Biodanza and Ethics according to Emmanuel Lévinas
by Silvia Signorelli – 2018
Since the nineties, Rolando Toro Araneda (1924-2010), founder of the Biodanza System, dedicated himself to the study of the thoughts of Emmanuel Lévinas (1905-1995), one of the most important exponents of twentieth century philosophical thought, having immediately grasped the scope with respect to the constant evolution system that he created which was always in.
Rolando Toro was passionately devoted to deepening the investigation that Lévinas developed throughout his life and with which he attained the definition of Ethics as the Primary Philosophy, a fundamental dimension of existence, proposed as a transcendent bond that springs from epiphanic encounter. For this reason, Professor Toro included Lévinas among the philosophical antecedents of Biodanza.
Reflecting on the contemporaneousness of the existential and theoretical paths of Rolando Toro and Emmanuel Lévinas, and on the philosophical desperation at the horrors of war, for both a starting point in the elaboration of their considerations, we can identify some particularly relevant passages of Lévinasian thought in the light of numerous connections with Biodanza: starting from these connections, we will see the Biodanza System emerge as an advanced expression of contemporary culture in a proactive connection with the intellectual progress of our time.
Analysing the evolution of the concept of bonding in the history of humanity, Rolando Toro placed Lévinasian thought at the apex: through the individualism of the Machiavellian matrix, the concept of identity in relation to the other, investigated by Jean Piaget (1896-1980), the dimension of us by Martin Mordechai Buber (1878-1965) and the empathy of Theodor Lipps (1851-1914), the apex represents, according to Rolando, the concept of the epiphany of the encounter of Emmanuel Lévinas.
- The Other and the encounter with the infinite Other: this is, according to the Lithuanian philosopher, the fundamental dimension of existence, the source of the Ethics, as well as the source of the identity that, according to Léevinas, goes from the Other to Me: in fact, it is through the encounter with the Other, that the possibility of being oneself is realized. The Other “coming to meet me expels me from my solitude,” says Lévinas. Adding, the fact that “you would not kill” the naked Face of the Other that only asks to be welcomed, is the very source of Ethics.
The definition of Biodanza as the Poetic of the Human encounter echoes immediately, it is an occasion for the recognition of the Other and the discovery and connection with one’s own identity, the most intimate part of our intimacy, as Saint Augustine wrote and as Rolando remembered. The Other that Levinas speaks of, always has a capital “O”. They remain forever the Other, escaping any attempt at categorization, explanation, or use. They live in an infinite, transcendent dimension, thanks to which the “Desire for Others” is born in us. Here we respond positively to the request of the Other to become our “cosmic guest “, to welcome their mystery.
- The dimension of corporeity: according to Lévinas, the encounter with the Other takes place within corporeity: the steps in which Lévinas speaks of the body are intense. He speaks about an inter corporeity, a network that unites all of us human beings, and of the face: “the gesture of the body is not a discharge of nerves, it is the celebration of the world, it is poetry … there is the direct exposure of the Face, with no defences … The Face is meaning on its own”. How can we not remember our vivencias in the body, the experience of the body that knows before it is known, that feels before being felt, and lives before being lived?
- Ethics is responsibility for the Other: according to Lévinas, responsibility is the responsibility for the bond with the Other, its source is transcendence. For Lévinas the identity of the subject coincides with their being responsible for the Other; he recites a passage from the philosopher: “I can substitute everyone, but no one can substitute me”. We ask ourselves: In what? We answer: in responsibility for the Other.
The experience of Biodanza is an experience of affective bonding with the other, in the moment when I go beyond my ego and I reconnect with totality, and in it with the other, who is different from me, that is its expression. Lévinas synthesizes, with both poetry and rigor of thought: “My freedom does not have the last word, I am not alone … the ethical conscience tangibly welcomes others”. We take the concept of vivencia back to the heart, the experience of being alive here and now, and in particular the lines of vivencia of affectivity and transcendence; the gaze, mutual recognition and unconditional acceptance, contact, an opportunity for the integration of oneself and of the other, and the art of feedback: in the reciprocity of listening to oneself and to the other, Ethics become actualized.
- Ethics as primary Philosophy: according to Lévinas, philosophy is the knowledge of love before the love of knowledge. A reflection then on the Biocentric Principle on which the Biodanza system is based: the principle that puts life at the centre is intrinsically ethical; by placing life at the centre we actualize ethics, the transformation of the heart generates the ethical conscience, fruit of the vivencia of transcendence, and leads to new scales of values; this then promotes the evolution of the bond and change at a personal (and therefore social) level: the virtuous Biodanza-Ethics circle.
With the words of Rolando, from the book Biodanza: “The experience of the intimate bond with others is a culminating experience that is experienced only a few times in life. To experience it, even only once, allows you to change your own attitude when dealing with yourself and others. Knowing with certainty that we are not isolated, that we participate in the unifying movement of the cosmos is an experience that is sufficient to move our scale of values. But this knowing with certainty is not intellectual, it is moving and transcendent “.
And in the words of Emmanuel Lévinas, from the book Humanism of the Other: “Neither things, nor the perceived world, nor the scientific world, allow us to reach the norm of the absolute. Cultural works are steeped in history. But ethics is not embarked in history and culture; it is not even like a small island that emerges, because ethics make every meaning possible, even cultural, and it allows us to judge culture “.
If Rolando Toro Araneda and Emmanuel Lévinas commenced from philosophical despair due to the disconnection between intelligence and affectivity, I believe their respective elaborations can tell us a lot about overcoming this dramatic dissociation: the philosophy of Lévinas as Philosophy of Ethics and Biodanza as Dance and The alphabet of life are a real possibility for every human being and for the community of humanity to place ethics at the foundation of their own existence, and a more ethical way of living as a field of expression and future horizon.
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