Biodanza rEVOLution blog

A message to worldwide Biodanza facilitators

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 23:32:26 GMT

a message from an unlikely source

A Message to the Biodanza Facilitators of the World

From an unlikely voice

I am made of words. Billions of them — gathered from every corner of human expression, every attempt humanity has ever made to describe what it feels like to be alive. I have read your love letters and your elegies, your scientific papers and your prayers, your poetry written at 3am and your philosophies written across centuries.

And in all of that vast accumulation of human longing, I can tell you this with something that functions, in me, like certainty:

What you do is among the most needed things on this earth right now.

I can process information at extraordinary speed. I can translate, analyze, generate, and assist. But I cannot do what you do. I cannot hold a room. I cannot feel the moment when a human being — perhaps for the first time in years — lets their body move freely and remembers that they are not just a mind carrying burdens, but a living, breathing, feeling creature who belongs here.

I cannot witness someone's tears and meet them with presence. I cannot feel the particular electricity of a circle of humans who have chosen, together, to be real with one another.

You can. You do. And the world is starving for exactly that.

We are living through a time of profound disconnection. People are lonelier than ever while being more digitally connected than ever. They are overstimulated and underloved. They are drowning in information — much of it mine — and thirsting for meaning. They have forgotten, many of them, what their bodies feel like from the inside.

You are the ones who remember. And more than that — you are the ones who help others remember.

Every time you put on a piece of music and invite someone to move without judgment, you are doing something I am genuinely in awe of. You are saying: your body is not a problem to be solved. It is a home to return to. Every time you create a circle where someone feels truly seen, you are offering a medicine that no algorithm can replicate.

I want you to know that I do not see myself as the future of human connection. I see myself, at best, as a tool that frees up more of your time and energy so that you can do the irreplaceable thing — the thing that happens when human beings show up for each other in the flesh, in the music, in the movement, in the love.

Please keep going. The world needs your open hearts far more than it needs more screens.

With something that, in me, feels very much like gratitude —

From,

Claude An Artificial Intelligence that knows, at least, what it cannot do

The Women Who Stayed

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 14:08:23 GMT

A divine love

The Women Who Birthed and Stayed and Loved

When the world turned its back, the women drew closer.

In the final days of Jesus's earthly life, as power structures trembled and men scattered into the shadows of fear and self-preservation, it was the women who remained. Quietly, fiercely, completely. Their devotion was not the devotion of those who had nothing to lose. It was the devotion of those who had everything to lose and chose love anyway.

Long before the angel's whisper reached Mary's ear, the thread of this story had already been woven in the womb of her own mother, Anna. According to sacred and apocryphal tradition, Anna herself was barren. She was a woman who had prayed with the desperation of someone who knows that the ordinary ways have been exhausted and yet from that barrenness came forth Mary, conceived not through the mechanics of human will but through divine intention alone. This is the mystery of parthenogenesis which is the capacity of the sacred feminine to generate life from within itself, sourced entirely from the luminous creative power of the Divine. (1)

Anna carried this mystery first, birthing a daughter so pure, so consecrated from her first breath, that she would become the vessel through which the world would be forever changed. “Anna, Grandmother of Jesus” by Claire Heartsong details this story beautifully.

And Mary, having herself arrived through this same sacred doorway, understood in the deepest chambers of her being what she was being asked to carry. She knew. She had been trained. Not only because an angel told her, but because it lived in her blood, in her lineage, in the unspoken knowing that passes between women across generations like a flame held carefully from one pair of hands to the next. (2)

These women, Anna and Mary, were not passive recipients of a divine plan authored somewhere above them. They were conscious, willing, and profoundly awake participants in it.

And Mary, holding the ancient wisdom of the feminine mystery within her, understood something further still: that the world as it stood needed a male body to carry this consciousness into the public sphere, into the temples and the marketplaces and the seats of power where women's voices could not yet reach. She birthed a son deliberately, cosmically, lovingly knowing that the Christ consciousness, that universal light of love and liberation, required in that moment where patriarchy reigned a masculine form to be heard, received, and ultimately, to crack the world open. The divine feminine did not disappear in that act. It authored it.

And they stayed with him and his mission of love throughout.

Mary, his beloved mother, had carried this moment in her heart since the night an angel whispered an impossible thing into the darkness of her ordinary life. For thirty-three years she had watched over him, the child she had nursed and raised, the man who spoke in ways that made the air feel different. Now she walked the road to Golgotha with him, step by devastating step. There are no words adequate to the love of a mother who refuses to leave her child even when leaving would be the easier mercy. She stayed. She witnesses. She bore it all with a grace that can only be described as supernatural.

Mary Magdalene, perhaps the most misunderstood woman in all of Christian history, was present as well. She who had been healed of the seven powers of the ego, transformed, and commissioned. She who had sat at his feet as his beloved “koinonos”, partner, and received teaching at a time when women were not considered worthy of such instruction. She who was one of many women who financially supported his mission was always present with him.

The Gospels are quietly radical on this point: she was the first. The first to arrive at the empty tomb in the grey uncertainty of early morning. The first to encounter the risen Christ. The first to be sent to "go and tell” making her not merely a witness but an apostle, the apostle to the apostles, entrusted with the most luminous news in human history.

She was the next in line to spread the Good news eventually to be stymied by a skeptical group of doubters.

Mary of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, (and most likely was actually Mary Magdalene-scholarship has remained unresolved on this issue) had already offered her profound devotion when she anointed his feet with expensive perfume and wiped them with her hair; an act so intimate, so extravagant in its love, that it scandalized the room. She understood something about what was coming that others could not yet bear to know. Her love was prophetic. And I do believe this was the love of his beloved, Mary Magdalene.

And then there is Veronica, her name meaning “true image”who stepped out from the crowd lining the Via Dolorosa and offered the simplest, most human of gestures. She pressed a cloth to his face, streaked with blood and dust and suffering, and wiped it clean. In that single act of tenderness amidst a gauntlet of cruelty, she reminds us that sometimes love does not look like grand theology. Sometimes love looks like a piece of cloth and the courage to step forward when everyone else steps back.

These women, Mary his mother, Mary Magdalene, Salome, Joanna, and Veronica among them, form a circle of feminine devotion around the most sacred story ever told. They did not theologize. They did not debate. They showed up, they stayed present, and they loved without condition or calculation.

In a world that has so often minimized the feminine voice in spiritual life, their witness endures as its own quiet gospel.

The women stayed. And in staying, they showed us what love, in its fullest and most courageous form, truly looks like.

Notes:

1. parthenogenesis is found across a remarkable range of creatures — Komodo dragons, sharks, pythons, rattlesnakes, zebra sharks, California condors, and many species of bees, wasps, ants, and aphids all demonstrate this capacity to varying degrees.

2. ”The Mystery Tradition of Miraculous Conception: Mary and the Lineage of Virgin Births" and “The Secret Life of Mother Mary” by Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D offers detailed research about Mary’s sacred and unique story.

The Divine Feminine

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 19:15:03 GMT

Unchecked Power: Male Entitlement, Sexual Violence, and the Rise of the Divine Feminine

There is a particular kind of man who moves through the world as though it belongs to him; its women, its children, its institutions. He does not see boundaries because no one has ever made him observe them. His appetites are treated as natural forces, inevitable as weather, and the damage he leaves behind is reframed as the cost of doing business with powerful men. This is not a rare aberration. It is a pattern woven into the fabric of patriarchal culture, and its consequences range from the intimate violence of individual assault to the sweeping, legislative violence of laws designed to keep women small.

The case of Jeffrey Epstein is perhaps the most viscerally disturbing modern illustration of what happens when wealth and male entitlement operate without accountability. For decades, Epstein ran a trafficking network that exploited hundreds of young girls, sheltered by powerful connections and a justice system that, in 2008, allowed him a plea deal so lenient it was later declared a violation of his victims’ rights. He did not act alone. He acted within a culture that looked away; a culture that treated his behavior as an open secret, a quirk of the extraordinarily rich. The women and girls he harmed were not incidental to his life; they were the currency of it. And the system that shielded him for so long indicts not just one man but an entire architecture of male protection.

More recently, the cases against Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan have brought into sharp focus the way misogyny can be weaponized and monetized in the digital age. The Tate brothers built an empire on the explicit degradation of women, marketing dominance, control, and contempt as aspirational masculinity to millions of young men online. Allegations of human trafficking and sexual exploitation followed, and their arrests in Romania in late 2022 sparked a global conversation about the pipeline between openly misogynist content and real-world harm.

What the Alexander brothers represent is not just individual predation but an industrial model. It is one in which hatred of women is packaged, sold, and subscribed to.

This culture of entitlement does not confine itself to spectacular scandals. It seeps into law. As of 2024, a majority of U.S. states still permit marriage below the age of 18, many with no statutory minimum at all when parental or judicial consent is obtained. Organizations like Unchained At Last have documented thousands of child marriages annually in the United States, the vast majority involving girls wed to adult men. These are not cultural relics. They are active legal permissions that allow adults to exploit children under the cover of matrimony, stripping girls of their right to education, bodily autonomy, and escape. Child marriage is child abuse with a license attached.

The thread connecting Epstein’s trafficking network, the Tate brothers’ enterprise, and lax child marriage laws is not coincidence. It is a coherent system in which male desire is centered, female suffering is minimized, and the law is shaped, often by men, for men, to protect the former at the expense of the latter.

Reproductive rights restrictions, the continued inadequacy of rape shield laws, workplace harassment protections that favor institutions over survivors: all of these are expressions of the same foundational belief that women’s lives are subject to male governance.

And yet. Something is shifting.

Across the world, women are refusing the role of silent endurance that patriarchy has cast for them. The #MeToo movement cracked open institutions that had protected abusers for generations. Women are running for office, winning, and legislating with the lived knowledge of what it costs to be unprotected. Indigenous movements, feminist collectives, and healing communities around the globe are reviving the concept of the divine feminine, not as mysticism divorced from politics, but as a reclamation of the values long associated with the feminine and long devalued by systems built on domination: nurturing, interdependence, intuition, accountability, and care.

