Improvisation and Knowledge of axé

Altemar Di Monteiro interviews Gustavo Melo Cerqueira

Resumen

This interview aims to explore, based on a Black perspective, the intersections between improvisation, theater pedagogy, and axé knowledge based on a dialogue between Altemar Di Monteiro and Gustavo Melo Cerqueira. The interview, conducted in May 2025, belongs to ongoing research for the book “Jogo Negro no Mundo” (Black Game in the World). An in-depth conversation between two Black professor-researchers (marked by critical reciprocity and the sharing of academic experiences) was adopted as the methodology. As a result, this text explains the importance of body repertoires and memory in educational processes, defending improvisation as Black intelligence constructed in relation to diasporic knowledge. The notion of spiral pedagogy, inspired by Makota Valdina and experiences in terreiros, articulated the idea of an education as axé centered on the vital force, the ethics of choice, and student autonomy. Such pedagogies should not be reduced to content topics, but rather understood as ways of existing and learning, calling for a commitment to other forms of presence and thought at the university.