The BPIProcess and its epistemological specificities

Abstract:

In this article, we present some aspects of Dancer-Researcher-Performer (BPI) method that can be considered in its epistemological specificities. Therefore, the first purpose is to present a bibliographic review of this training and scenic creation methodology that has been developed for over thirty years in Brazil. Through brief reports, we present the history of the BPI, we describe its creative process and we list some data that enable a better understanding of this method, its singularities in the performing arts field. This paper does not intend to exhaust this subject, but rather seeks to open spaces for new dialogues and debate.

Keywords:
BPI Method; Creative Process; Affective Relationships; Performing Arts; Self-knowledge

Resumo:

Neste artigo, são apresentados alguns aspectos do método Bailarino-Pesquisador-Intérprete (BPI) que podem ser pensados como suas especificidades epistemológicas. Trata-se, portanto, de uma revisão da bibliografia fundamental dessa metodologia de formação e criação cênica em desenvolvimento no Brasil há mais de trinta anos. Por meio de relatos breves, apresentamos o histórico do método BPI. Também descrevemos seu processo criativo e listamos dados pontuais que viabilizam uma compreensão de suas singularidades no campo das Artes da Cena. Este trabalho não tem a pretensão de esgotar o assunto, mas, sim, busca abrir frestas para novos diálogos e discussões.

Palavras-chave:
Método BPI; Processo Criativo; Relações Afetivas; Artes Cênicas; Autoconhecimento

Résumé:

Dans cet article, nous présentons quelques aspects de la méthode Danseur-Chercheur-Interprète (BPI) qui peuvent être considérés comme ses spécificités épistémologiques. Il s'agit d'une révision de la bibliographie fondamentale de cette méthode de formation et de création scénique qui se développe au Brésil depuis plus de trente ans. Par de brefs rapports, nous présentons l'histoire de la méthode BPI. Nous décrivons également son processus de création et présentons des informations qui permettent une compréhension de ses singularités dans le champ des arts scéniques. Ce travail n'a pas l'intention d'épuiser le sujet, mais cherche plutôt à ouvrir de nouveaux dialogues et discussions.

Mots-clés:
Méthode BPI; Processus de Création; Relations Affectives; Arts de la Scène; Auto-Connaissance

The History and the Development of the BPI Method

The Dancer-Researcher-Performer (BPI) method was created by Graziela Rodrigues after years of - national and international - professional artistic experience both in Performing training and creation¹⁰. The BPI has a systemic organization based on three dynamic axes as follows: Inventory in the body, Co-inhabiting with the source and Character structuring. Rodrigues and Tavares affirm this systemic organization and define the structuring three axes as follows:

It is a didactic division, as the process happens as a whole. In the first axis, the body memory is activated through several perceptions, such as, visual, hearing, tactile and proprioceptive. In this phase [Inventory in the Body], there is an attempt to expand this process of self-discovery with greater awareness and appropriation of sensations, feelings, cultural and social history relevant to the dancer. In the Co-inhabiting with the Source, the performer searches for a contact with the reality around. The focus is the field work chosen by the dancer. Upon being in line with 'the other', the dancer can be in harmony with him/herself, in a way to assume the singularity of his/her movements consciously. In the third axis, there is an integration of sensations, emotions and images lived through the development of the method, with the consequent creation of a character, whose name comes up as its essence (Rodrigues; Tavares, 2010, p. 146-147).

Each one of the BPI axes has very specific features, demanding dedication and predisposition of the performer to live them both in their singularities and integration. The full experience of the BPI process indicates a fundamental condition and enables artistic creation in this method. Besides the three axes and several phases, the BPI has five fundamental tools for the development of its creative process, as follows: Dance technique, Senses Technique, Directed laboratories, Field research and Records. Here, the presentation of the BPI axes is brief, however, for further understanding, we mainly indicate the following references: Rodrigues (2003), Rodrigues (2005), Rodrigues (2010a), Rodrigues (2010b), Rodrigues (2010c) e Rodrigues (2010d).

According to Rodrigues (2003), one of the main aspects of this method is that it is directly related to artistic practice. In this sense, the author says, "[...] the regular idea of art is related to a connection with the truth, a sense of deep search of what could be the development of an artistic power towards plenitude" (2003, p. 79). In the procedures described and analyzed in Rodrigues' dissertation, it is confirmed that, in the BPI process, there is a deep investigation of the internal contents of the subject with the purpose of promoting the meeting and recognition of his/her own sensations. The movement is worked as a power that integrates emotional, psychological, libidinal, physiological, mental, social and cultural aspects in the body. In Rodrigues' words, "[...] the Dancer-Researcher-Performer deals with the movement phenomenon fully and widely, encompassing the expression of the being in the world" (2003, p. 79).