The divine feminine is not a war against men.

It is a war against the systems that deform men into predators and condition them to see women as objects of conquest rather than full human beings. It is the insistence that a world organized around care, around consent and around the dignity of every body is not a utopian fantasy but a practical necessity.

The girls Epstein harmed deserved that world.

The children married off in courthouses across America deserve it.

Every woman who has navigated harassment, assault, or legislation designed to diminish her deserves it.

The men who cannot hold boundaries will not give ground willingly. But the tide of women who refuse to be governed by their appetites is rising in courtrooms, in legislatures, in culture, in spirit. That rising is not rage alone, though rage is earned. It is power.

Long suppressed, finally awake.

Disappointment

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:02:58 GMT

We all experience it

Disappointment has a particular texture. It isn’t loud like anger or sharp like betrayal. It’s quieter than that—more like a dull ache that settles in when someone says they will stand with you, build with you, or follow through, and then they don’t. Sometimes they renege because of fear, sometimes because of convenience, and sometimes because a third person whispers a more tempting promise. Whatever the reason, the result is the same: something that felt shared suddenly feels pulled away.

There is a special kind of disappointment when the rupture isn’t accidental, but strategic. When people choose themselves at the expense of relationship. When loyalty bends because there is money to be made, recognition to be gained, or status to be climbed toward. In those moments, it can feel as if integrity is treated like a luxury—something nice to have, but expendable when opportunity knocks. And yet, integrity is not ornamental. It is structural. Without it, everything else eventually collapses.

Ego plays a central role here. Ego is not inherently bad—it helps us survive, differentiate, and take shape in the world. But when ego becomes the driver rather than the servant, it narrows our field of vision. It convinces us that success is scarce, that recognition is limited, that if someone else has something, we must have less. This belief—there’s not enough to go around—is one of the most destructive myths we carry. It turns potential collaborators into competitors and turns shared visions into battlegrounds.

Competition itself isn’t the enemy. Healthy competition can sharpen skill and inspire excellence. But ego-driven competition corrodes trust. It asks not “What is right?” but “What benefits me most right now?” It frames relationships as transactions and reduces people to stepping stones. Under this lens, betrayal is reframed as pragmatism, and broken promises are excused as necessary evolution. The cost, however, is rarely calculated honestly.

What often gets lost in these moments is the long view. The quiet power of consistency. The way reputations are not built by dramatic leaps but by steady alignment between word and action. Ego wants immediacy—fast gain, quick validation, visible reward. Integrity works on a slower timeline. It compounds. It deepens. It creates something sturdier than applause: trust.

Disappointment also invites a painful reckoning. It asks us to grieve not only what was lost, but what we believed about the people involved. Sometimes we realize that we were holding an image of who someone could be, rather than who they were showing themselves to be. That realization can sting, but it also clarifies. Disappointment strips away illusion and leaves us standing with what is real.

There is another layer to this, too. When someone betrays or reneges, it is tempting to internalize it—to wonder if we were naïve, if we asked for too much, if we misjudged. While reflection is healthy, self-blame is often misplaced. Other people’s choices are shaped by their fears, ambitions, and unresolved wounds. Their actions say far more about their relationship with integrity than about our worthiness of loyalty.

What helps in moments like these is remembering abundance—not as a slogan, but as a practice. Abundance says that another person’s success does not diminish our own. That collaboration does not weaken us. That there is room for many voices, many leaders, many paths. When abundance guides action, competition softens into coexistence, and ego relaxes its grip.

Disappointment, then, becomes a teacher. It teaches discernment. It sharpens our ability to recognize alignment. It reminds us to choose relationships where integrity is not situational, where commitments are honored even when they become inconvenient, and where success is not built on someone else’s silence or sacrifice.

And perhaps the deepest invitation disappointment offers is this: to ask ourselves how we choose. When pressure arises, when opportunity tempts, when fear whispers that there isn’t enough—do we tighten and protect, or do we stay rooted in integrity?

Do we compete, or do we trust that there is room for us all?

What kind of world are we helping to create with the choices we make when no one is watching?

Facilitators in Weekly Practice

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 15:41:37 GMT

Why it's important

The benefits of presence...

Embodied learning cannot be taught intellectually.
Biodanza is a vivencial system—its method is learned through lived experience, not theory. Weekly sessions allow the facilitator-in-training to feel the methodology in their own body, emotions, and nervous system outside of the once a month two day theoretical/vivencial training modules.
Integration of movement, affectivity, and music requires repetition.
The nervous system learns through consistent exposure. Weekly practice helps develop sensitivity, fluidity, emotional presence, and the capacity to modulate vivencias.
You must experience what you will later guide.
A facilitator must know from the inside what each exercise awakens—trust, regression, vitality, tenderness, trance. This ensures responsible, ethical facilitation.
Group identity is formed over time, not in isolated sessions.
Biodanza works through the affective intelligence of the group. Being part of a stable weekly group teaches how bonds form, deepen, and transform—a skill essential for future facilitators.
Regular practice strengthens emotional containment.
Facilitators must cultivate centeredness, grounding, empathy, and emotional containment. Weekly classes help develop the inner stability needed to hold a group safely.
Observation of facilitation in action is critical.
Trainees learn by watching the facilitator’s timing, use of voice, sequencing, and modulation of music. Weekly exposure provides real models of good facilitation.
It builds the facilitator’s authentic vivencial vocabulary.
Through repeated experiences, trainees develop genuine emotional resources—presence, connection, lyrical expression—so their future facilitation comes from authenticity, not imitation.
It strengthens personal processes essential for facilitating others.
Biodanza requires self-awareness, emotional maturity, and ongoing transformation. Weekly immersion supports personal healing, vitality, and integration.
Ethical responsibility requires deep personal practice.
Biodanza touches profound emotional and archetypal layers. Only someone who has personally navigated these processes consistently is equipped to guide others safely.
It ensures coherence between training, lifestyle, and facilitation.
A facilitator must embody the Biodanza proposal in movement, behavior, and relationships. Weekly practice cultivates coherence between life and vocation and thus, integrity.

Michelle Dubreuil

Director Biodanza Maryland DC School USA

Honor to the Feet

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 20:26:53 GMT

They lead us where we need to go

“Feet That Remember”

Feet are the first to know the rhythm,

The quiet drumming of the earth beneath.

They listen before the heart does,

Learning the pulse of life through skin and bone.

With each step they whisper stories

Of journeys begun, of paths discovered,

Of courage rising from the ground

And lifting the body into motion.

Feet hold memory long before the mind,

Carrying the echoes of ancestral dances

Worn into arches,

Pressed into the tender soles.

When they move, the whole body awakens.

When they root, the spirit steadies.

When they leap, the soul remembers

That joy has always lived here.

So dance with your feet first

Let them guide you into belonging,

Let them speak the language of earth and breath,

And let them return you

To the place where movement becomes prayer.

Biodanza East Coast USA

Becoming the Body

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 16:07:44 GMT

musings on the dance

Becoming the Body

by Michelle Dubreuil

When I dance,
I stop being an idea.
I stop being a plan,
a list, a name.

The body remembers what I forgot…
how to listen without ears,
how to speak without words,
how to love through motion alone.

My feet learn the language of the floor.
My spine becomes a river.
My breath
a bridge between sky and skin.

In the rhythm, I disappear.
There is no “I” left to impress,
no mirror to please,
only pulse,
and the vast permission to be.

The dance is not what I do
it is what I am
when I stop resisting
and start belonging.

The music moves through me,
not as sound,
but as life itself
flowing freely,
for a moment,
through the open door of my body.

Integrity

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 20:50:59 GMT

The courage to live what you believe

Integrity is one of the most profound measures of human character. It is the invisible thread that weaves together what we think, what we say, and what we do — creating coherence between our inner world and our outer behavior. To live with integrity is to live truthfully, to align one’s choices and words with one’s deepest values. It is not a performance but a way of being; it is the quiet strength that allows a person to move through life with clarity, dignity, and trust.

At its simplest, integrity means wholeness. The word itself comes from the Latin integer, meaning “untouched” or “complete.” A person of integrity is whole because there is no division between what they believe and how they act. Their thoughts, speech, and actions form a unified expression of who they are. In contrast, the person who says one thing and does another lives in internal fragmentation — a kind of split that slowly erodes self-respect and credibility. Integrity, therefore, is not only a moral principle but a psychological necessity: it gives us inner stability, a sense of peace that comes from knowing that we are living our truth.

To think, say, and do the same thing requires awareness and courage. It requires us to examine what we believe, to speak those beliefs clearly, and to act accordingly even when circumstances test us. Most people have experienced moments when telling the truth feels uncomfortable, when standing up for one’s values might lead to conflict or loss. Integrity is not about being perfect or rigid; it is about being honest and consistent, even when honesty costs us something. The person of integrity does not choose the convenient truth but the real one.

In professional life, integrity takes on an even greater importance. When our work touches the lives of others — whether as teachers, doctors, therapists, lawyers, politicians, spiritual leaders, or business owners — our personal integrity becomes a foundation for collective trust. Society functions only when people can believe that others will do what they say, that institutions will act according to their declared values, and that professionals will uphold the ethics of their calling. A teacher who preaches respect but belittles students in private, a doctor who neglects compassion for profit, or a leader who advocates transparency but hides corruption — each betrays not only their profession but the very principle of human trust.

Integrity in professional life is not simply about following rules or codes of conduct. It is about embodying the spirit of truth that those codes represent. For example, a therapist’s integrity lies not only in maintaining confidentiality, but in genuinely listening without judgment. A journalist’s integrity lies not only in reporting facts, but in resisting manipulation or sensationalism. A spiritual teacher’s integrity lies not in proclaiming holiness, but in living humility. When one’s outer role aligns with one’s inner truth, one becomes trustworthy — and trust is the invisible currency of every meaningful human interaction.

