Sala Preta is a journal published quarterly by the Postgraduate Programme in Performing Arts at the School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo. The journal was founded in 2001 and it is one of the first Brazilian journals to specialise in the Performing Arts. It is also currently one of the journals in the field to be ranked "A1" by QUALIS/CAPES. After publishing in paper for 10 years, the journal inaugurated its electronic version in 2011. Since the issue number 11 from 2011, the journal has only been published digitally.
Universidade de São Paulo, Escola de Comunicações e Artes
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Apresentação do Corpo Editorial do v. 25, esp. 1 da Revista Sala Preta – editores responsáveis pelo dossiê temático, editores executivos e associados, equipe técnica, conselho científico e os pareceristas atuantes nesta edição. Apresentamos também os apoios e financiamentos que possibilitam a publicação da Revista.
Copyright (c) 2026 Corpo Editorial da Revista Sala Preta https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Apresentação do Corpo Editorial do v. 25, n. 2 da Revista Sala Preta – editores responsáveis pelo dossiê temático, editores executivos e associados, equipe técnica, conselho científico e os pareceristas atuantes nesta edição. Apresentamos também os apoios e financiamentos que possibilitam a publicação da Revista.
Is a word not enough? Notes on the publication of artistic videos by the hemispheric institute of performance and politics: Marcos Bulhões interviews Diana Taylor
The interview addresses the importance of the academic, systematic, and enduring publication of videos about Performing Arts productions, focusing on the pioneering online audiovisual library of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics website at New York University, coordinated by researcher Diana Taylor for more than 20 years.
Publishing without perishing: mapping academic journals in performing arts in Brazil
This article presents a mapping of academic journals in the performing arts in Brazil, gathering key data on their origins, historical trajectories, and editorial characteristics. It identifies current editorial teams, publication sections and formats, as well as recent production volume, accompanied by brief textual profiles that outline an overview of the field. The mapping is contextualized through a discussion of the constitution of the academic field of the performing arts and the role of journals in this process, understood as instances of production and dispute over criteria of validation, legitimacy, and institutional consolidation of knowledge in the field. The journals discussed are: Urdimento (Udesc); Repertório (UFBA); Cena (UFRGS); Sala Preta (USP); Móin-Móin (Udesc); Revista Científica/FAP (Unespar); O Mosaico (Unespar); Moringa (UFPB); Rebento (UNESP); Pitágoras 500 (Unicamp); Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença (UFRGS); Pós (UFMG); Conceição/Conception (Unicamp); Aspas (USP); Arte da Cena (UFG); ARJ (UFRN); Ephemera (UFOP); Iaçá (Unifap); Voz e Cena (UnB); TXAI (UFAC); and Revista Brasileira de Estudos em Dança (UFRJ).
Copyright (c) 2026 Henrique Rochelle https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Academic journals in performing arts in Brazil: configurations of the editorial field and political articulations
This paper analyzes the configurations of the editorial field of academic journals in Performing Arts in Brazil from a situated perspective linked to the experience within the Forum of Editors of Performing Arts Journals (Ferac), associated with the Brazilian Association for Research and Graduate Studies in Performing Arts (Abrace). Based on meeting minutes, public letters, institutional documents, and accumulated experiences between 2017 and 2026, the text discusses the material conditions of journal maintenance, structural inequalities among publications, conflicts between evaluation systems and epistemological specificities of the Arts, as well as the political articulations collectively developed by editors in the field. The analysis highlights the institutional heterogeneity of journals, the invisibility of editorial labor, and the tensions produced by evaluation models centered on quantitative metrics and international indexing systems. At the same time, it demonstrates how the Forum of Editors has become a space for editorial training, institutional memory production, and political elaboration within the field.
Copyright (c) 2026 Alba Pedreira Vieira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Page dramaturgy: some reflections on theatrical publishing in Brazil
This article analyzes the publication of contemporary dramaturgy in Brazil, reflecting on the tensions between theatrical text, stage performance, and the experience of reading. Drawing on the formulations of Pierre Banos-Ruf, the author examines editorial criteria such as repertoire, connections with contemporary stage production, and the literary dimension of dramatic writing, relating them to the Brazilian context. The study highlights the role of publishers such as Editora Cobogó, Editora Javali, and Editora Patuá in consolidating published dramaturgy since the 2000s.
