Pedagogy of the Possessed: re-thinking the Dancer-Researcher-Performer (BPI) method in dance curricula in Brazil

This paper calls into question the central tenets of the Dancer-Researcher-Performer (BPI) method taught at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) in Brazil. The analysis problematizes the underlying assumption that students lack an awareness of their own Brazilianness, which they must find through BPI, and questions a choreographic methodology where students are coached to be possessed by the dance. The paper draws attention to the power imbalances inherent in BPI’s co-habitation experience, where students research marginal others who are understood as the source of authentic Brazilian culture. The paper invites BPI students and teachers to reconsider the ethics of this research methodology, and to consider the possibility of choreographic research that engages both mind and body critically and consciously.