FERNANDA PRATA
Interdisciplinary Artist
Academic Research
Currently, I am a PhD researcher at De Montfort University, awarded with a full scholarship.
My research title stands at the moment as Anthropophagic Actions for the Contemporary Dancer: An Approach Towards Presence Amplification and Enhancing Devising Processes.
I am looking at the concept of an ‘anthropophagic action’, a metaphorical cannibalistic act undertaken by contemporary dancers to unlock their embodied knowledge and support their devising process.
I introduce the notion of self-cannibalism, where dancers cannibalise their own actions and experiences, enabling them to find and deploy their homebody; a term I use building on Richard Schechner's (2020) and Eugenio Barba’s (1991) theorisation of consciously and unconsciously constructed forms of bodily codification, on which we all draw in our daily lives. I contend that utilising their homebody enriches the dancer’s practice, enabling them to amplify their devising skills and also allowing space for generosity and solidarity within contemporary dance training settings.
Artistic Research & Projects