Copyright (c) 2026 Lígia Souza https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The anti-method as a critical gesture: the gestating body and methodological challenges in the performing arts
The text discusses how the performing arts, due to their nature as ephemeral practices that articulate presence and absence, challenge rigid academic methodologies. It proposes the anti-method, understood here as a critical gesture that challenges institutional norms and integrates sensory experience, artistic practice, and theoretical reflection. This concept is articulated with David Harvey’s notion of anti-value, understanding art as a field of resistance to traditional regimes of knowledge production. The research project “The Contemporary Antunes Filho: Five Anti-Values in Search of the Enigma-Image on Stage” develops through a revisitation of Antunes Filho’s pedagogical system and demonstrates that the method (or, in this case, the anti-method) must emerge from the concrete circumstances of the body and the creative process, revealing tensions, displacements, and possibilities for renewal within the field of the arts in the university.
Dossiê: Metodologias de Pesquisa das Artes Cênicas na Universidade
Minimal scenes: audiovisual methodologies in research with children in the performing arts
This article reflects on the aesthetic possibilities and ethical challenges involved in the use of audiovisual methods in research with children within the field of performing arts. It analyzes a study conducted with children aged four to six years from a municipal early childhood education school located in central São Paulo. Situated at the intersection of performance studies, education, and childhood sociology, the research focuses on the performativities and theatricalities emerging from children’s participation in the Motoca na Praça project. This initiative promotes children’s right to the city in a territory historically marked by conflicts. Partial findings indicate that valuing children’s spontaneous productions, recorded through an audiovisual device called minimal scenes, fosters micro-agencies, inventiveness, and fictionalities in academic research with children.
Copyright (c) 2026 Melissa da Silva Ferreira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Dis.autonomy practices: Methodological shifts to artist-researcher
This article seeks to discuss and propose shifts within the field of artistic research through the presentation of methodologies currently being developed in a postdoctoral research project. By examining the relationship between subjectivity, autonomy, and knowledge production in artistic research methodologies, the text introduces Dis.autonomy Practices, grounded in the conceptaphor dis.autonomy, as a set of methodological devices developed through laboratories with artist-researchers. Structured around four axes of work, these practices aim to promote shifts in hegemonic conceptions of subject and autonomy, proposing methodological and collaborative procedures for knowledge production in artistic research.
Copyright (c) 2026 Janaina Carrer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The sharing of research: a reflection on the teaching of research methodologies in the performing arts at the graduate level
This article reflects on the pedagogical experience of the course Internal Seminar: Shared Research Methodology, taught in the Graduate Program in Performing Arts at UFRJ between 2021 and 2025. Drawing on the contributions of Bruno Latour and Thomas Kuhn, it discusses the crisis of the modern image of science and its implications for research methodologies in the performing arts. The course was structured through horizontal and vertical dynamics of project sharing, combining theoretical debates, writing exercises, and visual and performative experimentations. The results highlight: the substantial reformulation of research projects through collective processes of reflection; the constitution of an epistemic community grounded in collaboration and horizontality; the expansion of methodological devices, with emphasis on visual, performative, and process-based practices; and the incorporation of forms of writing that foreground the situated, relational, and iterative nature of research in the performing arts.
The presence of black bodies in classical ballet: a look at the ballet corps of the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro
This article investigates the trajectory and presence of Black bodies in the Ballet Corps of the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro, confronting the Eurocentric tradition of classical ballet with the Brazilian racial reality. The study adopts a qualitative methodology that combines documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with dancers. The results reveal a history of exclusion and invisibility, in which the rise of Black artists was frequently limited or conditioned by passability, except in cases of resistance and international success. It concludes that, although quota policies and anti-racist awareness have promoted recent advances—symbolized by more diverse casts since the 2000s—full equity and Black protagonism require continuous structural revision within the institution.
Copyright (c) 2026 Paulo Melgaço da Silva Junior, Velaine dos Santos Poço Viana https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Between mediation and method: journalism as document in performing arts research
This article examines the use of journalistic materials in performing arts research, challenging their understanding as transparent documents and, drawing on Jacques Le Goff, conceiving journalistic texts also as monuments. The discussion of three previous research experiences makes it possible to present a methodological approach to cultural journalism structured around three stages: newsworthiness analysis, the systematization of criticism as a research corpus, and text categorization. It demonstrates that the treatment of journalistic materials requires the explicit consideration of their constitutive mediations, so that corpus systematization and the construction of analytical categories function not merely as operational tools, but as structuring dimensions of knowledge production and of the research process itself.