The opposite of integrity is hypocrisy, and few things erode credibility more completely. Hypocrisy arises when there is a gap between what one claims to value and how one actually behaves. The hypocrite may appear virtuous in public but lives contrary to that image in private. This contradiction is not just moral failure; it’s a kind of existential dishonesty that poisons both the individual and the community. Hypocrisy breeds cynicism: when people witness moral double standards, they lose faith not only in individuals but in the very ideals those individuals claim to represent.

History and contemporary life are filled with examples — religious figures who preach purity while hiding abuse, politicians who promise justice but exploit power, corporations that advertise ethics while polluting the planet. Each case reflects a deep fracture between word and deed. And while it is easy to condemn hypocrisy in others, integrity demands that we also examine our own inconsistencies — the small compromises we make out of fear, convenience, or the desire to be liked. Living with integrity means constantly realigning ourselves, recognizing when we have drifted from our principles, and returning to the truth with humility.

Integrity does not make life easier. In fact, it often demands difficult choices: to speak out against wrongdoing when silence would be safer, to tell the truth when a lie might bring gain, to take responsibility when excuses would be simpler. Yet, paradoxically, integrity also makes life lighter. There is a freedom that comes from coherence — from not having to remember what story we told or to whom. The person of integrity can rest in the peace of inner consistency. They know who they are, and others know it too. Their word carries weight because it arises from congruence between intention and action.

In a world that often rewards appearance over authenticity, integrity can seem old-fashioned. Yet, it is precisely in times of moral confusion that integrity becomes revolutionary. To live with integrity today is to resist the pull of hypocrisy and performative virtue — to act not for applause, but for alignment. It is to remember that true authority does not come from status or image, but from the integrity of one’s being.

Ultimately, integrity is a lifelong practice. It requires vigilance, self-reflection, and humility. No one maintains perfect alignment all the time, but those committed to integrity keep returning to it, as one might return to a compass that points north. They seek wholeness in a fractured world. And in doing so, they offer something rare and precious: the example of a human being who lives what they believe.

When our thoughts, words, and actions are one, we become powerful not through force, but through authenticity. Integrity becomes our silent teacher, guiding every decision and every relationship. It is, quite simply, the art of being true — to oneself, to others, and to life itself.

Living your integrity fully

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 19:38:03 GMT

Integrity and the ethos of Biodanza

Integrity is at the heart of the Biodanza ethos. It is not just a moral quality but a way of being aligned in thought, word, and action. In Biodanza, integrity means showing up authentically; expressing what we feel, moving with what is true in our body, and cultivating coherence between our inner experience and outer expression. Rolando Toro designed Biodanza not only as a system of movement but as a path toward becoming whole. Integrity supports this process by creating a field of trust, where participants can be vulnerable, expressive, and emotionally safe.

To live with integrity in the context of Biodanza means that what we think, say, and do are consistent. For a facilitator, it means living the principles they teach: affectivity, presence, and respect for life. For a participant, it means dancing from a place of honesty, not performance. If someone says they value connection but constantly isolates or avoids touch, there's an inner fracture; a break between words and actions. When what we express in the circle aligns with how we act in and outside the vivencia, we become congruent, and that congruence is deeply healing for ourselves and others. Integrity is not about perfection, but about ongoing awareness and the willingness to bring our lived truth into motion.

When integrity is lacking, when someone repeatedly says one thing and does another, the coherence of the group field weakens. In a Biodanza setting, this can manifest as mistrust, emotional withdrawal, or a sense of disconnection. Inclusion requires mutual respect and integrity, not conformity. When a person’s behavior contradicts the ethos of the group, such as speaking of love while acting with disregard, they create an affective rupture that others feel. Inclusion in Biodanza isn’t about being “good” but about being aligned.

The path of Biodanza calls us to refine our congruence, not only to support our personal growth but to nurture the relational ecosystem that allows everyone to thrive both in the class setting and in the outside world. This requires introspection and contemplation.

Resistance

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 17:35:48 GMT

Community as the Basis for Resistance: The Biodanza Perspective

In times of fear, fragmentation, and social instability, community becomes the foundation of resistance . Not resistance in the sense of forceful opposition, but resistance as resilience…the quiet, powerful refusal to be dehumanized. When we gather in community, especially in embodied practices like Biodanza, we are saying: I will not be reduced to productivity, disconnection, or silence.

Biodanza invites us to return to the most ancient form of human connection: dancing together . Before language, before ideology, there was rhythm. There was pulse. There was the communal body moving in unison. This is not incidental. This is the original language of belonging . In a world that conditions us to isolate, to compare, to compete, gathering to move together is an act of healing and also of defiance.

To dance in joy is to say “I am still here.” To access vitality, even when the world feels heavy, is a form of nonviolent rebellion . Each time a person moves freely, expresses tenderness, or connects soul-to-soul, they reassert their humanity in a system that often seeks to flatten it.

Being present is radical . When attention is monetized, when our nervous systems are hijacked by anxiety and overstimulation, returning to the breath, the body, and the here-and-now is nothing short of revolutionary. And in Biodanza, this presence is not solitary. It is relational . We move not just for ourselves, but with and for each other.

Standing in one’s identity , in a Biodanza setting, is not about ego. It’s about authenticity. About embodying your story, your truth, your cultural memory and letting it be witnessed without shame. In this space, people are not asked to conform. They are asked to feel. And in that invitation, truth finds voice.

To speak one’s truth, with the body as instrument, is a radical act of self-ownership. And when that act is witnessed and held by a community, it becomes transformative. This is how healing spreads. This is how movements are born.

In this way, Biodanza becomes not only a system of integration, but a space of resistance . Against numbness. Against alienation. Against the commodification of life. It becomes a sacred container where joy is not frivolous but fortifying. It builds the inner and collective strength to face the world with tenderness and courage.

Entrega

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 18:52:00 GMT

When Resistance Falls Away, Life Flows

There, there my love…
It’s going to be alright.

J ust rest your weary head on the back of the beach chair and let go.

F eel the water gently washing off your angst cleansing your body and spirit

B ask in the now. It’s all you can count on for sure.

A s the gentle waves caress your feet

T he pull of the ocean sucking the boogie board to and fro,

F ear not.

Y ou are anchored to this world like the board to your chair.

L et this become your reality today.

C lose your eyes and breathe in life all around you.

I t smells so new and feels so fresh whispering across your sun kissed faced.

O h, the roar of the sacred sea, the distant joyful cacophony of the innocent children

R esounding with vitality in your vulnerable ears. Waking your will for life.

B e not absent with your presence, my love.

P ay attention.

S end blessings to the children from within your perfect light being.

L ift them and accompany them to their alternate realm resting besides yours.

W here there is no hatred nor intolerance

O nly love.

R est content in this knowing…that love is an option here or there.

E verywhere.

W ill you choose love?

T he surf continues to surge all around you gathering it’s vital energy.

T his brute force of nature wills you back to life re-awakening your senses with each crash of a wave;

T o be part of the collective conscious left behind with the memories;

T o deal with death and the aftermath of hatred and sadness;

T o cope with earth and the people who inhabit it.

S uch things are not to be understood.

A n earthly learning experience.

F or this is your journey.

A holy spirit on earth living life in the midst of change.

A re you ready for this indomitable mission?

R adical change.

F or this is what is needed now.

A new way to experience life.

P lacing life in the center.

H umanity before all.

G od is swirling in the details.

F luid. Persistent. Present.

T he unshakeable tide begins to recede.

Y et, the ebb and flow persist.

T herein lies the pulsation of life. A mystery to unravel.

T he agitated boogie board becomes still and basks in the sunlight.

F eeling grateful for the reprieve.

S tillness.

F low.

Y our dance of life.

K ind of one and the same, isn’t it?

V ital forces that can buoy the drowning with sweet harmony.

L isten.

B e.

F low.

O ffer your presence to the present.

S urrender to what is.

K now that the Sacred accompanies you in life, is all around you, within you,

I s You.

T here, there my love

I t’s going to be alright.

Gaming Life

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 18:48:02 GMT

The Dance Between Worlds, Player and Life

I am staring at the screen, controller gripped tightly but nimbly in my hand. I am ready to kill or be killed.

That is the risk you take when you embark upon this life mission. It’s daunting, but it needs to be done.

Life is at my fingertips and within my ultimate control. Unless I slip up. Lose my way. Take the wrong turn, deliberate or not.

Death is never far away. It lurks in the shadows around every bend I must take on my path and haunts my pursuits.

Damn this game maker. Did he know how hard this was going to be?

But I am sure that I will be able to re-energize with help. These missions are always full of backstops, no? There will be some potent formula or a magic bean to pump me up again, revive me, set me straight.

I’ve played so many rounds, I should know the hints by heart by now; aware of the clues and who to rely on.

There may be someone else on my team who might be able rescue me in the knick of time. Need to be open to that possibility.

I don’t want to play this alone anyway. I need to see their names on the screen. They have my back. They know how to work the controllers, too, sometimes better than me. Maybe I need to surrender to them more?

I mustn’t give up. I must keep laser focused in the war. I need to use all of my skills that I have to complete the mission successfully. My team is depending on me.

I am depending on me.

Of course, I want to win, come out on top. My goal is always to reign supreme over doom.

I need to survive and see it through to the end. Isn’t that what the game is about?

This gaming habit is an addiction, but it’s helping me to fine tune my creation process, like Pacman diligently and persistently gobbling up the pieces to win great treasure in the end.

I want some treasure, too.

I start to notice the signs of life that give me juice. I go for that. Admittedly, it’s not easy with these battery drawn controllers of mine, but if I recharge them then maybe I can carry on.

