EnvelheSer em Meninas de Sinhá

Abstract

The “Grupo Cultural Meninas de Sinhá” is composed of elderly and low-income women, mostly black, living in a peripheral community of the city of Belo Horizonte/Minas Gerais. Existing for twenty-three years, the group had at first a meeting marked by women affected by depression, who used the memory of childhood, especially the play of ciranda dance, as a healing power, able to make them healthier. Currently, with eighteen components, the group has its own headquarters located in its community, two copyrighted albums and a musical documentary. Performs shows and cultural and social projects. This research discusses the old age of women in this group facing the human complexity sapiens-demens, forged amid the challenges of senescence, the sociocultural notion about the aging body, and the experiences lived in groups. Therefore, it consists of an investigation into the perceptions and meanings attributed to aging, leisure and health, intertwined with community artistic practice. A qualitative case study approach was performed, with a variety of data collection procedures such as interviews, document analysis, participant observation and focus group. Data analysis was based on the Collective Subject Discourse. In conclusion, play and its creative development were powerful in deconstructing an idealized pattern of old age, of being a woman, of being poor and black. The women of “Meninas de Sinhá” took over their life stories, established social networks, and built space and leisure time. In this perspective, we consider that the play of ciranda dance and its development as a community artistic practice, constituted as a specific social need to enjoy the leisure experience, for the affective coexistence and for the empowerment of mostly black and poor women.