From festivals to festivals: the development of a Dance teacher within the higher education program in Physical Education in the extreme south of Brazil

Abstract

The presence of dance has permeated the history of Physical Education in Brazil since the first decades of the 19th century. This research primarily aimed to problematize the meanings attributed by academics and graduates of a Physical Education teacher training program of teacher education and professional practice based on their experiences across ten editions of the Festival de Artes Corporais de Rio Grande. Twenty-three subjects were interviewed via Google Meet, including graduates and academics with a degree in progress, between October and December 2024. Based on the analysis of the interviews, three categories were constructed in the form of questions: Who is afraid of Dance and the Festival?; Time constructs meanings; Who can dance? The reverberation from the experience with the Dances/Festival discipline was shown in the understanding that all cultural, political, aesthetic, and social manifestations began to make sense and become an agenda in the educational spaces where the graduates work. This confrontation was not extinguished during their initial training, but proved to be a fundamental stance when they began teaching