Dancing the revolution: bodies, aesthetics, and ideology of Maoist China on Brazilian stage
This article examines the choreographic components of the show Ópera de Pequim – Teatro Clássico da China, presented in Brazil in 1956, in order to understand its configuration as an artistic product of the People’s Republic of China during its formative years. Drawing on an overview of the dance field at the inception of the new nation, the analysis demonstrates how the forms and themes seen by Brazilian audiences reflected processes of aesthetic and ideological revision then promoted by the Maoist regime. By situating the production within the broader context of the Cold War, the text argues that its singularity extends beyond disrupting the European predominance in Brazil’s theatrical exchanges, becoming even more pronounced once the internal logic of its conception is brought to light. The aim, therefore, is to illuminate the entanglements between cultural policy, diplomacy, and aesthetic reception, while also contributing to a more nuanced understanding of the Brazilian scene in the 1950s.
Copyright (c) 2026 Esther Marinho Santana https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Academic research as dramaturgical (re)assembly: an investigative approach based on archives
Based on some notions pertaining to the act of researching archives, supported by the theorization of Michel Foucault, this article discusses the notions of dramaturgy and dramaturgism with a view to proposing—both for the Performing Arts and for other fields of the Humanities and Social Sciences—the work of the academic researcher as investigative dramaturgism and, consequently, academic writing as dramaturgical (re)montage. It involves taking the investigative sphere, in different disciplinary areas, as a privileged locus for the use of dramaturgical strategies for analyzing the events under examination through their discursive performance.
Copyright (c) 2026 Sidmar Silveira Gomes, Julio Groppa Aquino https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Practice as research in theatre: methodological perspectives
Over the past three decades, theoretical production on Practice as Research in the arts has expanded significantly; however, a methodological gap in the articulation between theory and practice still persists. This article presents methodological perspectives for Practice as Research in theatre based on the analysis of the collectives Tercer Abstracto (Chile/Brazil) and Cía. Buenos Aires Escénica (Argentina), in dialogue with Jorge Dubatti’s Comparative Poetics. The study proposes an archepoetics of methodology organized into three interdependent stages: Questions/to question, Laboratory/to laboratory, and Staging/to stage. It is conceived as an open model that seeks to contribute to the production, validation, and sharing of knowledge generated by research-based theatre, within and beyond the university.
Copyright (c) 2026 Mateus Fávero https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
When Sala Preta celebrates 25 years of its creation, as one of the editors who participated in it and co-edited 20 of its issues, Luiz Fernando Ramos narrates in a very personal tone all the circumstances and main facts of the journal’s history. He writes on his behalf and calls on all other researchers, professors and artists who have also edited some of those issues to write their own narratives. In some way, the author clarifies how his own formative process as a professor and a researcher accompanied and was important in the process of consolidation of Sala Preta.
Copyright (c) 2026 Luiz Fernando Ramos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Presentation of the Editorial Board of Vol. 25, No. 1 of Revista Sala Preta – the editors responsible for the thematic dossier, executive and associate editors, technical team, scientific advisory board, and the reviewers who contributed to this issue. We also present the institutional support and funding that made the publication of the journal possible.
Performance as a field in higher education in performing arts in Brazil: Marcos Bulhões interviews Lucio Agra and Naira Ciotti
In order to discuss the relevance of Performance as a significant field within higher education in Performing Arts in Brazil, Marcos Bulhões interviewed Naira Ciotti and Lucio Agra, members of the team led by Renato Cohen that created the Artes do Corpo program at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP). Reflection on this pioneering curricular experiment serves as the starting point for a conversation about the individual developments arising from this methodological approach, which integrates creation, learning, and critical reflection.
Copyright (c) 2026 Marcos Bulhões, Lucio Agra, Naira Ciotti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Copyright (c) 2026 Alessandra Montagner, Lucio Agra, Mara Leal, Marcos Bulhões Martins, Naira Ciotti, Vanja Poty https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Panorama of the relations between performance art, performance studies, and the Brazilian university
This issue features a transcript of Bia Medeiros’s remarks at the panel discussion “Panorama of the Relationship Between Performance Art and Performance Studies and Brazilian Universities,” held at the opening of the 1st Interinstitutional Colloquium “Performance as a Field” on May 5, 2022. In this issue of Sala Preta magazine, dedicated to the topic of Performance as a Field in Brazil, we publish this lecture as a posthumous tribute to the artist, professor, and researcher—who passed away on November 28, 2024—and in recognition of her immense contribution to the consolidation of the field and the art of performance in our country.