At the end of her dissertation, the author points out another peculiarity of this method:

The BPI innovates as it legitimates the dancer's body as the axis of the creative process. The communication of symbolic aspects happens in the context of the rhythm, colors, shapes, sizes, that is, the artistic creation integrated in the dancer's body. The creation is in the originality of each body (Rodrigues, 2003, p. 160).

It is important to highlight that, in the BPI method, the body is considered from the view of an integrative approach, that is, joining mental, physiological and emotional aspects of the subject in process. The legitimation of the performer's body in the BPI process concerns a great differential of this method when compared with other methods of artistic creation. Upon legitimating the dancer's body as an axis in the creative process, it ensures and indicates that nothing surpasses the development of a process that is singular. This legitimation validates the unique experience of the subject/dancer, as the artistic creation is not submitted to previously (a priori) defined ideas or concepts. The creative process in this method goes from the performer listening towards a connection with his/her body identity. This contact enables the creation of a complete dance, that is, a dance in which the dancer creates from sensations, images and movements that are more genuine, without being attached to certain standards of judgment, working the unconscious so that each time it becomes more conscious.

The BPI method pursues the performer's originality through an immersion in his/her internal contents, dealing with the notion of genuine expressiveness, in which, during the creative process, the subject devotes him/herself to his/her unknown aspects. The beginning of the process is when the performer is willing to undergo the elaboration of his/her internal meanings, indicating a self-knowledge work in which previously unknown movements, sensations, landscapes and emotions arise. These aspects refer to the release of a creative process with singular dynamics, enabling the performer to scenically create and broaden both his/her identity and his/her body image conception.

During the entire creative process, the BPI method is connected with the development of a body image that is seen as a dynamic and multidimensional phenomenon. For such, the theoretical references of this method are anchored in the studies of Paul Schilder (1999), who connects, according to Rodrigues, "[...] the body image to the life story of the individual" (2003, p. 27). In this sense, the notion of identity is associated to the existential body.

Therefore, in the BPI, there is a constant development of the body image in an integrative view of the body. We refer to a body that surpasses the idea of the sum of the parts in the integration of emotional, physiological and psychic aspects, as it is an existential body in which singular and new contents emerge. At the same time, it has a vulnerability that belongs to the human being (Tavares, 2003). The BPI method approaches the question of the body and the identity through this perspective¹¹.

According to Rodrigues (2003), in the dance regulated by official standards, working with the body's originality sounds transgressive, as if it was not natural. For the author, this pattern of dance leads to idealization, whereas, by dancing from the aspects of the subject identity, elaborating his/her losses and singularities, the performer reaches the body reality realm. In the words of the author, in the BPI process, when the body works "[...] from its own identity, there is no way to idealize what this body will produce. The dance proposed is associated to a real body, therefore, it is not committed to the dance representing the official culture settled on an ideal body" (2003, p. 158). According to Rodrigues and Tavares (2007), the ideal body is anchored in the development of the narcissism, whereas the real body is connected to the development of the body image. In this sense, the BPI method enables the scenic creation to be gifted with the singular expressive power of the performer that has opened him/ herself to self-knowledge and self-acceptance. In the words of Rodrigues, therefore, we can confirm that BPI "[...] is a path to ensure the art its legitimate space in the evolution of man. In the BPI, the dance gives to the body the departure and arrival point of energy in this process of development of the individual identity and body image (2003, p. 161).

Specificities of the BPI Process

The BPI method structuring took place over years of research, in which its author reconsiders dominant codes and standards in Performing Arts creation when observing bodies carrying a singular life force. Through several field research made by the author in social environments at the margin of the dominant class, it was possible to find a reality that survives through resilience. It transforms pain, war, losses and lack of recognition in celebration, chanting, laughing and beliefs that present resistance as a guide of the cultural and social existence of a certain group.

