ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the slow and often challenging process of archival research in cases where no organized archive exists. It stresses the importance of focusing on authorship in studies of dance and movement practices of the Global South, emphasizing that there are no dances without dancers, and dancers are people who live during particular time periods in a specific place (or places), and they have names, desires, fears, and aspirations. It argues the importance of studying the contributions of those who have been excluded from dance histories and capoeira histories, such as Mestre Canjiquinha. The chapter proposes that researchers “listen” both to the records in the archive and to oral histories, and acknowledge the contribution of “folk” practitioners as both artistic and intellectual labor; it examines capoeira’s innovations for the stage, focusing on the authorship, artistry, and agency of so-called traditional “bearers” of culture with the same reverence reserved for dancers and choreographers of Global North concert dance forms.
