THE PEDAGOGICAL USE OF DANCE FILMS: NOTES ON THE SCRIPT MAKING OF THE DOCUMENTARY “JUST DANCING” – A FILM ABOUT THE LIFE AND WORK OF HELENITA SÁ EARP

This article aims to reflect how dancing teaching processes, information about the history of Brazilian dance, recontextualization of choreographic works and fragments of life are interwined in the script making and narrative construction of the documentary “Just Dancing” – a film about the life and work of Helenita Sá Earp – a dance pioneer in the Brazilian universities. Helenita Sá Earp established a theoretical structure for the teaching and creation in dancing, having formed a generation of professionals who have spread these principles in universities throughout Brazil. The film script was structured as follows: 1) Documentary testimonials: interviews with Sá Earp´s fellow contemporary dance professionals who have taken part in her life; 2) Choreographies: recreations of works which were considered highly inovative by experts of the subject such as the excursions realised in the United States and Europe, as well as “Rhythm, Shape and Color/ Ritmo, Forma e Cor”, presented in the First Meeting of Dance Schools of Brazil/ I Encontro das Escolas de Dança do Brasil in 1962 and “Random Shapes/ Formas Aleatórias”, performed in the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro/ Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro – MAM/RJ in 1973. These choreographies were registered in external locations that evoke the relationship between Sá Earp and the city of Rio de Janeiro; 3) Technical testimonials: in this topic choreographers and performers discuss about the influence of the Helenita Sá Earp Dance Fundamentals on their work, showing to the câmera some of the principles researched by Sá Earp and 4) Life Fragments: the film poetically shows some moments extracted from the life of Helenita Sá Earp, with a dancer portraying the various stages which her work has been through. This part emphasizes her innovative and pioneering ways not only in what concerns dance itself, but also her attitude towards life guided by a direct connection between body and nature, anticipating and introducing eating and life habits which would only become popular by the end of the twentieth century.