The body always knew how to dance before asking for permission.

This issue of Arte Cítrica takes dance as its point of departure to affirm that art never exists outside the world: it responds to its time, challenges it, and reinvents it. Rather than merely celebrating an artistic language, this volume recognizes a contested space where bodies defy norms, traverse history, and transform movement into resistance. Because dancing has been—and continues to be, in many contexts—an act of defiance.

Featured in this issue:

• My Hair Is Not for Touching: Body, Image and Defiance in Videodance — Patricia Ressurreição examines videodance as a space of aesthetic and political dispute, bringing together racism, the body, and audiovisual language.

• Reconfiguring Sound in Diaspora — Crá Rosa takes center stage in the music section with a journey that repositions African percussion as thought, memory, and creative expression.

• Wolf Crew: When Dance Becomes a Tool for Social Transformation — Sophia Manhaes presents the breakdance collective that turned dance into belonging, education, and community.

• The Leap Toward Freedom: Body, Technique and Presence in Stiletto Dance — The Diva da Comunidade project reveals Stiletto as a language of autonomy and women's empowerment.

• The Body the State Tried to Silence — Tathy Zimmermann revisits the persecution of samba and gafieira, revealing dance as a historical form of resistance.

• Interview: Rafaella Pasini Abudi — The researcher reflects on dance as a form of thought, listening, and meaning-making.

• Arabic Dance: Culture, Body and Expression — Kátia Velo proposes a reading of Arabic dance as a living cultural heritage that extends beyond stereotypes.

• You'll Fall in Love with Your Pointe Shoes — Keren Montrezoro explores the relationship between the ballerina, her pointe shoes, and technique as a meeting point between body and care.

This issue does not seek to conclude the conversation about dance—it opens it from an unexpected perspective.