Copyright (c) 2026 Maria Beatriz de Medeiros (in memoriam) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
From teaching to transmission: three pedagogical-performative practices for performance experiences in teaching and learning spaces
This article analyzes three pedagogical-performative practices for teaching performance, repeating, listening, and elaborating, experienced in the course ‘Teaching Practice in Contemporary Art and Expanded Scene’, within the Performing Arts program at Universidade de Brasília. The analysis highlights the processual, collective, and openness-to-the-unexpected character of performative practices. It argues that performance entails the transmission of knowledge, transforming the class into a program and guiding teaching through an ethics of creation and experience.
In this text, American theorist Jon McKenzie presents what he calls the embedded structure that underlies Performance Studies. McKenzie organises this structure based on an analysis of comments made and perceptions expressed by researchers and artists who are outside of the US/UK axis—which sustains the canon, the dominant trends and the language in the field. The central question investigated in this text, which is already posed in its title, reflects perceptions that are also common in Brazil, regarding the imperialism of Performance Studies. Thus, this translation, at this moment in performance research in the country and in the context of this Dossier, seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the specific place and of critical approaches to the possible dimensions of performance as a field in Brazil.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jon McKenzie; Alessandra Montagner https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Performing teaching: perspectives between performance art and critical-performative pedagogy
This article examines performance pedagogies through the work of Charles Garoian, Denise Pereira Rachel, Elyse Pineau, Marilyn Arsem, and Thaise Nardim, with a focus on two distinct yet interconnected strands: performance art pedagogy and critical-performative pedagogy. The former is concerned with sharing teaching and learning methodologies in performance art, while the latter, grounded in Performance Studies, emphasizes embodied approaches to teaching and investigates how educational processes affect the body. Methodologically, the article offers a critical review of theoretical and practical perspectives. The study contributes by clarifying the specificities of each strand and by advancing a broader understanding of how the concept of performance shapes pedagogical thought and practice.
Copyright (c) 2026 Juliana Lima Liconti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
“To hate theater”: intersections of performance in Marina Abramovic’s plays
This article analyzes how Marina Abramovic’s artistic career complicates the dichotomous relationship between performance and theater that she herself proposed. Based on the analysis of three of Abramović’s plays (Biography, Delusional, and Seven Deaths of Maria Callas), it argues that the line between these two languages is tenuous and susceptible to transition. We draw parallels between concepts from performance—performative, order of presence, and event—and concepts from theater—theatricality, character, and order of representation—showing how these categories interpenetrate. Cohen’s reflection highlights that this hybridization also marks Brazilian practice. It concludes that the opposition between these languages is insufficient to describe the complexity of scenic practice, even that of Marina Abramovic herself.
DOSSIÊ A QUESTÃO DA PERFORMANCE COMO ÁREA NO BRASIL
Black wave: notes on the Concept of Black Performance
This article proposes a theoretical reflection on the concept of Black performance, from a decolonial and critical perspective on the geopolitics of knowledge. Methodologically, it is guided by the thinking of Diana Taylor and Leda Maria Martins, who understand performance studies as a form of knowledge production. In this discussion, reflecting on the concept of Black performance means recognizing a set of artistic, political, and poetic actions developed by artists who self-identify as Black (both Black and Brown), and whose creations engage with ethno-racial issues, positioning the Black body as a site for the production of critical knowledge about Brazilian society.
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniele Avila Small, Marcos Antônio Alexandre, Sofia Boito https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The institutionalization of performance: about the inclusion of actions in Brazilian museums
In order to contribute to performance studies, this article reports on the development of the Guide for the Preservation of Performance Art in Brazilian Public Museums (2025), launched by the Research Group Musealization of Art: Poetics in Narratives (UFBA/UnB) with funding from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development and distributed by the Brazilian Institute of Museums. After a brief history of the shift in mentality that enabled the acquisition of performance art by art collections and a description of the challenges faced by museum professionals trained in the preservation of material art, an overview of the project's stages and the support received is presented, as well as lessons learned for the admission of performance art as an academic field in Brazil.
Copyright (c) 2026 Bianca Andrade Tinoco, Anna Paula da Silva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Renato Cohen’s pioneering research: the PUC/SP Performance Studies Group – persona, pedagogies, and future perspectives
This brief account presents the trajectory of the Performance Studies Group at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP, CNPq), created in 2002 by Renato Cohen (1956-2003) in dialogue with performance studies developed within the academic and artistic spheres. The Study Group has had various configurations over the years, encompassing research lines and meeting formats as diverse as the field itself. The knowledge produced has been shared through academic and artistic events, proposing an innovative approach to the teaching-learning process in Arts at the university. Specifically, it also addresses actions in performance pedagogy, initiated within the Study Group and continued through its professors and alumni.
Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo - PUC/SP
Copyright (c) 2026 Samira Brandão, Lucila Andreozzi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0