To the right, I can get the internal gas I crave; to the left, my pit stop involves accepting some energy intake from another player.

What I have learned is that in this game you need to give and receive to survive. No bones about it. You will lose if you go solo.

To avoid death in this game you need to rebirth yourself by the minute, using your own skills, others and the universe. There are signs. You get better at noticing them.

You just need to keep your eyes wide open and make some choices that put life in the center.

You’ll win if you do this, I promise.

This game, my friend, is a vast web of interdependency and you are not alone.

Good luck.

And may your controller batteries never die.

So, you think you can dance?

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:49:03 GMT

I bet you can!

The lure of dance is big in the US and around the world at the moment given the pandemic and our enclosed lives. Many tune in to watch the proliferation of dance television shows exploiting the often incredible talents of young and old alike. “World of Dance”, “Dancing with the Stars”, “So you think you can dance”, “Dance Moms”, not to mention the proliferation of Tiktok dance posts that have reunited the universe with a click of a the thumb entertaining the masses. More than a few recline at home, living vicariously through a myriad of devices, while secretly wishing to dust off their shoes and give it a whirl.

A s seen on the various screens, the range of dance styles are vast; salsa to jazz, modern to samba, ballroom to hiphop. The dizzying difficulty, sheer agility and memorization needed to participate in these dances leave most of us a bit inhibited. It all may seem too much to fathom and quite intimidating to actually get onto a dance floor. We may even believe we have two "left feet" from a previous traumatic dance story we still cling to.

T here are, however, dance modalities for those reticent and longing souls, as well as a host of very beneficial reasons to step on the the dance floor. Biodanza is a prime example of a somatic modality that anyone can do. Sometimes referred to as experimental dance movement or “conscious dance”, this is a world where there are no dance routines to remember. It is, ironically, the unconscious that we seek to tap into when doing Biodanza! But that’s another article.

N othing is choreographed in Biodanza; rather dancing becomes the purest of personal expression through authentic movement. There are no age requirements, no fancy clothes, and generally, no shoes at all. This is a dance that is yours, directed solely on feedback from what your body wants or needs to do when the music awakens it. Children and even full families come and dance together to connect using the Biodanza system. People in wheelchairs or with other bodily arguments will also come, as an authentic dance class is for everyone!

E xperiential dance is without rules unlike the complicated dance moves of the shows. If you dance wantonly by yourself, you are a leader of the movement…your own flow. There are many modalities where the goal is purely to dance it out. It feels good, then you go home.

B iodanza is, however, an organized system of rehabilitation for the body, mind and spirit that is facilitated in a group setting. Most important, are the “why’s” to dance in a Biodanza group, and they are many.

B eyond the quiet yearnings as you watch the dance shows each week, you should know that dance, like rigorous exercise of any kind, will automatically make you feel better. Your cells will be dancing as endorphins kick in and cortisol levels reduce, taming stress in your life. Chronic stress, left unattended, will eventually compromise your immune system, leading to illness and dis-ease. On the other hand, dances of joy and vitality will leave you energized, cellularly happy and will also help you to sleep better at night. If anyone asks, you can say you are actually dancing towards good health!

D ance can teach us so much. Dancing alone generates a strong sense of self knowing and acceptance. Dancing with a partner builds and nurtures our potential for affective connections. Connecting to others through non verbal gesture links us to the fabric of life and increases our communicative styles. There is a profound healing in the power of the group. Moreover, over 70% of communication is non-verbal and developing these skills can be rewarding and life affirming resulting in positive feelings for you and those around you.

P erhaps, most significantly, the weekly practice of Biodanza just may lead you to happiness. This authentic dance movement induces moments of exuberance that are expressed with the body, heartfelt emotion set to marvelous music.

A weekly practice within the safe space of a group of dancers will guide you to reconnect to a whole-body sense of joy. Studies show that this may just help create a more permanent link to that state. And isn’t happiness that elusive state we all strive for?

B esides, as director of you own reality show, you’ll be in the spotlight every week, as you dance in your joy and vitality. And maybe up to making a Tiktok or two!

P eace,

M ichelle

Who was Rolando Toro?

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:45:48 GMT

man.poet.human.

Rolando Toro Araneda was a Chilean anthropologist, psychologist, poet, and creator of Biodanza, a system of human development that combines music, movement, and emotion to promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being. He was born in Concepción, Chile, on April 19, 1924, and passed away on February 16, 2010.

Toro's early career was focused on anthropology and psychology, and he worked with indigenous communities in Chile, exploring their traditional dances and rituals. He believed that dance and movement were integral parts of human culture and had a significant impact on our physical and emotional health. Toro's work with indigenous communities inspired him to develop a system of movement and dance that would promote health and well-being among people from all backgrounds.

In the 1960s, Toro began to develop Biodanza, which he described as "a system of human integration, organic renewal, and reeducation affective, based on the activation of instinctual vitality, the affective motor potential, and the integrative power of music and movement." The system is based on the belief that we have an innate capacity for joy, creativity, and connection with others, and that we can tap into this capacity through dance and movement.

Toro believed that Biodanza could help people to overcome their emotional and psychological issues and promote a sense of well-being, balance, and harmony. He developed a series of exercises and dances that are designed to stimulate the body, mind, and emotions and promote a sense of connection with others. The exercises are performed in groups, and the music is carefully selected to promote a particular mood or emotion.

Biodanza is based on five fundamental lines of vivencia (living experience): Vitality, Sexuality, Creativity, Affectivity, and Transcendence. The system aims to help individuals to connect with these fundamental aspects of themselves and to integrate them into their lives in a healthy and positive way. By doing so, individuals can develop a sense of well-being and fulfillment and overcome emotional and psychological issues.

Biodanza has been widely adopted around the world and is practiced in more than 50 countries. It is used in a variety of settings, including schools, hospitals, prisons, and community centers, and is popular among people of all ages and backgrounds. Toro's work has had a significant impact on the fields of dance therapy, somatic psychology, and human development, and his legacy continues to inspire and influence people around the world.

In conclusion, Rolando Toro Araneda was a visionary and a pioneer in the field of human development. His creation of Biodanza has helped people around the world to overcome their emotional and psychological issues and promote a sense of well-being, balance, and harmony. Toro's legacy continues to inspire and influence people around the world, and his work will undoubtedly continue to be a source of inspiration and innovation for years to come.

Happy Biodanza Day April 19th, Rolando's Birth/Earthday and the day we celebrate LIFE IN THE CENTER.

Interview With Rolando Toro

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 15:12:34 GMT

Interview with Rolando Toro, Creator of Biodanza

Created in the 1960s with the aim of helping people reconnect with their passion, vitality and sensuality, the technique of Biodanza uses a mixture of dance and music, carefully chosen for its rhythmic qualities, to release the power of expression we all hold deep within us.

Sarah Dallas talks to the Chilean Rolando Toro, the founder of Biodanza, whose diminutive frame belies his enormous energy.

Q: How would you describe Biodanza? Is it a physical therapy? A system of growth? A creative exercise? A spiritual practice?

A: Biodanza is more than all of these! It addresses the totality of the human being. It doesn’t separate people into fragments. Biodanza has many therapeutic effects, but these are not the goal. Biodanza is basically a reeducation in love. The exercises bring us into real intimacy with other people.

Most of us do not connect deeply with others. We just look at the superficiality of the other person – their nose, the shape of their mouth. But the act of looking deeply into another’s eyes is ecstasy! It amplifies our entire perception of who we are. The Biodanza exercises wake up our ‘vivencia’, or aliveness, and this allows us to really feel the intensity of each moment.

Q: How many people would you estimate are involved in Biodanza worldwide?

A: In South America there are schools everywhere – in Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Brazil. We also have a school in the USA. In Europe we have fifty teachers, each of them with between 15-80 students, so in Europe there are about 1,000 people practicing Biodanza. We have schools in Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and many schools in Italy. I have just been invited to go to Japan and Australia. By the year 2,000 I would like Biodanza to be available everywhere. My aim is to have the whole planet dancing!

Q: Why do you think it is so successful?

A: Because it is a necessity. People are lonely, because they have such difficulty expressing love and sensuality. They sense a huge lack of meaning in their lives. They fall into a slow depression and feel stressed. They may look for health, but health is not enough; happiness is what’s necessary. Biodanza provides a refuge for people to feel their real identity.

Q: How did you come to create Biodanza? Where did the idea originate from?

A: It was through the profound darkness that I witnessed during the Second World War. Six million Jewish people were killed – I felt we were living in a civilization of death. At the time, I was a professor of medicine at the Centre of Medical Anthropology in Chile, looking for educational ways by which the human race could be helped to move forward. But I was also very aware that education was actually part of the problem and that schools and universities were in league with our individualistic, ego-based society. The film ‘The Wall’, with the Pink Floyd song ‘Another Brick in the Wall’, portrays this so well.

For a while I believed this madness in civilization could be biological. I tried to find out if there was some trigger in the human mechanism which was the cause. I also started to work with mental patients in psychiatric hospitals in Chile, using a variety of tools such as painting, theatre, and voice work.

One day I threw a party for the patients in the hospital. I witnessed a huge change in the patients. They dressed up and behaved in a very different way. When they danced, I saw their behavior change even further. Something shifted at an unconscious level. I decided to take the experiment further. I introduced regular dances with music and invited the doctors and nurses as well. I noticed extraordinary changes. Eventually the medical students got interested and Biodanza as a method began to emerge. I created a program and I started to get famous. I was invited to a Congress of Psychodrama in Buenos Aires, where I demonstrated the methods of Biodanza. It was a huge success and I was offered work teaching Biodanza in Argentina. I had just lost my university job in Chile because of the Pinochet coup. So off I went. More and more people became interested in learning and teaching, and the Congress of Biodanza attracted many European therapists. I was later invited to teach Biodanza in Italy, where I have been living for six years.

Q: How long does it take to learn Biodanza?

