Biodanza

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Name: Altair de Almeida
Sort code 04-00-04
Acct: 51433743

“Sure you’re stressed, who isn’t? A Biodanza class might be just what you need to bring some fun back into the mix. The Verdict: Totally rocks! Many systems relieve stress but few leave you feeling this blissfully happy. There’s also a sense of being open to whatever life brings you, and less stuck in your ways.” Stress Busters 10, FHM, April 2004 Stress is essentially when life starts to get on top of you. This can be work, finance, love, home life, or any number of life pressures we all experience. Biodanza gives you a space to come back into yourself and re-balance again. Research studies by Dr Marcus Stueck of the University of Leipzig, (Germany) have shown that a series of ten regular classes of Biodanza created marked improvements in a number of measurable stress related indicators – various psychological (regulation of emotion, health, personal psychology), physiological (skin response, blood pressure) and immunological variables. Stueck said: “Initial results from the experimental-control-group study in Argentina and Germany reveal significant changes in psychological health and personality variables after 3 months. After a further 3 months without Biodanza, the effect could be seen to have stabilized. It could be shown that regular, long-term participation in Biodanza had positive effects.” Improving Communication magazine “I arrived home in the late afternoon, strangely lamb like, in a very laid back state. Not once did I snap at my children or husband (something I usually do at least three times between 6.00pm and 8.00pm)…” Marianne Holtman, The move we’re talking about, Shape March 2001. A happy person is more tolerant, more understanding and more able to listen to others. It is simply amazing how a class of two hours of guaranteed happiness per week can improve how you communicate with those close to you. And yes, we really do we need it every week! Regular Biodanza classes help people become more open, confident and self assured. It essentially increases that non-quantifiable quality – personal presence. “I was intensely shy and easily embarrassed. Biodanza was a huge challenge but I stuck with it. Every week, I became more and more outgoing. My life has changed in so, so many ways.” Your ability to communicate determines your relative success and happiness in life. It affects your progress at work, your ability to socialise, your level of domestic happiness and how you are perceived socially. Over 70% of communication is non-verbal. And these are the most important skills. People read your body language before you even speak! Biodanza is one of the few places where non-verbal communication skills are practised and improved weekly.

Improved Relationships

“Our relationship came back to life through Biodanza. It was like falling in love again!” “I became more outgoing through regular classes. I was shy. That is now gone! I now have a partner. And that part of my life is now working for me!” “I needed to get over a divorce. Biodanza helped me regain my confidence. I really needed it!” Biodanza is a space dedicated to reconnecting couples with their love for themselves and each other. Biodanza has much to offer couples, those seeking to establish a couple or those recovering from the negative effect of a break-up. Where there are specific problems within a married couple, it is recommended that partners undertake professional counselling in conjunction with Biodanza. If in doubt, speak to your facilitator.

The late Rolando Toro Araneda was the founder and creator of Biodanza now practiced throughout Europe, South America, South Africa and Japan. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with Biodanza over the last forty years.

Born in Concepcion, Chile, 19th April 1924, he has followed many careers including school teacher, Psychologist, Medical researcher, Poet, Artist, African art collector and Medical Anthropologist. All have, in various ways, contributed to the development of Biodanza – his life’s work.

He has held many academic posts including Chair of Psychology of Expression at the Institute of Aesthetics of the Catholic University of Santiago, Chile.

He has published books of poetry and psychotherapy and has had exhibitions of his paintings in Brazil, Italy and France. He has lived in many countries including Argentina, Brazil and Italy. In 1998 he has returned to his native country of Chile. His motivation: to spread Biodanza around the world. There are over 100 Biodanza teacher training schools and 2500 teachers around the world. It is now danced on every inhabited continent in the world. Rolando Toro passed away on 16 February 2010, aged almost 86.

His Motivation to Create Biodanza

On the origins and emergence of Biodanza, he writes:

“Biodanza has emerged discreetly in my life. It has gathered strength slowly, awakening people’s interest, causing surprising changes in some participants, and above all creating a feeling of “epiphany” (manifestation of God) and hope in life.

“Biodanza arose in my personal experience and soon I discovered that its structure could be based in the Life Sciences and most particularly in Biology.

“I believe that there were many forces manifested within me to finally create this coming together of art, science and love.

“I was shaken by paradoxical, sometimes marvellous and sometimes terrifying experiences.

