Art under Authority

The story of this project starts at the beginning of my time at the University of Maryland. I've always had the goal of bringing Brazilian culture and history to the wider UMD community. I began this effort via my Honors, Design, Cultures and Creativity (HDCC) program Capstone Project titled R.O.Da (Resisting Oppression through Dance) in Spring of 2024. Through R.O.Da, I used the Brazilian martial art, Capoeira, as a base for movement-driven research. R.O.Da explored how the history of capoeira shapes how it is practiced nowadays. As part of that research, I went to Joao Pessoa, Brazil, for a week to learn capoeira and conduct interviews. I then compiled the research into infographics, a pamphlet, and a dance that was presented in the 2024 production of UMOVES at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. However, due to the limitation of the Dance Concert, R.O.Da was only 7 minutes long. 

Immediately following R.O.Da, I wanted to create a longer project that explored the role of music in Brazilian culture, particularly an era of music that hid revolutionary messages within song lyrics.  However, I was unable to come up with a way to connect all the songs I had in mind together until October 2024. It suddenly occured to me that the reason these songs hid messages was because of the Brazilian military dictatorship that occurred from 1964-1985. While this era brought a sense of economic prosperity to the population, it came at the terrible cost of numerous lives and the oppression of arts and of thinking. This period was marked by human rights abuses where the “wrong thought” could lead you to prison and to death (or disappearance). My grandparents lived through this era, and my parents were born during the “Opening/Abertura” era that started in 1974 when President Geisel initiated a gradual process of re-democratization that culminated with the end of the regime in 1985. My parents’ lives were heavily influenced by the regime, where their access to books, music, and art was restricted by the Public Entertainment Censorship Division (DCDP)- an official censorship and inspection body of the Brazilian Federal Police Department, which censored any form of art in Brazil that “could be against the government's views”. 

However, I didn't want this project to be only a dance. While dance is a very accessible medium, I also feel that a project with this complicated a backstory needs a hefty amount of research to back it up. Along with that, the goal of my project was always to inform people of the history of arts censorship and how that relates to the power the arts have in terms of advocacy and spreading a message.

In order to bring this project together, I applied for two programs; 

1. The Experimental Performance Series (EPS) hosted by the Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS) department

2. The Creative in Residence (CIR) program, hosted by the Honors, Design, Cultures, and Creativity (HDCC) program

The EPS allows me to have guaranteed rehearsal space, a theater to put on my performance, and choreographic and production support from the TDPS department. The CIR program allows me to have space to work with HDCC to bring together different backgrounds and creative outlets that would overall strengthen my goal of exploring the power of art. The most important part of this project for me is to get people thinking about how powerful art can be, and exploring how that factors into their lives.

Via the EPS program, I will present Caminhando e Cantando on October 25th, 2025, in the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center's Dance Theater.

Via the CIR program, I will work with students throughout the 2025-2026 school year to develop a research-driven synthesis Mega-zine, investigating how art is influenced and influences authoritarian regimes