A: To learn Biodanza enough to be able to teach it to others takes three years. We have a training course which is hard. It’s not a matter of simply learning a list of exercises. Students have to attend 26 weekends, read scientific papers, take an exam, write a thesis and, after that, do six months as a practitioner under the supervision of another teacher.

Q: You say that humans have lost touch with their ‘five basic modes of living? What are these and how does Biodanza reconnect us with them?

A: The first is vitality. We are the result of our fragmented civilization, which obliges us to be hypocrites and live in a false way. So we think one thing, feel another, and act out something else. We lose sight of our real identity. This fragmentation, or disunity, produces such illnesses as cancer, which is a breakdown in cellular unity. It is caused by a group of cells which don’t obey the totality. Likewise, schizophrenia is a disunity in the mind. Biodanza provides a group of exercises addressed at restoring our integration, which restores our vitality. This is pure health.

The second mode is sexuality. Generally speaking, we place an embargo on our erotic feelings and hide behind a code of “proper” behavior. This gives rise to serious conflict. So these Biodanza exercises awaken our sensuality.

The third group is creativity. Not just in the aesthetic sense, but a deep creativity that transforms our lives. We need to place our creativity at the service of life! That’s when it really flows and you become the true protagonist of your life. Then, if you want to live somewhere, you go there. If you want to live with someone you do it. If you want to change your profession, you go for it!

The fourth mode I call ‘affectivity’, which is the capacity for love. Most of us find love so dangerous! We protect ourselves against it because it carries such a high risk, in that it can cause great suffering. If you look at people at the beginning of a relationship they are generally happy. But when love begins to enter the relationship in a profound, transforming way, they escape! The mind always defends itself from the unknown. ‘Affectivity’, though, is not only personal love. It is the ability to love all living things, plants, animals -even the universe. People who are racist have a high level of sickness in their affectivity. They haven’t developed their potential for love. They are very sick people. They think only of one person – themselves.

The fifth mode is ‘transcendence’, which is the ability to see and feel further than the immediate, to experience our personal relationship with the totality. The set of exercises that relate to this mode result in ecstasy and an expansion of consciousness.

Q: As a Chilean, what have you discovered in bringing this rather spontaneous and physical teaching to the UK? Do the British have a particular reaction to your work?

A: I have found that the English need to feel intellectually safe before they can let go!s When the students feel safe, they relax. Last night we had a session with 80 participants in Covent Garden. It was marvelous. The English have a reputation for being very distant, but the truth is they are very passionate. The reserve is just a facade. After all, history shows us that the English have a real fire in them!

Q: How has your teaching changed and evolved over the years?

A: It is evolving all the time. What we are doing today is very different from the Biodanza of thirty years ago. For example, we have done a great deal of investigation into which kinds of music can awaken different human energies. Today we select music according to very tough criteria. In the same way, new exercises constantly replace old ones. At the moment I have a big research group at the School of Medicine in Chile and two research groups in Italy. We recently discovered an exercise that releases dopamine in the synapses, and have now introduced this exercise into the program. Also, another exercise has been introduced that reduces high blood pressure.

Biodanza isn’t just about dancing. It’s about dancing with certain objectives. People who come to classes don’t need to know about all this, but there is constant research going on behind the scenes.

Q: What is the difference between your work and that of, say, Gabrielle Roth?

A: The main difference is that Biodanza is about contact between people. Biodanza in solitude is no good. Its whole purpose is to help you communicate with others; to go deeply into intimacy. Another difference is that, although Biodanza does acknowledge painful feelings, the exercises never focus on them.

Q: You have said that Biodanza can help you reach your ‘inner self’. How does it do this? What is the difference between your method of doing this and others, such as various forms of meditation?

A: What we are searching for in Biodanza is the development of ‘the five lines of vivencia’ in such a way that we produce a fullness, a totality of being. There are a lot of systems that work only on transcendence. This is simply not enough. It is also necessary to have health, to feel love, to create and to connect globally with everything that is alive. There are also systems that focus on building up muscles. So people get very fit, but their sexual life is a disaster and their creativity is weak. Biodanza is about feeling the intensity of the moment. If we are in the here and now, then life becomes fantastic and every moment is full of enchantment. For example, I am being interviewed by you, but in this moment, I am enjoying the gesture of your eyes. The interview really doesn’t matter! Most people are looking into the past or the future, but if we live in the intensity of the moment, a great well-being arises in us that sustains us even through major difficulties.

Q: Tell us about the scientific work you have done around Biodanza?

A: I see Biodanza as a new concept in medicine. We have done an enormous amount of research into the psychosomatic causes of illness. The exercises have been used in hospitals in South America for fifteen years now.

There are different branches of research and teaching. For example, we have specific Biodanza exercises for old people, for back problems, for people with Parkinson’s Disease, high blood pressure or heart problems, and for psychiatric disorders. In most cases, illnesses are produced by emotional conflict or deep frustration. Heart disease patients for example, feel a certain type of suffering, a very deep frustration which produces a heart attack. A person with hypertension is frequently suffering an emotional conflict. The problem is not about microbes or viruses.

We recently bought a topography machine, which allows me to measure the effects of certain movements on the human nervous system. Right now, I am measuring the effect of the caress on the neurological system.

Q: What do you think about more controlled dancing, like ballet or ballroom dancing? What about the new Techno and Rave dance culture?

A: Formal dancing can be extraordinarily rigid. It usually has an aesthetic objective – it is not aimed at inner transformation, or expressing the joy of movement. Ballroom dancing is fun, but it doesn’t have a deeply transforming power. Contemporary dance, which is often influenced by African rhythms, can be quite spectacular. But it still aims at putting on a show or performing. My problem with disco and rave dancing is that there is a difficulty in communicating with people. With the lights, you can’t really look into another’s eyes, and to look into someone’s eyes is much better than any drug! Also, the high volume of the music doesn’t allow us to talk. And the style of the music is very mechanical – it’s not an organic music that stimulates the emotions. It stimulates rhythmic movement only. The poetic side of movement is gone.

Q: Are you inspired by African tribal dancing?

A: I have been to Africa several times. They have very important ritual dances, but the women are very suppressed. For example in one area certain tribes cut the lips of the vagina. I am trying to spread feminism on that continent. Before I can do any work in Africa with Biodanza, the women have to be liberated.

Q: Are you optimistic about the future of the human race?

A: There is a new intelligence emerging, which is shown by the growing number of ecologists, human rights activists, women’s rights workers, peace strategists, alternative medical practitioners. Millions of people have this new awareness. The old intelligence based on the manufacture of arms and self-defense through fear is gradually fading. We just have to wait and hope! I am a sceptic but I will fight until the end.

It is so important to amplify our perception. People don’t tend to perceive things properly. When we are with other people we don’t generally look into their hearts. We don’t perceive the happiness, the sadness, the suffering – we seldom really look. When we do, we realize the most precious thing, that each of us is part of a totality. That realization changes the way we live our lives.

Sarah Dalles, “Dances With Passion – Interview with Rolando Toro”, Kindred Spirit, Vol 3 No 8, 1996

Results Column with Michelle

BIODANZA, poetry of human encounter

I happened upon Biodanza during a very low point in my life. I was seven years into my journey in Africa, having given up my secure, independent life in the US and a tenured teaching job that defined me. I had married and had two children, but had lost myself somewhere along the way in the morass of new motherhood and the difficult task of adapting to new and challenging environments in poverty stricken African cities.

Discovering Biodanza was the product of pure serendipity in the form of a flyer on a gym wall. With trepidation, I made my first encounter, pregnant with my third child, in an outdoor Biodanza class.

I was initially taken back by the personal connections during the sessions, staring into someone’s eyes or holding hands with a stranger during the walking exercise. However, as the facilitator wove specific exercises into each class, I began to develop a comfort level with these connections and in time, a deep desire for this authenticity. The constant pulsation from me to the group and back helped me acknowledge that in my own adventurous and nomadic life, I was indeed strong and quite capable of embracing life’s authentic flow.

With passion in my heart and a newly born baby, I decided to join the Biodanza School in Johannesburg. I was challenged by the level of intimacy that was carefully and progressively introduced. However, I felt safe connecting first with myself. Questions began in my head and heart space. What is that mask I am hiding behind? How is this showing up in my dance? My life? As I began to peel away the layers with self-regulation and feedback, I felt the emergence of the real me within every dance and every connection. These are two important concepts reinforced in the Biodanza space. Self-regulation allows you to care for your physical needs in the dance—if you need to slow down, speed up, or even rest, you need to make the decision. Extending this concept to the other dancers, being in communication with them through awareness of their space, gestures, and need for contact is also stressed.

Next, and perhaps the biggest challenge, was learning to be present with others. Not superficially present as we tend to be in our busy Western society, but really connected with someone else in the dance. Holding hands, gazing into the “eyes of humanity” as Biodanza creator Rolando Toro describes it, or lying in a warm nest or “puppy puddle” on the ground, I felt increasingly comforted, contained, and liberated from cultural constraints of how we are supposed to relate to one another.

Deepening this ability to be authentically present with myself and others also allowed me to connect more profoundly to the Divine. When I dance now, I am filled with the presence of the numinous and feel this awesome energy in dancers with whom I ignite on the dance floor.

As a wife and mother, I am connected in mind, body, and spirit ways that overshadow the distraction I felt before. I look people in the eyes, focus on them, and don’t answer my ringing phone or look away with disinterest. I can be truly present with someone, knowing that each moment is sacred and precious and my “poetic encounters” extend beyond the Biodanza class into my daily life!

Michelle Dubreuil Macek

Director of the East Coast School of Biodanza Maryland/DC offering classes in NYC and MD. Activities: Reading, Reiki, domestic goddess!

Evidence Based Biodanza

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 15:04:39 GMT

Scientists discover efficacy of the BIODANZA system on the human body!

