The universe and my yard: peripheral voices through the bodies of Cia. Fusion de Danças Urbanas
Dance; Memory; Identity; Periphery; Literature; Translation.
The present thesis is studies, through the perspective of Literary and Cultural Criticism,
an example of peripheral body expressiveness: the dance of Cia. Fusion de Danças
Urbanas, from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Founded in 2002 and turned professional in
2009, the company defies traditional notions of identity and proposes the construction
of memorialist and achival discourses based on corporeal expressions organized through
diasporic bonds which, in a great manner, distance themselves from the imagined
communities built with geographic frontiers. Using the language of Urban Dances,
element of Hip Hop Culture, the group promotes reflection and a potent aesthetic
experience regarding memory, identity and culture, reorganizing such notions prom a
peripheral perspective. In this study, two performances by the group are thoroughly
analyzed: “Quando efé” (2014), which is here defined as a “Dancearchive”, as it is a
sort of danced archive of peripheral culture associated with collective memory; and “Pai
contra mãe” (2016), inspired by a short-story written by Machado de Assis which
reflects on the memory of slavery and proposes a reorganization of it, based on the
viewpoint and the will of potency of the oppressed. The analysis of such performances
promotes a reflection on past, present and future, redefining the place of peripheral
expressivity and its relations with traditional history and literature.