What is Biodanza?

Such a simple question yet so difficult to answer.

It was created in the 1970’s by Rolando Toro Araneda, a remarkable Chilean with a background as a Psychologist, an Anthropologist, a Neuroscientist, a Psychiatric Researcher, a Poet, an Artist, a Dancer and is now practiced throughout the world from the US to Russia, Israel to Taiwan, throughout Europe and of course across Latin America.

From the simple observation that moving to music could alter our mood to a complete system of personal integration, Biodanza Schools across the world offer a 3 year training to generate a steady stream of facilitators capable of designing and delivering classes filled with beauty, insight, pleasure, affection, love and life.

Wikipedia says “Biodanza (a neologism jointed the Greek bio [life] and the Spanish danza, literally ‘the dance of life’) is a system of self-development utilizing music, movement and positive feelings to deepen self-awareness“.

Roland said “Biodanza is a system that accelerates integrative processes at the cellular, immune, metabolic, neuro-endocrino and  existential level by providing enriched environment including selected music, integrative movement, cares and group interactions”. (He was an academic remember).

I would say “It’s impossible to explain but when we do it we understand exactly what it is. It’s about being aware of being alive, our deeply felt need to engage with other people, to be seen, to be held, to witness the divine in ourselves and in others”.

We have fun when we do Biodanza, for sure, but it can also be very moving, life-affirming, revelatory and at times, intense. People who attend our class say things like “I really needed to come this evening because I’ve had an awful week and I know I will feel better”. And they do. We all do. That’s why we do it. Every week. We feel better about ourselves, about each other and about life in general.

Biodanza teaches us how to lose our self-consciousness and explore aspects of life, ourselves and others that no other modality can match. Somehow Biodanza can reach parts of us that are normally inaccessible. All through music, movement and encounter.

The music in Biodanza is very carefully chosen to induce specific feelings. The exercises (dances) amplify those feelings and the interaction helps us to express them in ways that integrate our minds with our feelings with our instincts.

The Biodanza model of the human being contains 5 elements: Creativity, Vitality, Affectivity, Sexuality and Transcendence. Rolando believed that our fulfilment lies in the development of each of these aspects of the human being. We are all effortlessly creative, constantly. Vitality consists of both our ability to take action and in recognising when to rest. Affectivity is the ability we have to feel connected to not just other people or our pets but to paintings or cycling or the outdoors – the things we are drawn to and love. Sexuality in Biodanza is about the expression of the life force and the pleasure we derive from our senses as well as our impulse to procreate. Finally Transcendence is our sense of both the interconnectedness of the world and the possibility of their being something greater than all of us which contains us – for some it is God, though Biodanza is not a religion but rather tends to embrace all faiths – for others the Mystery, the Cosmos, the Universe.

Join us, give it a go, and at the end maybe you will be able to answer the question: What is Biodanza? Like Life, for me it remains a mystery.