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Arts & Communication Performance arts, public space, and early childhood

dancers, visual artists, and experimental musicians. It to undergo transformative experiences, an attitude that
forges a relationship between the body, the environment, has been reinforced in the performing arts, especially
and the material support. The movement of the body in since the performative turn in the 1960s. Coming into
space, previously understood as the essence of dance, play with artistic events allows the possibility of achieving
undergoes ruptures in its understanding from the dialogue esthetic experiences, drawing attention to the effects such
with performance art, projecting itself out of its purity as experiences can generate, and, as a result, expanding the
an artistic genre, and bringing to the spectator the sensorial infinite possibilities of existence in the world.
experience of the body and the perceptions caused by the Why not exercise this experience from early childhood?
three-dimensional space, creating events that involve Observing a baby’s initial interactions with the environment
everyone – both artists and spectators – into the scene. shows that sensoriality is the main mediator in creating
The performative turn in working with children has knowledge about the world. Our first experiences with
been observed since the 1990s. Peters (2017) points out life, while instinctive – through the devices that store
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that “work for children and young people has always and activate the intelligence required for survival – are
been highly experimental and innovative, an open field essentially esthetic, engaging senses, perception, and
for creating hybrids in a high range of influences.” This imagination. When you watch a young child playing
approach embraces presentification and interactive around the house, in the park, on the street, or by the
experiences, especially when working with babies and beach, you can see their interest in exploring these spaces,
young children, inscribing itself in the field of English Live in tactile experimentation with materials, and in the bodily
Art. Unlike more traditional dance and theater, Live Art relationship established with sound, visual, and sensorial
enables a more diverse and transdisciplinary approach to elements.
performance, bringing together experiences with the body Scholars such as Herbert Read and Victor Lowenfeld
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from dance, performative actions, and visual spatiality. It have dedicated their studies to children’s expression in
is from this perspective that the work of Núcleo Quanta the visual arts. In the field of performing arts, pioneers
presents itself as part of a contemporary panorama within such as Jacques Coupeau, Suzanne Bing , and Peter Slade
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the performing arts. have contributed to the theory and practice of theater
Beyond the work of creation, the group, through with children. More recently, many artists have dedicated
its artistic and pedagogical actions, seeks to enrich the themselves to practicing with children from the earliest
experiences of participants concerning their bodies, years, most notably the Danish visual artist Anna Marie
movement, and spatiality. It fosters connections and Holm and the performance artist Peters, as previously
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collective learning, providing cooperation between mentioned in the European context. In addition, artistic
children and adults, artists and spectators, as well as expression is a reference point in early childhood education,
encouraging artistic collaboration between parents and from John Dewey’s pragmatism to the centrality of the
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their children. atelier in education within Loris Malaguzzi’s approach in
Reggio Emilia .
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3. On esthetic experience and early
In Brazil, the influence of the New Education Movement
childhood in the 1920s marked the presence of this field in education, 1
Esthetic experience emerged as a philosophical question and in the past 10 years, significant advancements have
and was placed in the conceptual field following the been made in relation to artistic practices with early
recognition of art as an autonomous category in Western childhood. These developments have entailed the fusion
culture. Schiller , among others, viewed the esthetic of informal education and esthetic experience. Notable
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experience as a way of liberating individuals from an researchers such as Marina Marcondes Machado , with
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essential rationalist upbringing and linked perception
and sensitivity to a multidimensional understanding 1 The New Education Movement, or New School, was a
of the human being, broadening our cultural horizons, movement to renew education at the beginning of the
and diversifying our ways of life. The esthetic attitude is 20th century, reaching Europe, America, and Brazil. It
characterized by the subject’s stance toward the world, advocated the leading role of children in the educational
coming into play with artistic events, thereby constituting process, universal and democratic education, and respect
itself as a field of experience. for diversity. Influenced by Dewey’s pragmatism, the New
School was guided by the life-experience axis, respecting
In this sense, artistic works and events do not the individuality of subjects and seeking their insertion
exist merely to be understood or mastered but to be into society. One of the movement’s more representatives in
experienced. They represent instances that call subjects Brazil was the Bahian educator Anísio Teixeira.

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1668