Movement as living in the instant

Abstract

The Social Window section offers us the opportunity to include in this issue the views of non-academics, whose experience and way of explaining things are fundamental to understanding the complexities of the proposed theme: movement and power in the politics of our present-past (and future). On this occasion, the editors of the issue wanted to include in the conversation voices from the world of artistic creation and, in particular, the performing arts, such as the dancer and contemporary dance choreographer Poliana Lima. She herself chooses two of her pieces, "Atavico" (2014) and "Oro Negro" (2023), to guide us through the forms and meanings that movement acquires when it expresses power through, for example, identities (race, ethnicity, gender, sex, class, disability) as physical markers of bodies, immobilities or intermediate places ("in-between") that question the organisation of life in binary categories. We also reflect on movement as space-time and how temporality and spatiality, their interpretations and physical expressions on stage, reveal mechanisms of social power, from the most subtle to the most obvious. This interview was conducted on 21 September 2023. Infinite thanks to Poliana for her time, her energy and for this stimulating conversation.