The body and its traces:

dance practices as invitations to alterity

Abstract

This article reflects on the processes of teaching and creating in dance for disabled bodies, in
articulation with the knowledge produced within the Brazilian public university system, specifically in the
Dance Teacher Education Program at State University of Paraná (UNESPAR – Curitiba II Campus). The
field of research refers to the practices developed through the research and extension project entitled, in
portuguese, Limites em Movimento: corpo em questão [Limits in Movement: the body in question], carried
out in collaboration with the Association of People with Physical Disabilities of Paraná (ADFP, in portuguese),
a context in which ongoing dance classes are proposed with the aim of fostering autonomy, expanding
movement repertoires, and enhancing bodily awareness. The study employs a cartographic methodology
(Kastrup, 2015) that follows lived processes, establishing pathways and reflections described,
problematized, and collectivized throughout the present article. To this end, the discussion is articulated with,
and grounded in, notions of alterity, territory, and subjectivity developed by authors such as Christine
Greiner, Suely Rolnik, and Hubert Godard. Furthermore, the article outlines dialogues with recent research
on art, ableism, and the attitudinal barriers that hinder the effective participation of disabled people in
environments dedicated to artistic experimentation and creation. Finally, it proposes fabulation and dance
creation as possibilities for expanding the imagination and as invitations to processes of reterritorialization.