Between Dance and Utopia, the Body as a Metaphor

Abstract

In the year the world commemorates four centuries since the death of both Cervantes and Shakespeare and 500 years since the publication of Thomas More’s, Utopia, the X International Conference from the series Iberian and Slavonic Cultures in Contact and Comparison, held in May, 2016, in the University of Lisbon, had, as subject, From Utopia to Utopianism: Universal Brotherhood and other Utopian Modes. Even before getting involved with a work, as attractive as complex – putting side by side a concept (Utopia) that I got in touch many years ago and a passion that has followed me all my life (Dance) – first, I tried to understand what kind of academic works I could count on. And second, how original my ideas could be. With little theoretical instruments I ended up to relay on my long experience as a dancer and a Dance History teacher. And the result was a text that went from the general to the particular, from narrative to spirituality and from practice to reflection. With it I close the 45th World Congress on Dance Research, in Warsaw (Poland).