Its name means “the dance of life”.
This means placing music, movement and emotion in one’s life.
Biodanza is a method that stimulates the expression and development of one’s resources, favouring well-being, communication, creativity.
Poetically, Biodanza is a celebration of life.
A bit of history: where and how did it originate?
The method was conceived by Rolando Toro Araneda, pedagogue, psychologist, anthropologist and Chilean poet. The research that led him to Biodanza was born from intense and paradoxical personal experiences. World War II had shown him the levels of perversity that humans can reach. On the other hand, he had lived wonderful experiences: he had fathered children and had entered contact with the first groups dealing with ecology.
Facing the abyss created by human contradictions, Rolando Toro felt the desire to favour the experience of the wonderful in as many people as possible. He found a universal language in music, the only language that everyone could understand, and in the dance he found the ideal form to integrate body and soul.
So he began to form small groups to dance, sing and meet with music.
How is Biodanza proposed? Is there a dance school?
Biodanza is not a dance in the usual sense. There are no steps or choreographies to learn; no expressive or creative performances are proposed.
Rolando Toro noted that certain movements combined with certain music had effects on the well-being of the participants.
The methodology of Biodanza consists precisely in the integration of music, movement and experience of being here and now in a group.
Music combined with movement stimulates feeling, and the experience of being in the present moment.
To do Biodanza therefore you do not need to know how to dance, and there is no need to learn any dance techniques.
The term dance here means movement full of meaning and the participant discovers this meaning bit by bit each time:
• the experience of the present moment, and
- during moments of verbal expression proposed for this purpose.
At the beginning of every session there is an active, vitalizing part, followed by a relaxing part, lastly there is a brief final reactivation. Individual exercises alternate with exercises in pairs, exercises in small groups and exercises in which the whole group participates.
Is there a relationship between dance therapy and Biodanza?
I consider dance therapy to be a relative of Biodanza. The fundamental difference is that Biodanza does address conflicts but rather it stimulates the healthy part of the person, meaning for health not the contrary, illness. Rather it addresses the process of living at the highest possible level, as a whole person, and of promoting the same for others. Participants recover the ability to activate positive mood states and to achieve rewarding relationships.
What music do you use?
The music in Biodanza awakens feeling and promotes the bodily expression of emotions.
The repertoire of music developed by Rolando Toro consists of about 400 tracks: includes both popular music and classical music. We use primitive rhythmic music, jazz, pop, rock, tropical rhythms, melodies, the Beatles, Mozart, Vivaldi, etc.
We use this music to stimulate specific effects, which have already been proven by many studies of musicology and music therapy. The most known effects are of activation (thanks to the rhythm) and relaxation (thanks to harmony), and then there is also the effect of encouraging communication with the other (thanks to the melody). These effects, which would be obtained even only by listening to music, are intensified in Biodanza and concentrated thanks to the proposal of specific movements and group situations.
What more can be said about the movements that are proposed?
Movement has a fundamental function in helping to live and to know and recognize one’s own emotions, that is, to re-appropriate one’s own experiences by activating a process of awareness of oneself. The participant discovers themselves, bit by bit, together with many of their potentialities that were asleep (as a way of putting it).
It is important to remember that if a human being does not receive or search for stimuli, they have no way to develop their resources. In this regard, Biodanza creates an environment that is enriched with positive stimuli including music combined with movement in a group.
What could be added about this experience?
Biodanza stimulates the experience of well-being here and now. These are intense feelings of being alive in the present moment. The most widespread education systems focus on thought and speech to the detriment of what the person feels in the present. Instead, learning involves the whole body and not just cognitive functions.
Biodanza promotes learning through the three great functions of the psyche: feeling, thinking and acting, by giving priority to feeling.
Why?
Because the experience has an immediate effect of integration, revitalization, and caring. Having an experience and being the experience is the same thing. For Rolando Toro, experience is a direct form of knowledge, which does not need reason. The effect of the experience involves the whole organism.
Specifically, Biodanza activates feelings of vitality and health and harmony, of pleasure, of renewal, of communication and of affection.
In Biodanza people find opportunities to reactivate their health circuit. In this way, the body works best and has less chance of becoming stressed.
In which areas is it applied?
Biodanza is applied as a promotion for health.
Biodanza is positioned in the new stream of thought and research of which the Psychology of Health is also part. It proposes an overturning of the point of view centred on discomfort and psychological malaise, rather focusing on well-being and a good adaptation to the environment.
Specifically, it is about nurturing responsibility towards oneself by promoting resources like authenticity, interpersonal skills, optimism, vitality, and the ability to experience pleasure.
Biodanza is directed towards these objectives through the articulation of music, movement and presence, living in the here and now.
From the psychological point of view, there are three pillars in Biodanza:
- bonding, the relationship in a group context;
• perceiving and expressing emotions through the body;
• living the present moment, perceiving oneself in connection with life, being present in what is happening both inside and outside of oneself.
Biodanza is also applied in the medical and psychological clinical fields as a complementary method to conventional treatments. We have experience of application of Biodanza to people with psychological discomfort, to those suffering from psychosomatic illnesses, to people with diabetes, with alimentary disorders, Parkinson’s disease, to those suffering from addictions, etc.
Biodanza works in the many different areas because it acts on the healthy part of the person, facilitating feeling and expressing the desire to live and renew oneself that is latent in each human being.
Who are the type of people who turn to Biodanza the most?
Biodanza is most beneficial for those seeking psychological well-being and are maybe not so motivated at the time, to talk about themselves.
Biodanza is addressed to children and adolescents as a prophylaxis and health promotion, and for encouraging their growth process.
Biodanza is aimed at adults who wish to strengthen the sense of self-efficacy, who are aspiring to establish deep bonds, who are have the intention to reduce their stress levels, who desire the improvement of their vital impetus, who aspire to an desired existential renewal, who want increased creative capacity.
Biodanza is addressed to the elderly for promoting health, for facilitating experiences of well-being and conviviality, and specifically to stimulate what that Rolando Toro has called the late potentials.
How do you change with Biodanza?
The participants describe their experiences. For example: “Returning home from work, for the first time I thought of myself for once and I took a hot bath, after that I started to prepare dinner for the whole family”. “In the office I received a compliment and for the first time I accepted it with pleasure. I felt worthy “. “I lost 2 kilos without realizing it. In fact, I’m eating less and taking my time with other pleasant things.” “I feel more energetic, I sleep better and I feel motivated, and this feeling lasts more every time”. “I feel more predisposed towards the others, I listen to them more carefully, and I have become more communicative”. “I went for a walk in nature, I am normally so sedentary that I struggle to get out of the house”. “Usually they are so condescending, that I prefer to avoid discussions, instead the other day I said NO. I was firm and serene, but I held my position. I was amazed at myself. I did not think about it: it was spontaneous behaviour”.
Biodanza improves mood, increases self-esteem, promotes rewarding relationships, stimulates creativity as a capacity for renewal, and promotes contact with nature. Every change needs to be relived, and repeated. So attendance at weekly sessions is important. The group plays a fundamental role, giving participants the necessary complicity for the implementation and establishment of changes.
We feel joy, pleasure, strength, health, relaxation, affection, harmony, and a sense of renewal. For example, the joy of finding a friend, playing with your child, intimacy with a partner, singing, taking a walk in nature. Many everyday experiences are sources of joy: it is necessary to place one’s attention on them; in this way there they give a sense of vitality and renewal. Experiences frequently generate emotions, and impulses to action.
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