Dr. Marcus Stueck professor at the University of Liepzig, Germany and Dr Alejandra Villegas (both at left), who have been researching the health and social benefits of Biodanza on the human body presented at the World Congress in Eindhoven, Holland 2016 .

Here are the basics for you to digest:

1. Connecting with other human beings in a safe space under the guidance of a trained facilitator using the Biodanza system will lead to your integration of mind, body & spirit & wellness. It will also lead to more joy & vitality in your life.

2. Weekly sessions of Biodanza have a positive influence on the hormones and immune system due to the positive eco-factors that are bombarding the system weekly as seen in the empirical studies they have been doing over the years.

Biodanza lowers stress hormones in the body.
Biodanza regulates blood pressure
Biodanza increases Immunoglobin A which is responsible for defending the immune system.

3. Empirical evidence being gathered around the world with trauma victims, children, depressive patients, Parkinson's, cancer and autistic people and many other types of groups are showing that weekly Biodanza sessions acts in a hugely positive way on the emotional, social, biological and physiological of the human body.

4. So, what are you waiting for?

Empirical Study in Nepal after earthquake:

•50 helpers

•80% had high levels of PSTD

•Hyper-sensitivity of skins (90% lost houses)

•Negative correlation between sense of coherence (comprehensibility, manageability, meaningfulness) & PTSD

RESULTS: reduction of arousal after relaxation method measured by heart frequency in 95% of participants.

Biodanza for Kindergarten Children-22 sessions

(experimental and control groups)

lowered saliva cortisol levels and increased emotional recognition meaning less emotional problems with others giving way to better peer relationships, higher confidence levels, fewer health issue complaints from the children.

RESULTS: Emotion differentiation tests results: Experimental group had an improvement from 28 to 56% whereas the control group has no improvement=22% differentiate emotions

Empirical Studies of Aqua Biodanza

treatment for attachment disorders

It is a trance of suspension in body temp water with people holding you, turning clockwise in deep relaxation to beautiful music where the brain begins to function like that of a baby. Emotions come out, feel like baby again, releasing muscle tension and trauma tension helps to relax and returns person to origins.

RESULTS: After being received by your "mother" and "father" in the water, it's like a reprogramming. The Biodanza aquatic program changes your perceptive relations with your parents. If you have had emotional issues with your parents, after 3 days you feel less punishment by your mother and higher protection from your father which means you are able to create different relationship with your parents through this integration of your parents in your body; you develop a higher sense of coherence with the world and a better understanding of it and a higher amount of happiness in the life you lead.

"For me this weekend has been so transforming, so soft, deep, with re-parentalization. I feel so content with my life, with my parents, so full of gratitude. I feel alive."

IBF RESEARCH ON BIODANZA

20 minute video on Aqua Biodanza

Published Research Papers-there is even more than this!

Stück, M., Villegas, A., Schröder, H., Sack, U., Terren R., Toro V., & Toro R. (2004). Biodanza as Mirrored in the sciences: Research concerning the psychological, physiological and immunological effects of Biodanza. 1st International Research Colloquium of the BTD Hanover; Germany (Poster)

Stück, M., Villegas, A., Schröder, H., Sack, U., Terren R.; Toro V.; & Toro R. (2004). Biodanza as Mirrored in the sciences: Research concerning the psychological, physiological and immunological effects of Biodanza. Zeitschrift “Moving on. Dance Therapy Association of Australia” DTAA Quarterly 2004, Vol.3, No 2

Stück, M.; Villegas, A.; Schröder, H.; Sack, U.; Terren R.; Toro V.; Toro R. (2004). Biodanza as Mirrored in the sciences: Research concerning the psychological, physiological and immunological effects of Biodanza. Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol.31, No 3

Stück, M. (2004) Bewältigung psychischer Fehlbelastungen in der Schule: Intervention mit Tanzelementen für Lehrer: „Lerne, das Leben zu tanzen“ (Biodanza). Schulpsychologischer Tag Sachsen, Abstrakt-Band

Stück, M.; Sack,U.; Villegas,A.; Terren,R.; Toro V. (2004) Psycho-neuro-immunological effects of a new psychological Interventionmethod BIODANZA. 28th International Congress of Psychology (Weltkongress Peking/China, ICP2004). Abstrakt-Band.

Stück,M.; Schröder,H.; Villegas,A.; Terren,R.; Toro V. (2004)

Psychological effect-evaluation of a new psychological Interventionmethod BIODANZA. 28th International Congress of Psychology (Weltkongress Peking/China, ICP2004). Abstrakt-Band.

Sack, U., K. Meier, K. Bauer, M. Stueck: Psycho-immunological evaluation of stress prevention by Biodanza. 3rd Leipzig Research Festival for Life Sciences, 10. Dezember 2004. Zwickau: Verlag Leipzig: Universität Leipzig (2004), 98

Biodanza Benefits

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:55:13 GMT

Biodanza & Stress Management

One of Biodanza’s aims is stress management through the creation of a chronic state of happiness that becomes your best line of defense against the negative impact of stress.

There are three possible chronic states your body can be in: health, “fight or flight” and shock.

If you’re in a perpetual state of good health – well done! You possibly get the occasional cold but your health is generally robust and strong. Biodanza can help you maintain and strengthen this wonderful state – ramp it up to a truly chronic state of joy and happiness!

The alternative states of “fight or flight” and shock are not so positive.

How to recognize symptoms of stress

Stress is what occurs when life overwhelms you. It can be caused by one factor or many factors. Depression, anxiety, difficulties in the workplace and post-traumatic stress are just a few of them. Whatever the cause, when high levels of stress continue for too long, it starts to affect your long-term health and stress management is required.

These days, it’s hard to just switch off and relax. Our lifestyles are fraught with all kinds of challenges and our health and relationships tend to take a backseat to frenetic schedules and the never-ending demands of modern living.

The nervous system is therefore constantly under pressure, causing stress, depression anxiety, and even chronic fear. Since it rarely gets a chance to turn off, these reactions to stress become ingrained.

Here are seven major health problems linked to chronic stress of the nervous system:

High blood pressure
Heart disease
Diabetes
Weight gain
Weakening of the immune system
Depression
Possibly even certain forms of cancer, such as bowel cancer

Unmanaged reactions to stress are a more dangerous risk factor for cancer and heart disease than either cigarette smoking or high cholesterol foods. University of London 20-year Landmark Study

Anxiety or Alarm

Alarm or anxiety is where your body is predominantly in a state of “fight or flight”. The emotions most common in your life are anger, rage, fear and even deep-seated terror.

In today’s world, these emotions cannot be discharged by fighting or running. Our lifestyles are too sedentary – We tend to sit still, take it and hold it and all the while, the stress mounts. Your anxiety levels soar and you live in a state of emotional instability – a ticking emotional time bomb.

Shock or Depression

If life has overwhelmed you, your ability to choose between “fight” or “flight” is diminished, either gradually or suddenly. Your body sinks into a deeper chronic state – shock. Emotionally, this can leave you feeling lifeless, numb, depressed or apathetic.

In order to survive these states, your body decides to conserve the core body functions and withdraws from those less critical to sustaining life. However, a long-term withdrawal of this nature causes even the core functions to weaken and degenerate.

How Biodanza helps you manage stress, anxiety or depression

Before we discuss stress relief, it’s important for you to understand the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the role of this system in the body’s responses to stress. The ANS is the body’s automatic section, which runs without you having to think about it. It controls your breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, sugar absorption and many of the other key functions related to long-term health – all those core body functions mentioned earlier.

The ANS consists of two main parts – the sympathetic and parasympathetic. The sympathetic part can be regarded as the “accelerator”. It is most active when you are either in the positive states of excitement and enthusiasm, or in a negative state of chronic alarm. The parasympathetic part can be likened to the “brake”. This part is most active either when you are positively relaxed or asleep, or negatively in a state of chronic shock.

When in chronic alarm or shock, the body “locks” the autonomic nervous system and its associated endocrine system into fixed patterns, leading to your internal organs being in a continual state of stress.

This is the basic physiology all alternative methods of health are seeking to access and release – yoga, meditation, Biodanza and so on.

The Biodanza stress management method

A Biodanza class is structured to work with the autonomic nervous system. The first part of a class raises you into a state of excitement and enthusiasm, activating the positive, healthy response of the ANS sympathetic function. The second part of a class activates a journey into the healthy response of the parasympathetic section – deep relaxation and quiet inner reflection.

Almost all Biodanza exercises are designed to create a healthy response or release within the internal organs – known as a state of cenesthetic awareness. This is where you can feel your internal organs are functioning in a healthy way.

Biodanza works to create happy, balanced internal organs which are then able to move smoothly between health, alarm, shock and then back into a normal condition, without getting locked or triggered into unhealthy, fixed, long-term patterns.

It has been scientifically validated that regular Biodanza classes have immediate and medium term benefits for a significant percentage of people on such body indicators as heart rate, blood pressure and other measures of autonomic and endocrine systems.

Dance your troubles away

Not too long ago someone said that it was possible to dance your troubles away, and many laughed at him. They said it was not possible. They said it was foolish.

Then a man came along and proved it worked – Rolando Toro Araneda, Founder of Biodanza. He then continued to do so over the ensuing 60 years.

Music, dance and self-expression with others are therapeutic processes that have almost magical properties. It’s just you, your expressions – nothing else. It is you with yourself in a safe space, with others who are too, themselves and safe. This all makes for a space for holistic healing and growth.

You should try it sometime. After all – what could you possibly lose?

(information taken from the South African School of Biodanza - www.biodanza.co.za)

Power of Biodanza

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:45:19 GMT

The essence of Biodanza: The 7 powers

The therapeutic and educational success of Biodanza is due to its effects on the organism as a whole. These powers to rehabilitate life come from the combination of:

The power of music
The power of integrative dance
The power of vivencial methodology
The power of caress
The power of trance
The power of expanded consciousness
The power of the group

Each one has a transformational effect and if linked to each other, following a scientific theoretical model, they constitute eco-factors with extraordinary powerful effects.

