Afrometáforas em dança: espiralidades entre Salvador (Bahia) e Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais)

Abstract

This research is dedicated to the analysis of metaphorical elements present in black dances rooted in the cultures of the capital cities of Minas Gerais and Bahia, identified as afrometaphors. By understanding dance as a cognitive manifestation of the body, this work aims to demonstrate, through movements and gestures, the various forms of aggregation, resistance, and existence of African knowledge and cosmologies throughout the Afro-Brazilian diaspora, with the cultures of Bahia and Minas Gerais serving as contexts in which these dances manifest. Afrometaphors, understood as cognitive expressions of Afro-Brazilian cultural traditions, manifest and interact in the choreographic practices and gestures of traditional dances in Minas Gerais and Bahia. These metaphorical manifestations are influenced by local cultural contexts, especially in the field of Dance research. Do they contribute to the preservation and resignification of metaphorical elements and Afro cosmologies (Oyěwùmí, 2002) in Brazilian society? Knowledge transmitted in many ways, written, gestural, oral, by dance masters in Minas Gerais and Bahia, highlight Afro ways of being in contemporary times, in memory, and in culture. This research marks these knowledges as metaphors constructed in everyday life (Lakoff; Johnson, 2002). In this analytical investigation with a qualitative and descriptive approach (Gil, 2002), methodological aspects of participatory research (Brandão, 1986) are associated with ethnographic attitude procedures (Pimentel, 2014). Podcast interviews and documentary analysis are procedures in constructing research data oriented towards Afro-perspectives (Noguera, 2021). The concept of spirality (Martins, 2020) challenges the notion of linear temporality, revitalizing knowledge forged in the Afro-Brazilian diaspora as life strategies and weaving the web of references. The enactive perspective (Maturana; Varela, 2021) and the concept of somatic markers (Damásio, 2018), the notion of corponecitivity and the metaphorical procedure of the body (Rengel, 2021, 2015, 2007) consider gestualities in dances between Minas Gerais and Bahia; the body has an integrated perspective, where biological, physiological, and intellectual aspects are part of constructs stemming from culture. The vigor of Fanon (2008) and Souza's (2021) studies form the core of the black cognitive-existential dimension in society. Considering dance and gesture as materializations of knowledge and ways of knowing, much like flavors, the beat of a drum, or even speech patterns, we identify combinations of multisensory metaphors that reveal somatic markers (Damásio, 2020). Black metaphors emerge differently in Belo Horizonte and Salvador. These afrometaphors point to knowledge and ways of being, moving, and dancing that shape individuals. Dance, as a contextualized action, presents metaphors and multisensory images related to the culture in which it develops. Acknowledging the importance of black protagonism in the composition of cognitive elements present in the cultures of Minas Gerais and Bahia that spiral through time offers a repertoire for creating strategies and ways of life and dance. Afrometaphors present multi-sensory images that strengthen the existence and enhance black existence in Dance, reiterating the need for cultural experiences in artistic processes and teaching/learning.