The BPI method is the consequence of a multi-artistic training integrated to experiences allied to discoveries and observations of Brazilian cultural manifestations in which there is cultural resistance. They were also allied to places where it was possible to carefully collect and decodify movement matrices that opened the body of the dancer to an internal reality, a pulsating path in which the inner energy brought encouragement and comfort to the body. Rodrigues' observation was further developed and reached a level of great sensitivity, as her approach did not intend to represent the bodies found in the field work, but, to enable the performer, when in relation with these realities, to connect with his/her internal path, with the history embedded in his/her body filled with ancestral memory. In conclusion, to enable the performer to undergo a subtle and sensitive dynamic similar to that experience she observed in the researched fields.

From several readings, mainly Rodrigues (2005), it was possible to find that there is a similarity between the creative process in the BPI method and the path that its author saw in the researched subjects within their manifestations, in a sense that integrates the sacred and the profane, the faith rite and daily life. Consequently, Rodrigues sees a self-transformation procedure that can be regarded as knowledge and, that, when codified, would enable a transformation process of pain in celebration, of trauma and fears in life force. We point out that the carefulness with the other stands out as Rodrigues does not withdraw knowledge of a determined social niche and brings it to artistic creation. We realize that, in the BPI perspective, the realities observed are transformed in schools for the performer, where there is a deep learning process about the act of self-knowledge and constant elaboration of the self. Upon doing it, the BPI method acknowledges the value of the other and breaks with the maintenance of an ethnocentric approach¹². This ethnocentrism, in the case of popular manifestations, has been used and spread out for a long time, by the habits of a dominant society ruled by retrograde and colonialist ideals.

The scenic creation and the process established by the BPI method deal with the surpassing of the limits of the subject. These limits refer to unknown aspects, denied by the history that lead to the construction of an identity that is worried with status and social values. Thereby, the BPI breaks with this vicious circle and undoes the domain based on the maintenance of power relationships, and its artistic creation takes place in a perspective that asserts the shared authorship, providing a new sense of being on the scene.

The BPI method considers that, from an established process, its performer is able to subtly figure out the power of his/her internal path, and, with this, is able to follow a way guided by his/her images, sensations and emotions. Upon reaching his/her originality, the fruition of the movement is established in another flow, pointed out by aspects that execute a constant transformation of the self, bringing movement with singular expressive qualities to his/her artistic practice.

Through a specific collection of data applied to the bibliographic references that are the base of the BPI method¹³ - Rodrigues (2003, 2005 [1997]) -, it was possible to highlight the existence of four affective relations that emerge as the support for the development of the creative process proposed by this method. These four relations were divided in two groups and classified as interpersonal and intrapersonal. Therefore, they are denominated: the relation of the performer with the director, the relation of the performer with his/herself, the relation of the performer with the subjects found in the field research and the relation of the performer with the character.

For the collection of data described above, we used the approach of Laurence Bardin (1977) to analyze content both in the categorization and in the interpretation of collected data related to affective relations experienced during the BPI process. Thus, we understand that these affective relations structure a network of affections that work as a protection promoting an ethical behavior that is essential to the establishment, progression and conclusion of the BPI process.

In the approach of the BPI process, the performer does not reach this creative state alone. From this, one asserts that the attention with the affective relations validates the singularity of the experience with the BPI within the scenic creations. Upon reviewing the bibliography of this method, it was possible to reinforce some features concerning the epistemological specificities of this creative process. In the meeting with the other, for example, affective relations are established in which sincerity and fluidity are searched and through which each subject acts with his/her existential reality. It enables a valuable personal transformation for the performing artist. We acknowledge, still, that in the beginning there was, on the part of one of the authors¹⁴ of the present paper - as a performing artist - a huge idealization concerning the BPI method. However, this idealization, seen as a process of falling in love, was crucial and necessary so he could realize the importance of a theoretical and practical immersion in this creation methodology.

We consider the BPI an innovative method that questions the modes and models of creation in art, mainly those connected to the maintenance of the power relationships, or even those modes insisting on viewing the performer as a mere executor of dazzling gestures and movements and not the creator of the work of art. In the BPI, the first author is the performer's existential body, and the creation as a whole is shared, as each subject involved in this process is important to its development. The authorship is shared and, in this affirmation - repeated several times by Rodrigues (2003, 2005), as well as by Turtelli (2009), Melchert (2007) and Teixeira (2007) - we realize and emphasize the core of the ethical behavior in the BPI method.

