Master's student: José Gabriel Cardoso Gutierrez

Information

Title: Rhythmic reading in the interaction between Afro percussion and dance – A musicological research into the rhythmic language present in Afro dance performances”

Type: Master's degree

Author/Contact: José Gabriel Cardoso Gutierrez

Advisor: Prof. Dr. Luiz Naveda

Realization period: 2025-2027

objective

Build an alternative documentation of percussion-dance interaction in Afro-Brazilian and African dance groups based on visual attention, revealing invisible forms of interaction and bringing black epistemologies closer together.

Methods

1. Observation of dance aspects and symbolic aspects.
2. Eye tracking to record the temporal organization of the musician's gaze on the moving body.
3. Comparison between musicians and their symbolic-gestural contexts.

Summary

Latin America and the Caribbean are a fertile territory for cultural phenomena where improvisational relationships between percussion and dance are important cultural practices that cross the border between music and dance.. Examples of these phenomena include the Puerto Rico Bomb (where Barril Primo interprets the movements of the skirt), the Peruvian Festival (where Bongô performs the choreography), the Senegalese Sabar (where Nder plays the solo dancer) or Candomblé Queto (Rum interprets the movement of the Orixá. CARDOSO, 2006). This interaction is often ignored due to the difficulty of registration, which makes it a form of undocumented intangible heritage, invisible. This work consists of experimenting with an alternative form of documentation of this type of percussion-dance interaction in Afro-Brazilian and African artistic dance groups based on the description of the visual attention of the participants. Among subjects in culture, this form of mutual rhythmic reading is carried out based on the observation of aspects of the dance, like vibration, giro, jump; and symbolic aspects, as movements related to the dances of the Orixás. To understand the musician's rhythmic reading, we use an eye tracking system, which allows observing the temporal organization of the focal points of the musician's gaze on the moving body, compare musicians and aspects of their symbolic and gestural context. This analysis aims to contribute to revealing ways of doing and interacting, made invisible by scientific writing and bring ways of thinking closer to black epistemologies where interaction is important in the face of the contradiction of folklorizing views in traditional registration documents.

Keywords: Percussion-dance; eye tracking; visual attention; intangible heritage; black epistemologies; improvisation; Afro-Brazilian.

Examples of demonstrations where percussion-dance interaction is fundamental:

Actions and results