Body and image on choreographic works: intertwinings between Merleau-Ponty and Aby Warburg in phenomenological Research

Abstract This paper is about a reflection around the methodological path traced by phenomenology and relations between images, body and memory. In this process, we consider the lived experiences as a perceptive soil for knowledge, particularly regarding choreographic work as a poetic and educational expression. The paper revolves around the phenomenology proposed by philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty and, specifically about his comprehension of body, which converses with the notion of pathosformel by Aby Warburg. It is important to note that the built comprehension in this research considers the lived experiences with the world of dance and the choreographic work in the condition of apprentices, teachers and researchers. Through the process of phenomenological reduction, and the composition of virtual boards as mnemonic locus of the perceived experience, it is pointed out that the construction of imagery emerges from the bottom of the memory, history and time. The phenomenological reduction allows us to create polysemic fields and meanings: cultural, affective, epistemological, and educational in the appreciation of the choreographic work, articulating image and movement. In turn, regarding the pathosformel, we understand that images surpass an illustrative meaning, becoming an epistemological principle that guides the process of research, as well as the textual organization. By intertwining the methods, we perceive the poetic and educational perspective in the images of choreographic work, revealed in the body of experience and in the experience of sight in movement.