The Representation of the Body through a Creative Project

This seminary has been an excellent chance to think and to argue on the concept of the body as our “home”, therefore, from the perspective of Richir (1993), we have and we are our body. This concept of the body-object and the body-citizen has increasingly been a fertile field in general to rethink the models established in the area of the aesthetics and the domain of the arts. In this way, I believe and agree with Marzano-Parisoli when she suggests that, “to study and to analyze the way a society defines illness, the impairment of the human body and health... the modalities of identification of the unhealthy individuals or healthy ones, have taught us , not only about the habits and the expectations of this society in relation to the body, but also ...its place in the contemporary ethics. (2004:69)
This identification passes through the acceptance of the body that we have and that we are.Further, we have to reflect in terms of the acceptance of the body that we present to the society, which many times, does not fit into the standards of beauty values the advertising industry and the media impose on us.
This established imposition, which in many ways has been accepted culturally, has reserved a non-considerate place for the no-standardized body. This difference, that it can be related to the color of the skin, weight, or the impaired body, compel us to reach a kind of understanding and acceptance beyond the fixed social limits established by some behind an office desk as “the” norm. When rethinking the human body we must apply a holistic vision, as it is suggested by Celano: “we are more than what our bodies. Our great existential challenge is to promote the alignment between personality and body, that ii will lead us towards our own Essence.” (Celano, 1999:45)
This relationship with our potencial in the essence, or identity, can go through the inner knowledge that helps one to recognise skills living in that very body: the creativity.
The Creativive process related with the body communication, creative expression, such as role playing and flowing movement following an adjusted methodology, is for Rollo May (1982), cited by Virgolim, as “ the meeting of the human being, intensely conscientious, with the world. As for the creative process it may be considered as the expression of the individual’s emotional health in any situation to carry through something new.(1994:47). Virgolim still adds the factor of the personal imagination, which produces a “creative courage, that implies the discovery of new forms, new symbols, new standards, which a new society can be constructed from. (1994:47)
These new standards of perception of the body in the field of the creativity are also related with the body in terms of any physical challenge be it movement or any other situaltion. All that can not impair the stimuli of enormous capacities of expression. Taking into account the creativity as a potential within any human being, the body that deals with challenges in locomotion, sight or any other physical situation, by the use of proper methodology the ability of communicative expression ranges from art to business fields. The quality of life is boundless as I have seen in my professional experience.
To see people with any kind of physical challenge, fortunately has become more common in varied areas such as dramatic expression, creative movement, academic life and in the business activities. There is, however, for some people the initial confrontation to see a body in a wheel chair leading a workshop on creative movement, or a visually impaired person with total control on the performance space. The expressive capacity displayed removes any preconception on the body that is out of the “normal standard” imposed by varied means of communication.
Basically that matters when the body is on any scene has to do with its exposure. The body with any impairment, when exposed, through a creative situation, that can be a conference presentation as well, makes us rethink our own body.
The proposal of a project I supersived at a private university in the Great Lisbon, The Piaget Institute, was proposed by a group of students taking specialization on therapeutically recovery on the Human Kinetic course. This project was in the context of a seminary on New Forms of Theraphy for the Impaired Body and the proposal was to discuss the creative process as one of the several forms of theraphy. The idea to present a fan of expressive possibilities, was to take away any impossibility of creative expression when the body presents a type any of impairment.
Limits, all we have them, either in the physical context or in terms of communicative expression. To go beyond limits or to know how to use our inner potentials cause in us an opportunity to explore the creativity that is ready to arise out of our bodies.
The creative process evolved out of an idea and a great will of exploring deep levels of reflection on the theme we were developing. That experience, beyond the joy to work together, became pertinent, for the professional branch that those students were in preparation for in the future. From a distance now I may testify that each element of the cast, during the workshops/rehearsals, thought about the creative capacity of the body, either normal” or “the different one ".
We found the best possible structure of stage, the types of body impairment that we could represent in scene through the creative movement, the development of the scenes, the numbers of participants for each segment, the choice of music, as the workshops to develop the notion spacing, body distance, stage paths and the transition from one scene to another one.
The final the structure of the project is as follows:
Opening, Individuals on crutches, Invisuals, People on wheel chairs, Individuals with hearing impairment, amputees, and the conclusion of the piece.
Through those small segments, the body impairment was presented in a rather positive, natural and creative way. We expect that our performance has served as a good start to argue and to rethink on the practical concepts dealing with all kinds of human bodies. In addition, that “our own home” becomes more illuminated and that the limits imposed by societies, such as several architectural barriers, that the bodies with any kind of impairment have to face on a daily basis. As for cultural values, related with the “perfect body”, a concept proposed by Marzano Parisoli (2004), they have been past the the crossroads these days as the way ahead leads us towards a vaster horizon of human potencial.
Francislei Teixeira Moreira
Lisbon, April 26, 2006 / Revised on June 21, 2009.

Bibliographical References:
Alencar, E. (2001), Creativity and Education of The Higly Gifted, Petrópolis, Voices.
Celano, S. (1999), Body and Mind in the Education, an emergency exit, Petrópolis, Voices.
Marzano-Parisoli, M.M. (2004), To think the Body, trad. Lúcia M. Endlich Orth, Petrópolis, Voices.
Virgolim. e Alencar, E. (org.) (1994), Creativity, Expression and Development, Petrópolis, Voices.