Theatre and dance with deaf students: researching performance practices in a Brazilian school context

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe article presents performance practices created with deaf students in the project ‘Theater and dance with deaf students’, an outreach activity of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). The project took place in the Bilingual Deaf Municipal Elementary School Salomão Watnick in Porto Alegre, Brazil from 2013 to 2015. The activities developed in the workshops are based on Contact Improvisation (Paxton, Steve. 1997. A Definition. Contact Improvisation Source Book: Collected Writings and Graphics from Contact Quarterly Dance Journal 1975–1992, 37–38. MA: Contact Editions) and theatre games (Boal, Augusto. 2012. Jogos para atores e não atores. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira; Ryngaert, Jean-Pierre. 2009. Jogar, representar: práticas dramáticas e formação. Translated by Cássia Raquel da Silveira. São Paulo: Cosac Naify). Our work over three years recognised that a more flexible approach to performance practices was needed, in relation to existing Brazilian pedagogy. This article considers the structure of workshops surrounding the project, the practical activities performed with students, and the techniques developed to enable participants to create their own activities according to their individual skills and interests.