The network of affections in the BPI method reveals, therefore, a new way to live the creation in art in a perspective that indicates this experience as the generator of results with special meaning for those involved. In the processes described and analyzed in the bibliographical sources, for example, one can realize that, upon reaching genuine movements with great meaning for the performer, the scenic results - productions and/or performances - reach a high level of communicability with the audience through both affection and rejection. Thus, this network of affects is related to an internal path belonging to the performing artist that is the source of the creative flow. It enables the performer to recognize and assume his/her path and, with this, the performer begins a process of self-acceptance, flowing with plenitude in the artistic creation.

The affective relations in the BPI method imply the performer to deepen him/herself. The creation of the scenic product, gifted with originality and expressive power, depends on this deepening process. Another data indicating the performer's self-immersion is directly connected to the experienced interpersonal relationships, that is, the relationships with the other. In this sense, we can exemplify how the other is essential in the self-knowledge process, by describing the relationship of the performer with the director. This relationship, besides enabling an immersion of the performer in his/her internal contents, also helps to clarify and highlight some peculiarities of the BPI method and its process as a whole.

The presence of the director, from his/her choice/invitation, passing through the contract¹⁵, the creation process until the public presentations of the artistic product makes one think about this singular ethical behavior in the scenic creation. This ethics is established from the guidelines raised by the experience and legitimation of the performer's body. The BPI does not indicate models, and all elements and procedural dynamics come from unconscious aspects that reach the light of the conscience. The ethics lies in the simple fact that hierarchy is maintained for the sake of the process safety, but without the existence of relationships guided by power. Director and performer are co-authors, partners in a procedure in which they deal with a sensitive body, not a weakened and fragmented body. The purpose of working with the weaknesses and limitations of the body is to make them the dynamo generating a new body power. There is the acknowledgment and the overcoming of limits blocking the flow of life of the performer in process.

The BPI ethics lies in the care for the subject willing to experience an artistic process generating self-knowledge. Nevertheless, as we have already stated, one cannot see and transform oneself alone, at least not in this approach that sees, in the act of affecting and being affected by the other, the possibility to be what one is without masks and idealizations. In the BPI, the subject accepts his/herself from the perception of his/her existential reality, without standardized models that limit the singularities of the individual. This ethics indicates a dedication to the other, stricto sensu, to be available is important and is related to, for example, an attention exceeding the spacial limits of the laboratory room. However, discipline becomes an attitude that reciprocally validates the recognition of the effort applied by the subjects involved in the process. Thus, we highlight that the ethics in the BPI process integrates dedication, availability and discipline, enabling the harmony between the co-authors of the artistic creation to be, above all, a statement of respect and professionalism with the artist and his/her art.The other is perceived from the vital importance that his/her presence has in the development of the subject. André Lapierre, in his writings on Falta, Fusionalidade e Identidade (1984), points that the other directly influences the psychomotor development of a certain subject by the way the former makes him/herself available because of the later. Thus, it is important that, for example, the therapist, the teacher or, in this case, the director knows how to differentiate his/her desires from those of the individual in focus. Thereby, he/she becomes aware of the game or the relationship established between the desires of both sides. In the case of the BPI process, the director is serving to the contents emanated from the body of the performer, enabling him/her to release impulses and emotions and living a procedure whose contents are elaborated and used in an original scenic creation.

According to Richard Erskine (1997), the affective harmony in the interpersonal relationships is enabled by attitudes and behaviors in which there is no imposition of a subject to another one, that is, the power relationships do not exist. According to this author, sometimes the therapist can share with the person under psychoanalysis a certain personal moment of vulnerability, indicating his/her choices to solve a certain conflict. Thus, according to Erskine, he/she creates an approximation that values "[...] the relational need to confirm the personal experience" (1997, p. 4), promoting a companionship and equality sensation - in other words, partnership and recognition. For him, "[...] the harmony is provided by the therapist upon valuing the need of confirmation by revealing [...] selected personal experiences, sharing vulnerability or feelings and fantasies alike, all with his/her presence and vitality" (1997, p. 4). According to Erskine (1997), affective harmony is essential for interpersonal relationships, especially, in the recognition, in the reaffirmation and in the person's ability to meet the needs that the other presents.

