Embodied Power and Resistance: Space, Time and Composition of Forces in a Dance Company

Abstract

This research analyses how professional dancers embody the dynamics of power and resistance in a Brazilian dance company which follows dance practices and managerial model of European dance companies. From ethnographic field (participant observation, interviews with dancers and the director) and studies on embodiment and disciplinary power we obtained an embodied reading of the microphysics of power and resistance in the processes of spatial distribution, time control and composition of forces of the dancers in the dance company. In these power relations the dancers actively interact embodying discipline and resistance and are not (only) objects in which these relations are inscribed. We advanced in the field of dance by bringing together the processes of resistance to disciplinary actions of power, as well as pointing out the body (and its corporalities) as a relevant part to understand the nuances of this disciplinary dynamic.