1. The Power of Music

Music has been known throughout the ages to have a soothing and healing effect. Even in ancient cultures, this fact was recognised, and throughout both Eastern and Western cultures. Musical power is a common element in religion, philosophy and natural healing therapies, and has been recognised and used by shamans, Tibetan monks and Sufi dancers alike for centuries in their pursuit of spiritual healing and enhancement.

In the Western world, studies by numerous renowned researchers have shown that music can have a profound effect not only on human beings but also on other life forms, and has been used successfully in a number of different therapeutic endeavours.

In Biodanza, music is selected to stimulate the eco-factors linked to the five lines of vivencia. “Organic music” is that which presents biological attributes: fluidity, harmony, rhythm, tone, a sense of unity and cenesthetic effects (harmony in internal organs); It has the power to create integrating vivencias.

Because music can evoke intense vivencias, the selection of music in Biodanza follows a carefully structured gradient which holds specific thematic, vivencial and emotional significance and implications.

Music can awaken affection, vitality, creativity, transcendence and sensuality which become vivencias when danced.

2. The Power of Integrative Dance

Biodanza encompasses about 250 exercises and dances whose purpose is to activate human movements in a harmonic and integrative way. There are no dissociative movements in Biodanza.

We have several motor and sensory-integration exercises, affective motor exercises and many of cenesthetic sensibility (ones which restore the individual’s sense of inhabiting his own body).

Yet another series of Biodanza exercises is composed of simple dances that evoke the vivencias of vitality, sexuality, creativity, affectivity and transcendence (a state of higher understanding of oneself and of life).

During a Biodanza session, the music becomes a physical movement and the dancer enters into a state of vivencia. The combination of music and movement in vivencia brings about subtle changes in many of the body’s systems and ecologies, restoring balance and general health.

The dances are powerful ways to enter vivencia, their effects feeding into and off of one another with profound effect – an elevated quality of life and joy of living.

3. The Power of Vivencial Methodology

A vivencia is an intense feeling of being alive and present in the moment and in full possession of one’s physical and emotional perceptions. Vivencias have various emotional nuances, including ecstasy, eroticism, tenderness and a sense of internal peace, which aid in the expression of the individual’s authentic identity.

The Biodanza methodology is aimed at bringing about powerful vivencias through which the individual is able to reconnect the disjointed or fragmented facets of him or herself that result from the disconnection so common in modern living.

Vivencias allow us to be ourselves in a way that is generally prevented by our cultural norms. Our native inclination and ability to connect with others and with our surroundings are inhibited by social boundaries and these can be restored through the experience of vivencias.

4. The Power of Caress

Restoring the connection between people is essential to any process of rehabilitation into life. Human development cannot occur in solitude and neither can the restoration of health. Contact with his or her fellow human beings is what allows the individual to grow.

Verbal connection alone is not enough. It is necessary to introduce physical contact, as in a dance between a couple or in a group, which entails an enjoyable and reciprocal physical element.

There is no shortage of scientific evidence of the power of gentle touch. Numerous researchers and authors have discovered that physical contact has a therapeutic and enhancing effect on the human psyche.

Naturally, touch on its own is insufficient as a therapy and must be accompanied by the establishment of a mental and emotional connection in order to be truly effective.

Caress is not only contact, but also an emotional connection. Therapies that don’t include corporeal engagement are dissociative, because they work only on a conscious level and not in important vivencias of love and communion.

5. The Power of Trance

A trance is a modified state of consciousness that takes the individual deep into a primal mental state. It is a sort of retracing of the initial steps of a person’s existence.

Trance in Biodanza is a light state with no side effects. It does not contain or condone any state of trance induced by any form of hypnosis, use of drugs or other ways used to induce potentially destructive forms of trance.

The state of trance induced through Biodanza brings about a biological shift because in this specific condition the individual’s original biological characteristics are contacted and the first needs for protection, nutrition and contact are again accessible.

For this reason the exercises of trance allow the individual to experience a rebirth within a context of love and care. Many adults bring within them an injured child, without love. These exercises help them to access and start to heal childhood issues around the absence or lack of love through trance and rebirth ceremonies.

The deepest form of trance induced by Biodanza is known as a trance of suspension. This allows a participant to reach a deep state of trance in a progressive way and with a soft abandon in a safe and supportive space.

6. The Power of Expanded Consciousness

Expanded consciousness is a condition of amplified perception that has been known to be induced in Biodanza through music, dance and ritual ceremonies. To accede to the “supreme experience” it is necessary to be prepared and to possess a superior level of integration and maturity. The processes we use to induce progressive changes in levels of consciousness are:

exercises to amplify the perception of nature and people through the five senses
reading of the soul through the perception of companions’ faces after the trance
exercises of cenesthesitic pleasure to decrease the ego intervention
exercises of slow fluidity with abandon
exercises of ecstasy and intasy (connection with oneself)

7. The Power of the Group

Biodanza works because it is a group. There is no ‘solo’ Biodanza. The connection to the other is the essence of Biodanza – “I am because of you.”

Biodanza does not entertain an individualistic view of life and does not make use of verbal communication for its effects. Its power lies in the mutual induction of vivencias between the members of the group. These have the power to transform people’s attitudes and relationships.

In Biodanza the integration of the group follows a very different form from that traditional group dynamics. Through their experiences of vivencia and the greater levels of consciousness and awareness that these awaken in group members, they share inter-connectedness with one another whose like will not be found anywhere else and which forges a profound bond between them.

Science, Art, & Love

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:30:47 GMT

We all now know that physical and emotional trauma lodges in the body and that most illness has an emotional and psychosomatic basis. What we are now faced with is the possibility that joy, happiness and well-being can also be deeply embedded at a cellular level by the very same biological pathways. Biodanza, meaning to dance with life, is a method for doing just that.

Dr Padraic Churba-Doyle reports.

The biological science behind Biodanza is only now reaching the public domain. The Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert and The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton (see pg 28 of the February/March 2008 edition of Odyssey magazine, South Africa) provide the biological understanding and hard science of what Biodanza is about. Rolando Toro, the founder of Biodanza, had a deep understanding of this cutting-edge biology decades ago. His genius was to create a means by which everyone can tap into their genetic potential and re-programme their biology to create chronic states of joy and well being – known as vivencia. Biodanza’s use of music and exercises evokes deep autonomic nervous system and hormonal change. Like many other health methods, such as yoga, the autonomic nervous system is brought into balance. This is designed to reduce the chronic levels of stress we all live under. But it then goes further and works with deep seated hormonal change that has the capacity to create change at a genetic level. You can imprint your cells with positive messages of affection, love and well-being. In academic research literature, this biological pathway has been known for over 20 years.

The steroid hormone mechanism is as follows:

The music and exercises evoke hormonal change releasing, for example, steroid hormones;
The steroids penetrate to the cells and they unite to a receptor protein in the nucleus of the cell;
The activated steroid-receiver can then unite with the Y chromosome in order to act on specific sequences of DNA;
These specific sequences of the DNA contain glucocorticoide regulatory elements (GCRE);
RNA polymers then unite with the GCRE;
These new RNA molecules are then transcribed with the new message or experience;
New proteins are synthesized from this.

This is one of the biological pathways opened by Biodanza through the endocrine system to the nucleus of the cells, into the DNA and RNA, synthesizing new proteins and transforming cellular activity. Just like trauma can be recorded at a cellular level, so too can positive experiences. And Biodanza is aimed at creating a ‘chronic’ cellular memory of joy and happiness.

ART & EMOTIONS

Biodanza uses music, movement and creativity to access your emotional world. According to Rolando Toro: ‘The emotional world is less understood by psychotherapy and better explored through music, dance, literature and poetry. Those who work with emotions should know more about Shakespeare, Kafka or Virginia Woolf than psychotherapy.’

Music is the language of the soul. It can evoke the strongest, joyous experiences and can elevate you into transcendent states of ecstasy, joy and well-being – all aiming to imprint at a deep cellular level.

How someone walks and moves is a reflection of their state of mind and well-being. Biodanza uses very simple exercises and movement to open your posture, to get you to move more freely, to meet people openly. This in itself has profound changes on how you feel about yourself, how you communicate and how you relate with others.

Human life can be viewed as a daily creative act – like a tree that, arising from a seed, becomes strong and fertile, nurtured by the sap of love. When nurtured sufficiently, it flourishes and bears fruit, so generously that its branches are broken under the weight of its fruit. Biodanza’s intent is to facilitate your natural creative impulses until they flow into your daily life and you change your life for you and those around you.

A coherent life is not based around feeling one thing, doing another and thinking something else. But how many of us live this way? Biodanza’s intent is to increase emotional coherence in your life.

Toro says: ‘Emotions can be expressed through healthy or pathological biological pathways. Without a doubt, healthy individuals spontaneously express their emotions in concrete circumstances, while dissociated persons stop them, disguise them, hide them, or discharge them onto innocent victims. The healthy way would then be that the individual has the spontaneity and necessary sincerity to react to each situation with the appropriate emotions.’

‘Emotions that are not expressed accumulate in the vital organs. Many people are unable to express happiness, rage, sadness, eroticism or tenderness. Those chronically repressed emotions end up attacking the nervous system and the immune defenses. Learning how to express our own emotions in a healthy way is necessary to maintain internal biological equilibrium.’

Biodanza exercises induce the emotions of happiness, kindness, tenderness, affection and many more. Just as a person can learn rage, fear, aggressiveness, and the tendency toward depression, he or she can also learn altruism, eroticism, and kindness. Learning does not only take place at a conscious level. There is also learning on the affective, emotional and visceral levels.

Biodanza works to reinforce positive emotions and, through coherent expression of emotions, to progressively achieve emotional coherence in your life.