Rodrigues also discusses the harmony between the director and the performer when questioned about what happened in the director's body during the performer's self-knowledge process enabled by the BPI. For the author of this method, the director is in tune and has a kinesthetic apprehension of the performer, having a perception of what he/she is internally feeling, as this is a situation that goes along. Rodrigues indicates that, sometimes, the director goes to the body of the other and brings the sensation to his/her own body. It is, therefore, a deep kinesthetic relationship that enables the director to realize the moment there is a scape, a deceit or a performer's block. In these situations, the director gives precise indications that help what is being internally processed to flow. According to Rodrigues, it is common that the director assumes the feelings and sensations of the performers during the BPI process, and, because of this, this is a proposal demanding contract and trust. For her, when there is trust, it helps the development of the process, as there is surrender, and trust is surrender. According to Rodrigues, this surrender means to surrender to him/herself and self- is the result of the subject's trust placed on the other¹⁶.

From these notes, it is possible to consider the director's attitude, in the BPI procedural perspective, as a donation intending the self-discovery of the performer. The authors previously mentioned help to understand the agency of the other in self-transforming processes. For such, the role of the director is ahead, to the extent that the BPI method purpose is to reach the performer's self-transformation in the creation process in Performing Arts. The BPI director also represents the safety for this creative process to happen fully and, that is why recognizing shared authorship is an ethical behavior.

Upon regarding an ethical behavior as coming from the practice of otherness, the BPI method allows the performer to go through a process of self-examination in the world. In this sense, it is possible to mention the work of José Geraldo Estevam (2008) that analyses and approaches the notions of otherness for Birman and Lévinas in the construction of a new cultural paradigm in the West. According to the author:

[...] opening for otherness means a new and different way to be, in an ethical attitude that is beyond any logical conception. The primacy of the being, personified in the selfishness causing and justifying violence against the other loses, then, its reason for being. 'The ethics places the I in the sphere of the responsibility, that is, awakes one up' (FABRI, 1997, p. 98) from one's egocentric sleep (Estevam, 2008, p. 177, emphasis by the author).

Reading Estevam on otherness as the construction of a new ethics in the human relationships confirms the experience proposed by the BPI in the sense of an appreciation of the being in one's existential reality. This is so because the performer, through his/her willingness, availability and acceptance of the other, without preconceptions on diversities, reaches a broad and reshaped notion of self-knowledge. According to Rodrigues (2003), a new perspective to see/perceive oneself, one's art and the world is built.

The performer lives a performing creation process aiming at integrating his/her body aspects, once guided by the idea of fragmented body, as this integrative approach provides an experience of human exchanges, based on the respect for the singularities of each identity involved in the creation, establishing a full practice of otherness. This procedural experience enables the creation of performing results provided with singular expressive quality and genuine creative power. The performer reaches his/her creative originality and broadens his/her identity from the recognition of internal aspects, producing a performance that connects flow to his/her artistic work. The direction, therefore, enables the BPI method to have, as a result, an artistic creation that can be classified from the good performance of the performer. The director, having already experienced this transformation on the body as a performer, brings self-transformation as a mark of past experiences and that is why he/she is able to foster the transformation process of other subjects¹⁷. The director invests focusing on the development of other performers willing to experience a performing creation process that also aims at self-knowledge.

Network of Affects and the BPI Process: final considerations

The BPI method, throughout more than thirty years, enabled and has been enabling quality of singular movements, genuine plasticity and human exchanges in its results. Data presented here meet the categories already presented in Rodrigues (2003), confirming that the performer reaches plenitude, vitality and pleasure when developing what can be indicated and seen as a good performance through the reintegration of his/her body in a pulsating sensation of life.

This study is also about the personal development of one of the authors. It is because, reinforcing again the theoretical-practical aspect of the BPI method, along with the bibliographical review, throughout the last years, this author attended the Dance of Brazil course in the Dance program at UNICAMP. This experience turned out to be something important for the elaboration of this reflection as, in these classes, there was the chance to closely observe the application of some aspects of the BPI found in several analyzed publications. Besides, we have found that the relationships established in the teacher-student scope - and, further, artist-artist - approached collected and analyzed data related to affective relationships in the BPI process. The feedbacks, observations, doubts and questions raised in these classes collaborated even more with the analysis and interpretation of the evidences measured in the bibliographical sources, stressing the dynamic factor of the BPI method as a living knowledge in constant development.

