Dance and Resistance in Tango and Reisado: Comparative Audio-Visual Research on Cultural Performance in Argentina and Brazil

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ECAH EuroMedia, Jurys Inn Brighton Waterfront, Brighton & Hove, UK, 2018.

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Comparative audio-visual research within Cultural Studies has emerged in recent years as an interdisciplinary form of critique and social intervention. In Latin America, many of the cultural manifestations of the body, which were previously discredited in academic circles, are currently at the centre of interdisciplinary research, thanks to their being captured “in situ” by performers, philosophers and cultural researchers in the form of audio-visual essays. Examples of this idea can be found in comparative research on traditional dances in Brazil and Argentina.

The audio-visual recording of artistic performances in urban spaces brings into the current debate the historical and choreographic links with the influence of Afro-descendant culture on both countries. Many body movements and choreographic cells are currently conceived as forms of resistance. I based my analysis on two audio-visual essays – In Corpo Tango and Philosophies of the Body in the Cariri of Ceará – that address Tango in Argentina and Reisado from Brazil.

In order to compare these corporal expressions, I conducted a film analysis of a synthetic set of choreographic cells. I intend to highlight the relational aspect of bodywork in these dances and fights by revealing the improvisation that is structured in duets and that which is re-enacted as a form of provocation and cultural resistance.

Keywords: body; audio-visual research; Argentina; Brazil; cultural resistance.