreciating cultural and artistic goods, thus engaging in a deliberate effort to educate its readers in order to make them better consumers of cultural goods. A diligent and tireless task, as it can be surmised.

Final Considerations

Based on an immersive research of the Bravo! magazine, it is possible to affirm that the pedagogizing emphasis on the experiences with dance performances was reinforced, from the start, by the very idea of progress in the field. That the creative autonomy of the dancers and their active participation in artistic processes have been stimulated - to become more guided by dialogue, openness, and interactions - were reputed as a gain in comparison to an attitude of almost subservience established among dancers and choreographers until then. Such shift in the logic of creation in dance would have favored the foundation for a more inventive practice: dance as process and research, sometimes even considering the audience itself as an active part of the tasks of the field.

Bravo! magazine documented, to a large extent, the emergence of a growing empowerment in the daily processes of the dance field, proving - and, perhaps, subscribing to - the relevance of the dancers’ individuality, who began to be considered artists and not mere reproducers of movements, in the creative processes. More specifically, it is after giving visibility to the personality and personal identity of each artist that the defense of creativity and autonomy took place. The singularities of the artists have become increasingly prominent compared with the previous situation when the focus was almost exclusive on performances, companies, and groups.

The emergence of certain personalizing characteristics in the practices can also be verified in the companies’ selection processes. One of the many examples was the claim by Kirov Balletdirector, Makhar Vaziev (apud Ponzio, 1998d, p. 121): “Perfect technique will no longer be enough. To remain in or to join the company, the interpreter will have to have creativity, a shine of its own”. Another predominant factor was the tendency of dance companies to organize themselves around a specific personality, like Pina Bausch and Martha Graham, among others. Thus, it can be said that Bravo! showed and, at the same time, embodied in its pages the flourishing of a clear movement of personalization of dance in Brazil.

In the analytical work presented here, it was also possible to verify the emergence of a pedagogical bias taking place not only in the events reported in the magazine but, above all, in the edifying ideals attributed to dance. To a large extent, such emergence constitutes a piece of evidence that, in Bravo! - an artifact focused exclusively on culture in general - there is a proliferation of statements with an educationalizing intent, expressly aimed at improving the knowledge of the audience on dance performances. In short, it is a sample of an indelible discursive hybridization between the universe of dance and pedagogical ideas.

Notes

• 1
  Very popular in Brazil, Iemanjá is one of the main deities of Yoruba African mythology, also known as Goddess of the Sea. Dances dedicated to her encompass movements that are fluid and broad.
• This original paper, translated by Tikinet, is also published in Portuguese in this issue of the journal.

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Edited by

Editor-in-charge: Fabiana de Amorim Marcello

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  24 Sept 2021
• Date of issue
  2021

History

• Received
  05 Nov 2020
• Accepted
  07 Mar 2021