Conversing Materialities in Coreografias de papel: From Stage to Book

Abstract

This article analyzes the project known as Coreografias de papel (Choreographies on paper), which sought to transpose contemporary Bahian choreographies into a format of object-book aimed at children and young audiences. This article focuses on how these intermediate artifacts enter into dialogue with the materiality of dance and the book, thus expanding the literary field through creative translations of performances into tangible and interactive objects. This work responds to the need to democratize access to contemporary art, transforming ephemeral spectacles into accessible and enduring experiences that incorporate bodily, spatial, and temporal elements into fixed supports, promoting active and immersive reading. A qualitative, bibliographic, and comparative methodology was followed, involving the analysis of three object-books in relation to video recordings of the original choreographies. The volumes examined were based on publicly selected spectacles: a box with foldable cards and luminescent prints that evoke a cosmic environment and encourage a choreography of reading guided by a diary; another box, in kraft paper with reconfigurable elements, verses, and images dealing with themes of demolition and reconstruction; and a third one, presented as a fabric game, with thematic pieces on ancestry and ritual, emphasizing oral tradition and collective narrative. It is noteworthy that these objectbooks were found to function as hybrid artifacts, where the physicality of dance is embedded in the language of the book. Thus, reading turns into some form of choreography activating the reader’s body. As a conclusion, we highlight the success of the material transposition, broadening the boundaries of contemporary literature and recognizing the non-autonomous nature of these objects.