The affective relationships in the BPI process reflect and establish a creation process sustained by the unconditional respect to the subject and, consequently, to his/her existential reality. The scenic works, result of several phases and procedures, have an aesthetic quality directly connected to the performer's integrity. There is nothing concerning the performance itself hurting the pride of the individual in process, however, it is important to understand there is a recognition of his/her life story. The performer accepts him/herself after a self-recognition process, and then he/she gets rid of several layers or skins, mentioning here the myth of Inana goddess, very used by Rodrigues as a metaphor of work in the BPI process¹⁸. The performer, like Inana (the fertility Sumerian goddess), breaks with the standards, leaves self-indulgence behind and deeply dives towards his/her heart or essence, and symbolically deconstructs him/herself in order to construct him/herself again. As the author of the method herself affirms: "[...] the process [...] is hardworking and demands the performer to have discipline, courage and will to give up his/her idealisms in order to face his/her realities and the world he/she is part of" (Rodrigues, 2010a, p. 115). The practical experiences, grounded by the BPI, have created opportunities for deep researches that stress the idea of a way in which there is the human development of the performer (Rodrigues, 2010a).

The affection network becomes a protection in which the artistic creation finds a support. This is so because there is a constant exercise of otherness essentially promoting the performer's self-knowledge. The recognition of the other and one's differences implies acceptance, by the performer, of unconscious aspects of one's own identity. Therefore, the subject recognizes him/herself from an ethical behavior towards the other. This ethical behavior reveals not only the essence of the BPI method, but also the contents and necessary conditions for its creative process to happen. It is not the first time that one speaks about ethics and necessary conditions, Rodrigues refers to this subject in the topic Reconhecendo e Assumindo os Espaços do BPI [Recognizing and Assuming the BPI Spaces] (2003, p. 146). However, we see that it is highly important for the method to deepen, widen and rewrite, further and further, its ethics terms. At least, this was our attempt and we realized that it seems to enable questions on the real value of the ethical behavior in Performing Arts creation.

From the research carried out, we listed the epistemological specificities that stood out and, consequently, the methodological specificities of the BPI. This method assumes and legitimates the performer's body as the leitmotif of his/her creative process. The authorship of the final product is shared and, at this point, we realize the question of the ethical behavior to be asserted, as the body of the performer is the place where creation is carried out. There is an investment so the physical, psychic and emotional identity of the subject in process is protected. The work on the elaboration of emotions enables to reach vital gestures, original and gifted with the performer's expressive power. This process guides an identity development path of the artist in constant movement, in which there is recognition of his/her idealizations and acceptance of his/her existential reality exposed at that moment. For the BPI method, there are no models or patterns to be followed, but an infinitude of internal paths to be revealed.

At last, it is important to highlight that this paper is far from exhausting the theme, and it is not its purpose. However, we presented some clarification through which one can look and follow the path for the understanding of the Dancer-Researcher-Performer method, a singular process of scenic creation.

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• RODRIGUES, Graziela Estela Fonseca. O Diretor no Método BPI: o processo e o não-processo. In: VIII CONGRESSO DA ABRACE, 8., 2014, Belo Horizonte. Anais... Belo Horizonte: UFMG, 2014. Disponível em: <Disponível em: http://portalabrace.org/viiicongresso/resumos/pesquisadanca/RODRIGUES%20G%20E%20F.pdf >. Acesso em: 02 ago. 2015.
  » http://portalabrace.org/viiicongresso/resumos/pesquisadanca/RODRIGUES%20G%20E%20F.pdf
• RODRIGUES, Graziela Estela Fonseca. As Ferramentas do BPI (Bailarino-Pesquisador-Intérprete). In: I SIMPÓSIO INTERNACIONAL E I CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO DE IMAGEM CORPORAL, 1., 2010, Campinas. Anais Eletrônicos... Campinas: UNICAMP, 2010b. Disponível em: <Disponível em: http://fefnet172.fef.unicamp.br/hotsites/imagemcorporal2010/cd/anais/trabalhos/portugues/Area3/IC3-28.pdf >. Acesso em: 03 dez. 2014.
  » http://fefnet172.fef.unicamp.br/hotsites/imagemcorporal2010/cd/anais/trabalhos/portugues/Area3/IC3-28.pdf
• RODRIGUES, Graziela Estela Fonseca. O Lugar da Pesquisa. Conceição/Conception, Campinas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, v. 1, n. 1, p. 48-58, 2012. Disponível em: <Disponível em: http://www.publionline.iar.unicamp.br/index.php/ppgac/article/view/51 >. Acessado em: 03 dez. 2014.
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• RODRIGUES, Graziela Estela Fonseca. O Método BPI (Bailarino-Pesquisador-Intérprete) e o Desenvolvimento da Imagem Corporal: reflexões que consideram o discurso de bailarinas que vivenciaram um processo criativo baseado neste método. 2003. Tese (Doutorado em Artes) - Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, 2003. Disponível em: <Disponível em: http://libdigi.unicamp.br/document/?code=vtls000303199 >. Acesso em: 01 dez. 2014.
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• RODRIGUES, Graziela Estela Fonseca; TAVARES, Maria Consolação Gomes Cunha Fernandes. Imagem Corporal, Narcisismo e a Dança. In: TAVARES, Maria Consolação Gomes Cunha Fernandes (Org.). O Dinamismo da Imagem Corporal. São Paulo: Phorte, 2007. P. 123-129.
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  » http://libdigi.unicamp.br/document/?code=000447712

