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Artigos originais

Vol. 3 N.º 2 (2025): Revista Estud(i)os de Dança 6

A trajetória da dançarina e coreógrafa Geraldine Stephenson e a preservação do legado labaniano

DOI
https://doi.org/10.53072/RED202502/00201

Resumo

Ensaio-tributo a Geraldine Stephenson (1925-2017), uma das dançarinas e coreógrafas mais importantes da sua geração em Inglaterra. Foi uma das primeiras discípulas de Rudolf Laban no memorável Art of Movement Studio, inaugurado por Lisa Ullmann e Sylvia Bodmer na cidade de Manchester, em 1946, sob os escombros da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Escrever sobre Geraldine Stephenson é aceder à história da dança moderna no contexto britânico, liderada pelas discípulas de Laban (com destaque para Joan Goodrich), e que provocou uma verdadeira revolução na estrutura curricular dos colleges de Physical Training (Educação Física), que passaram a ofertar uma nova unidade curricular: Central European Dance, de matiz expressionista (Ausdruckstanz) e influenciada pelo delsartismo de refluxo (dos Estados Unidos à Europa). A sua trajetória de vida cruza-se com a história de Laban e Lisa Ullmann durante o seu exílio em Inglaterra, e constitui um testemunho dos experimentos coreológicos realizados a partir de 1946, os quais tiveram uma espantosa reverberação internacional. Geraldine Stephenson, guiada por Laban e com o suporte incondicional de Ullmann, deslocou-se do campo habitual da dança para inaugurar e estabelecer, com um talento excecional, um novo domínio profissional no mercado da produção teatral britânica (cénica e televisiva), conhecido como direção de movimento (movement direction), em meados da década de 1950. Este trabalho de investigação e memória não teria sido possível sem Dick McCaw, um dos últimos alunos e assistentes de Geraldine Stephenson, responsável pela produção e arquivo de um conjunto precioso de materiais da sua mestra: fotografias, manuscritos autobiográficos, entrevistas e raros registos videográficos de algumas aulas recebidas. O compromisso de McCaw com as memórias de Geraldine Stephenson materializou o processo de transmissão e preservação do legado deixado por Rudolf Laban a partir de uma perspetiva não hegemônica e inspiradora.

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