An ethnography of contemporary dance in Maputo, Mozambique, Africa.

Abstract

This research project aims to understand the practice of contemporary dance in the context of the African city of Maputo, capital of Mozambique. Our intention is to relate through ethnographic method based on field research among the main actors involved and a comparative analysis of all the related knowledge areas, the current dynamics of artistic practice (Fortin, 2009) in the Maputo scene. Our desire to re-approach the ethnographic method (used in previous investigations) as a way to investigate the difference, thematize Contemporary Dance and understand how international artistic networks are designed constitutes the main research problem. How African contemporary dance can be defined? What is being produced and how? Which are the conceptions of contemporary African artists? What kind of networks are they taking part in? How are the formation and training processes established?In this multidisciplinary study of art in general and dance in particular involving Dance, Education, Anthropology and History we seek to link the emergence of contemporary dance in Maputo to the field of contemporary dance in the world and establishing possibilities for further exchanges with Brazilian scene.