The Turning Point of Black Dances in Brazil

Abstract This chapter explores the transformative role of Black dances in Brazil as dynamic expressions of resistance, identity, and epistemological autonomy amid enduring racial inequalities. It examines how Afro-diasporic dance practices, rooted in orixá and urban traditions and infused with spiritual, ancestral, and corporeal knowledge, shape pedagogies and challenge hegemonic narratives within academic and cultural institutions. The chapter critiques the Eurocentric dominance in Brazilian dance education and highlights the lack of recognition for Black artistic contributions, while emphasizing the resurgence of decolonial movements led by young Black scholars and artists. Through case studies such as Passinho and community collectives, the chapter reveals how peripheral aesthetics and Afro-diasporic cosmologies disrupt established power structures in both the academy and the cultural industry. Finally, the chapter asserts that Black dances not only reconfigure memory and identity but also animate a vital counter-archive that reimagines Brazil’s national imaginary and collective future.