Embodying the academic research: somatic epistemologies as a way to compose andcomprehend writing in dance

Abstract

The text proposes a contextualization on the theme of Practice as Research
(PaR) and Somatic-Performative Research (Fernandes et al., 2022; Fernandes, 2019;
Pizarro, 2020) and links these themes to the experiences lived in the curricular
component Somatic Epistemologies in Artistic Research, taught by doctoral professor
Diego Pizarro at PPGAC/UFBA. Based on this, we reflect on Somatics as a possible
way of composing and understanding our academic writing and research, especially in
the field of Dance. In our writing, we describe the concept of PaR, which articulates
artistic practice and theoretical reflection, and we defend Somatics as an approach that
values subjective and bodily experience in the production of knowledge. With this, we
give a first-person account of the experiences of each researcher-author with the
laboratory experienced in the component, where we had the opportunity to visualize the
paths of Somatics and Practice as Research, as a methodological and investigative
horizon. The rapprochement between Dance, Somatics and Practice as Research,
emphasized in the course and in the face-to-face meetings, allowed us to articulate the
bibliography and experiences in an interdisciplinary, integrated and shifting way. The places we reached by embodying aspects of our research offered us understanding, a
sense of integration, coherence and nourishment, which strengthened our writing and methodological searches. Finally, we argue that the incorporation of Somatics into
methodologies