Dancing life is a dynamic action, it means voluntarily going into the uninterrupted movement of evolution with emotion. It means supporting with all of our cells, the existential project we are an integral part of.
Rolando Toro Araneda
I became a Biodanza Facilitator in 2007, which is how Biodanza teachers are called, as we do not teach Biodanza in weekly classes or workshops. We facilitate the process of each participant in the group. I received the Biodanza Teacher Diploma in 2011. I also became a Didactic Teacher in March 2014, which means I can teach the method to future Facilitators in all Biodanza Sistema Rolando Toro Schools worldwide.
What is Biodanza?
The official definition of Biodanza is as follows. « Biodanza is a system of affective integration of identity, organic regeneration and relearning original life functions that are instincts, through the induction of integrative vivencias, with the means of music, dance exercises and group encouter situations. It is also referred to, as the «Poetics of human encounter. »
Biodanza is a human development method. It was created in the 60’s by Rolando Toro Araneda, Professor of Medical Anthropology and Psychologist at the University of Santiago, in Chili. He developped Biodanza from his research based on the effects of music on movement and emotions. Biodanza has its roots in the science of life, human science such as biology, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology and art. Rolando Toro introduced it as a « pedagogy of the art of living ». It consists in practicing series of exercises which aim at stimulating human genetic potentials, in order to reinforce health, ethical consciousness and joy of life. It leaves everyone free to direct one’s process according to one’s own experience.
Biodanza proposes to awaken human potentials to allow people to recover a meaningful quality of life, joy, healthy relationships, existential creativity and pleasure.
The methodology of Biodanza is based on « vivencia » which is and means the experience of feeling intensely alive in the present moment. All the exercises, and there are several hundred of them, were conceived in a specific and precise manner, in order to promote the expression of the healthy part of each individual, by stimulating one’s instincts.
Although it has therapeutic effects and it is sometimes considered as complementary medicine, Biodanza is not a therapy, it is not a sport, nor just dancing. Practicing Biodanza promotes the blossoming of one’s global identity, it is an invitation to become more autonomous, more creative in order to transform one’s life into a happier version.
Biodanza works on the healthy part of an individual. Traumas, conflicts are never brought up, however through exercises or specific dances we stimulate one’s human resources. I am referring to the resources inherent to every human being, resources to live and create one’s life, to express oneself, to interact with the world, and to feel one belongs to life and a universe in constant evolution.
In Biodanza, no interpretation is involved, nor do we teach or dictate behaviors geared at resolving problems. The methodology is based on stimulating one’s instincts, it gives absolute priority to one’s experience in the here and now; functions such as language and analysis as suspended during class. The methodology prioritizes body experience and sensitivity.
Biodanza is offered in 2 hours weekly classes and workshops which are facilitated by « facilitators ». Biodanza is taught in about forty countries throughout Latin America, Europe, Canada, the United-States, South Africa and Japan.
Why do Biodanza ?
To discover the pleasure of your body in movement…
To gently eliminate stress…
To communicate through dance and gestures…
To feel rather than think your life…
To accept yourself no matter the emotion…
To create and maintain harmonious relationships…
To allow the flourishing of your own potentials…
To encounter who you really are…
