The Dances of the Orixás: From Sacred Ritual to Performer's Dramaturgy

Abstract

This thesis studies the sacred dances of the Orixás, performed during the public religious rituals in Brazilian Candomblé Keto, and their relation to the Odin Teatret tradition and Eugenio Barba’s theatre anthropology. The study proposes a transdisciplinary perspective to ritual dance practice, based on performance theory and on theories on myth and ritual. The central idea is to create a method to performer’s dramaturgy, departing from the intersection of two contexts: the religious and the theatrical. The further development of the method intends to enhance both the performer's stage presence and the perception of the spectator. The construction of such a methodology is only possible as the result of a long term research. The present work aims to be the first step in this process, uncovering models and patterns of energy found in the relation between the dances and the myths of the Orixás.