Nthe last few weeks, the program Fantastic, from Rede Globo, debuted a show in which choreographer and body educator Ivaldo Bertazzo teaches viewers how to make good use of their own bodies. The experience exposes to a wide audience the work he has been carrying out since the 70s with different social segments, and which culminated in the creation of an original method of researching the movement. “Bertazzo's work calls into question our ideas both about the body and in relation to Brazil”, maintains Inês Vieira Bogéa, who investigated the artist's trajectory in her doctoral thesis presented at the Institute of Arts (IA) at Unicamp.

Choreographer works with young people from the periphery

The idea of ​​the television picture, according to Inês, is the same one that guides Bertazzo's more general work. The choreographer is dedicated to showing people that movement is fundamental to life, especially to a quality life. The method he developed, called Movement Reeducation, began to take shape in the 1970s, when he carried out his first work with the so-called “dancing citizens”. These were nothing more than so-called ordinary people, of varying ages and social origins, who were introduced to the world of dance and who helped to create scenic shows. This experience maintained close ties with an ongoing movement at the time, whose assumption was that anyone could make art, not just the artist.

According to the author of the thesis, who was guided by professor Cássia Navas Alves de Castro, Bertazzo's first shows were already a stimulus for reflection on Brazilian society, as well as on the different cultures it houses. “The theoretical bases he uses are largely based on ideas from the 50s and 60s, when many thinkers focused on the movement of the body and its relationship with the surroundings. Such theories made use of methods that emerged in the post-war period, such as that of Françoise Méziéres, who proposed postural re-education as a way of understanding the human being as a whole”, explains Inês.

Based on these bases, Bertazzo incorporated other elements into his dance teaching methodology. He began to employ physiotherapy techniques, notably on people's motor coordination and muscle chains. And, as expected, he gave up the academicism of classical dance to favor freedom of movement. “In his method, he mixed aspects of Indian dances and Brazilian round dances and associated them with oriental mask theater techniques and physiotherapy techniques. With this, he was able to broadly develop a new awareness of his own body and its expressiveness”, analyzes Inês.

Two interesting aspects of Bertazzo's work, continues the researcher, concern the materials and dynamics he uses during classes. As the fundamental proposal is to show that everyone can dance, regardless of age or physical condition, the choreographer uses trivial objects that are within anyone's reach, such as balls, sticks, PVC tubes and elastic bands. “These materials are designed to help people understand that the skeleton is the basic structure of the human body and that muscles have a more flexible function. It is the articulation between the two that allows us to move”, explains Inês. The activities carried out using this method, according to her, always take on a playful and pleasurable characteristic.

Bertazzo's experience with the “dancing citizens” was not the only aspect analyzed by the researcher in her doctoral thesis. Deeply knowledgeable about the choreographer's work, given that she has training in his methodology and was assistant director and co-director of shows designed by him, Inês also highlights in her study another fundamental element in the artist's work: the involvement with projects of a predominantly Social. In the 2000s, he began work to professionalize young people from the urban periphery, more specifically from Favela da Maré, a poor community in Rio de Janeiro.

There, for three years, Bertazzo applied his method and realized that he needed to work on new languages ​​so that he could achieve his proposed purpose. After a successful experience in Rio de Janeiro, according to Inês, the choreographer transferred the project to São Paulo. Throughout these experiences, he had the financial support of important companies and entities, such as Petrobras, Votorantim, Natura and Sesc-SP. “For Bertazzo, this change of cast, that is, the replacement of people of varying ages and socioeconomic conditions with young people from popular sectors, also meant a change in the quality and application of his method. The reason is that these young people had, in addition to motor skills, time available to rehearse”, details the author of the thesis.

According to Inês, the method developed by Bertazzo finds followers both in Brazil and abroad. “The way he understands dance, as an expressive movement, resonates in various parts of the world. Bertazzo sees the stage as a privileged space to discuss society and understand what is happening around us. This concept obviously involves the viewer”, says the researcher. Last year, the choreographer began a new stage in his career, by establishing a professional company, the result of experiences carried out with teenagers from underprivileged communities in São Paulo.

In an interview with a variety magazine, Bertazzo explained in a very simple way the central objective of his method: “It is to make people explore movements to achieve quality of life. There's no point in turning 100. It is necessary to reach old age in health and in good physical shape.” And he added: “People move on automatic pilot. Rushing, overwork and daily tasks impose incorrect gestures that can compromise the body, especially the spine. My proposal is to rescue the correct way of moving.”