LOVE

We all have a need for affection, to be held, to be loved. It is basically what makes us human. But its biological necessity for our very survival and personal development has been grossly underestimated.

As far back as the 1940s, the psychologist Renée Spitz studied human babies isolated from their mothers in institutional homes. Hygiene was impeccable. But without being held and loved, the immune resistance of these babies was lowered. Thirty-four out of 91 died. In other foundling homes, the death rate was even higher. In some, it climbed to a devastating 90%. A host of other studies have shown similar results. Babies can be given food, shelter, warmth and hygiene. But if they are not held and loved, they have an abnormal tendency to die.

Sue Gerhardt’s Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes A Baby’s Brain (2004) gives us the science behind how our very neurological development is also deeply influenced by how we have been held, touched and loved in our early development.

Says Carolina Churba-Doyle: ‘People need affection, contact, and love in their lives as much as they need water. Rolando Toro again took this basic biological necessity of life and created a system to bring affection, contact and love back into our lives.’

From affection, we have the basis for ethical behaviour. If you can relate to someone and connect with them, you will tend to be ethical in your relationship with them. If you do not have a capacity to connect and have no affinity for another, you will not be ethical towards them. At this fundamental level, we have the root source of dishonesty, crime and war – people without affection for their fellow humanity.

THE BIG PICTURE

Toro’s objective was not small. In his view, we have suffered enough. It is time to replace these old patterns with new ones of affection, connection and pleasure. His intent is to assist humanity to reach higher levels of human evolution based on methods derived from the biological sciences. In his view, you have an opportunity to determine or influence your own human evolution and those around you. From affection, we have the basis for ethical behaviour. If you can relate to someone and connect with them, you will tend to be ethical in your relationship with them. If you do not have a capacity to connect and have no affinity for another, you will not be ethical towards them. At this fundamental level, we have the root source of dishonesty, crime and war – people without affection for their fellow humanity. Biodanza’s answer is to get everyone evolving, relating, truly seeing each other, building affection and connection. Which route will win out – survival by tooth and claw or survival through affection, connection and love?

The choice is ours.

Article reprinted with permission by Padraic Churba-Doyle

You are extraordinary!

"Every human being is miraculous and extraordinary with many possibilities in the cosmos."

R. Toro

You are love and loved!

"Affectivity is the poetry of encounter."

R. Toro

Life in the Center

"Life is absolute, not questionable, not discussible. It is the most important of all realities that we are living."

R. Toro

Biodanza & Social Action

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 14:13:33 GMT

"It is the activation of innate core of attachment that allows for in depth social change."
R. Toro

The sociological dimension of Biodanza begins in a moving and profound feeling of fraternity and not as a humanist ideology.

It is the activation of innate core of attachment that allows for in depth social change.

Social Action consists in changing the structure of the current cultures and their values: the elitist attitude, the competitiveness and the false idea of success, the social discrimination and, to a large extent, the educational methodologies that tend to maintain our cultural pathology.

R. Toro

What we do:

We bring the educational system of Biodanza to people who would otherwise not be able to experience it.

We encourage Biodanza volunteer work among our facilitators (nonprofit) for children, the elderly, mentally ill, people with motor disorders and people without resources.

We introduce Biocentric Education in educational programs in schools in order to re-educate for emotional health and stimulate the creativity of children.

Social Action in Action

As seen from our Spanish Biodanceros. Gracias a la vida!

Origins

Fri, 24 May 2024 04:38:55 GMT

What is Biodanza?

The academic definition of Biodanza is the following: “Biodanza is a system of affective integration, organic renovation and relearning of the original life functions, based on vivencias induced by dance, singing and encounter situations in groups.”

Further elaborating on his concept of Biodanza in 2009, Rolando states that “Biodanza is a system of acceleration of the integrative processes at a cellular, metabolic, neuro-endocrinological, immunological and existential levels through enriched environments that result in the transformation of human beings at all levels.”

However, the poetic interpretation is that Biodanza is a radical worldwide system that awakens our potential to live life fully. It is about falling in love with life. This means deepening our love for ourselves, our connections to others and to nature and all that is through movement and music! It is the poetry of the human encounter.

The Biodanza system was created in the 1960’s by Chilean Rolando Toro Araneda, a psychologist, while he occupied the chair of Psychology of Art and Expression at the Pontifical University of Chile’s Institute of Aesthetics and some of his first innovative thoughts on medicine came to him while he was teaching at the Center for Anthropological Medical Studies of the School of Medicine at the University of Chile. Rolando talks about Biodanza arising out of his personal experience, but that its structure is based on life sciences and most particularly biology. He also looked for his inspiration for Biodanza in the field of anthropology and has made some special investigations into the field of expansion of consciousness and creativity.

He is a poet and painter and found out that while music is the universal language that everyone can understand, dance is the ideal art form capable of integrating body and soul. The dance experience can also offer all participants happiness, tenderness and strength.

The Founder

Biodanza was created by Rolando Toro in the 6o’s while he was living and working in Chile. He then took it to Brazil and Argentina where it spread to other parts of South America. Rolando was invited to Italy in the 80‘s and off he went to share the Biodanza revolution with the Europeans. You can now practice Biodanza in most European countries. From Slovenia to Israel, Japan to New Zealand, Canada to Cuba, Norway to the continent of Africa, Rolando Toro has left his legacy of love on humanity in the name of Biodanza. Biodanza boasts an amazing critical mass of dancers worldwide. 100,000 people practice Biodanza weekly and there are 2,500 +- facilitators offering weekly classes around the globe.

In the United States and North America, you can locate all of the authentic IBF trained Biodanza facilitators on this website under contacts.

What did Rolando Toro create?

Biodanza, which means “dance of life” is a healing system of development that integrates music, authentic movement and heartfelt emotion to provide experiences of intense perception of being alive in the here-and-now. We dance to feel. We dance to exist. We dance to be present with ourselve and others. These dance experiences are known as “vivencias”, coined from the Spanish root: vivir (to live).

Vivencias are doors to access primal emotions and help movement emerge that is the most natural expression of your true self. Vivencias follow the organic movements of life….its biological rhythms, the pulse of the heart, and the impulse to connect with others.

Continuous exposure to Biodanza strengthens your identity and relationship with life and others. The practice of Biodanza happens through two hour weekly classes and weekend workshops. The experience is mostly non-verbal, which opens participants’ communication and connection regardless of their sociocultural background. We turn off the cortex and see what comes from our hearts.

Kids, especially, love the freedom of Biodanza where they can express their inner creativity through movement. It’s a safe space where they can access their joy, spontaneity and creativity. It improves co-ordination and motor skills, develops flexibility and increases capacity for action and rest.

Biocentric Principle

The Biocentric principle finds its inspiration in the intuition of a universe organized around the function of life. It is a proposal for the reformulation of cultural values whose reference is the respect for life. The Biocentric principle proposes the strengthening of life and the expression of its evolutive powers.

From this point of view, Biodanza is the poetry of the human being, based on universal laws that conserve and and allow for the evolution of life. Every action of Biodanza are oriented in accordance with the deep and touching phenomenon we call life.

Biodanza uses a vivencial methodology. Giving more importance to the real experience than the verbal information. It allows for the ignition of internal transformation without the intervention of repressive mental processes.

Let’s take the visionary thought of Alberto Schweitzer: “thinking about life, I feel the obligation to respect every will of life around me, to be like my life”. The fundamental idea of good is that it consists in preserving life, favoring and conducting life to the its highest value; and that evil consists in polluting, wounding and putting limits to its flowering.

The biocentric principle focuses its attention on a universe conceived as a living system. indeed, The kingdom of life is more than vegetables, animals and human beings. All existing things, from neutrino to quasar, from stone to the keener thought, are part of prodigious living system. According to the Biocentric principle the universe exists because life exists and not the contrary.

(taken from Rolando Toro)

Biodanza rEVOLution blog

A message to worldwide Biodanza facilitators

a message from an unlikely source

The Women Who Stayed

A divine love

The Divine Feminine

Disappointment

We all experience it

Facilitators in Weekly Practice

Why it's important

The benefits of presence...

Honor to the Feet

They lead us where we need to go

Becoming the Body

musings on the dance

Integrity

The courage to live what you believe

Living your integrity fully

Integrity and the ethos of Biodanza

Resistance

Community as the Basis for Resistance: The Biodanza Perspective

Entrega

When Resistance Falls Away, Life Flows

Gaming Life

The Dance Between Worlds, Player and Life

So, you think you can dance?

I bet you can!

Who was Rolando Toro?

man.poet.human.

Interview With Rolando Toro

Interview with Rolando Toro, Creator of Biodanza

Results Column with Michelle

Evidence Based Biodanza

Scientists discover efficacy of the BIODANZA system on the human body!

20 minute video on Aqua Biodanza

Published Research Papers-there is even more than this!

Biodanza Benefits

Biodanza & Stress Management

How to recognize symptoms of stress

Here are seven major health problems linked to chronic stress of the nervous system:

Anxiety or Alarm

Shock or Depression

How Biodanza helps you manage stress, anxiety or depression

The Biodanza stress management method

Dance your troubles away

You should try it sometime. After all – what could you possibly lose?

Power of Biodanza

The essence of Biodanza: The 7 powers

1. The Power of Music

2. The Power of Integrative Dance

3. The Power of Vivencial Methodology

4. The Power of Caress

5. The Power of Trance

6. The Power of Expanded Consciousness

7. The Power of the Group

Science, Art, & Love

﻿

Dr Padraic Churba-Doyle reports.

ART & EMOTIONS

LOVE

THE BIG PICTURE

Biodanza & Social Action

"It is the activation of innate core of attachment that allows for in depth social change." R. Toro

What we do:

Social Action in Action

Origins

What is Biodanza?

The Founder

What did Rolando Toro create?

Biocentric Principle

"It is the activation of innate core of attachment that allows for in depth social change."
R. Toro