Ações e prática culturais juvenis: apropriações de espaços públicos em João Pessoa.

Abstract

This article proposes to present and analyze ways of relating and occupying urban spaces based on cultural practices known as "signal", performed by dancers known as b-boys, at traffic lights in the city of João Pessoa. This study understands the practice of "signal" as short interventions in the crosswalks in which b-boys present a choreography and, in the end, ask for money from the drivers. The intention here is to reflect upon the perspective of subversion and resignification of the use of the urban space by an artistic practice. The field work, specifically for this article, has been taking place since October 2016, at some traffic lights, with informal conversations in the intervals of the presentations, and later with recorded interviews. This article is part of a research that aims to map the presence and the cultural practices of break-dance groups - one of the arts of hip-hop culture - in the capital of Paraíba. This approach gains relevance in a context of concern, on the part of some, of a process of emptying of urban spaces. More broadly, we intend to observe and analyze the perception of these young dancers on the city and its urban spaces.