• 24
  This unpublished text, translated by Andrea Paula J. Santos and proofread by Ananyr Porto Fajardo, is also published in Portuguese in this issue.
• 10
  For Rodrigues, the search for answers to her questions as a performer brought the need to elaborate her own means for the development of her performing creations. According to her writings, published in 2003 and 2005, there was no premeditated intention to formulate a methodology of creation in Performing Arts. However, after some years of immersion, the frequency and relevance of some procedures used in her creative processes indicated a path that could be used by other performers. The year 1980 marked the moment this methodology starts to be delineated, and, in 1987, from the moment Rodrigues starts to direct other performers, the BPI method is systematized. In addition, subsequent studies were further developed in Psychology and Body Image broadening, validating and confirming the work done and that continues to be done until today.
• 11
  Professor Graziela Rodrigues also integrates, as a researcher, the Group of Studies and Research (CNPq) in Body Image at UNICAMP, coordinated by Professor Maria Consolação G. C. F. Tavares. We also indicate, as references of the body image development used in the investigations of the BPI method, the studies of Cash and Pruzinsky (1990) and Fisher (1990).
• 12
  In the development of the BPI method, the ethnocentrism question is worked having as its first approach the performer's acknowledgment of this attitude in him/herself. Upon being in touch with him/herself, the performer would devise how this attitude was established in his/her life story. Therefore, from experiences in groups, one searches for experiences fostering a growing awareness and the reallocation of this ethnocentric approach in relation to the world.
• 13
  This article brings a summary of the Master's thesis defended in the Program of Post-Graduation in Performing Arts, in 2012, whose aim was to analyze the affective relations experienced during the process of training and artistic creation of the Dancer-Researcher-Performer method. The authors of this paper are, respectively, the student and the supervisor of the above-mentioned Master's study, funded by FAPESP (São Paulo Research Foundation). This thesis - Campos (2012) - is in the list of bibliographical references presented at the end of this paper.
• 14
  Information related to Flávio Campos, who, since 2010, integrates the Research Group (CNPq) BPI and Dance of Brazil - coordinated by Professor Graziela Rodrigues - and is dedicated to the development of theoretical and practical studies and research projects on this Method under the supervision of the above-mentioned professor.
• 15
  According to Rodrigues (2003), the contract is a prerogative of the BPI method and is related to the moment the director makes clear to the person willing to experience the method, the particularities and the need of an individualized time in the execution of each process. In this contract, the performer must be aware of the vulnerability situations the procedural experience involves. Other aspects are also handled in order to clarify the specificities of the BPI process development.
• 16
  This paragraph was elaborated from several lines spoken by Rodrigues both in supervising meetings (supervising notes) and in courses taught in the Program of Post-Graduation in Performing Arts, both at UNICAMP, between 2010 and 2014.
• 17
  We emphasize here the importance of the specific training of the director in the BPI method. On this training, we indicate the reading of Rodrigues (2003, p. 83-134), Rodrigues (2014) and, yet, Campos (2012, p. 117-119).
• 18
  This myth has been used by Rodrigues since the 1980s, as we could confirm when revisiting the personal estate of the author and finding an article published by her in the extinct Revista Planeta. Once again, the myth was mentioned by her in the article published in Conceição/Conception journal from the Program of Post-Graduation to which we are part of - see Rodrigues (2012). The approach of the myth of the goddess Inana used by the BPI has as main reference the study published by Sylvia B. Perera (1985), named Caminho para a Iniciação Feminina.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Dec 2015

History

• Received
  09 Dec 2014
• Accepted
  02 May 2015