“The Second World War showed that humanity could reach inconceivable levels of perversity. Events such as the holocaust of millions of people under fascism and the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki revealed how far the degradation of the human race could go. The crisis of western culture was obvious – the global vision of human beings as “ill from civilisation.”

“On the other hand, I have lived experiences of ecstasy, in a mysterious and marvellous world. I have had children. I have made contact with the first Ecological groups.

“Faced with the abyss created by human contradictions, I felt a desire to conquer paradise, a shared paradise. I could not conceive of a solitary evolution. I wanted to find the source of original love.

“Everyone, for centuries, had heard about “love for our fellow man” as the purest truth of Christianity. The manifestation of human behaviour, however, had become increasingly dissociated and violent.

“Music was the universal language, the only thing everyone could understand in the Tower of Babel of the world.

“Dance was the ideal form capable of integrating body and soul. The dance experience offered all participants happiness, tenderness and strength.

“I also wanted to communicate this experience to a large number of people. From both these experiences and sensations, my desire to form small groups of people to dance, sing and meet within the music arose.

“So Biodanza became a way to share what was marvellous, together with others.”

“Have you ever danced until you flew? Danced so hard, so fast, so freely that you reach a level of overwhelming, ecstatic joy? If you haven’t you should – it can change your life.”
Mike Aldridge, Ecstasy through Dance, Namaste, Vol 9.

“So how did I feel at the end of it all? Strangely cheerful and wholly invigorated. You will too.”
Peter Wagenaar, Shake the Blues Away, Pathways to Health.

“Move your body to the new dance therapy that could boost your immune system, not to mention your love life!… You leave feeling energetic and proud, maybe even a little bit sexy. Well, all that undulating has to unlock something, doesn’t it?”
Dance the heart-ache away, Cosmopolitan.

“I”m feeling wonderfully relaxed and uplifted… I feel good and strangely optimistic about everything… Many of the classmates head off to dinner together… (I am) feeling an amazing bond with these people… Biodanza is like that, helping you to make connections.”
Geoff Dalglish, Grab a Partner, Men’s Health December 2000

“Sure you’re stressed, who isn’t? A Biodanza class might be just what you need to bring some fun back into the mix. …. The Verdict: Totally rocks! Many systems relieve stress but few leave you feeling this blissfully happy. There’s also a sense of being open to whatever life brings you, and less stuck in your ways.”
Stress Busters 10, FHM, April 2004.

“Can two hours really make a difference to how you feel about your body? My experience is it can. I sashayed over to my car, a big grin inside and out, feeling as if I had shifted and shaken loose something critical and controlling within. I realised how seldom I listen to my body”s wisdom and how often I override its needs and pleasures. If I am to learn to truly love myself, what better place to start than with my body?”
Rosemary Miller, Movement into life, Odyssey magazine.

“I arrived home in the late afternoon, also strangely lamb like, in a very laid back state. Not once did I snap at my children or husband (something I usually do at least three times between 6.00pm and 8.00pm) and by 8.30pm I”d fallen into a deep sleep. My dreams took me to Buenos Aires where I proudly swivelled my hips, tossed my head and kissed the mirror.”
Marianne Holtman, The move we”re talking about, Shape March 2001.

“By the end of the class people are glowing and ready to take on the world. In fact some of them go out to dinner together and continue to share their new found zest for life.”
Penny Brewer, Dance like nobody is watching, Odyssey, August 2004

“Music itself teaches you to move. For example, if you play earth music with drums, your feet just want to move.”
Carolina Churba-Doyle, O the Oprah magazine South Africa, January 2005

“What if the path to an organisation”s well being did not involve arduous teambuilding exercises, long winded meetings or harrowing negotiations but something as simple and pleasurable as dancing?”
Christo van Staden, Let’s Dance, Sunday Times 13th April 2003

“Two kids, ten years of marriage and who was I? I got ME back!”

“It ignited my passion for life. It led to incredible joy over the last four years.”

“It opened places in my heart that had been closed tight. I fell in love with life again.”

“The most empowering process I have done in twenty years of personal work.”

“Thank you for the most magical and fruitful journey of my life, brought to me by you, through the gift of Biodanza! It has added vitality, joy, creativity and a sense of my own sensuality and affectivity – coupled with unique moments of transcendence!”

“The weekend was totally magical and for me it was a win-win! Loved every aspect he brought with such insight, sensitivity and humour.” HG

“Thanks so very much for a most wonderful weekend, which was not only interesting but inspiring. I found the lectures easy to understand and valuable to my life, and I came away from this weekend filled with a tenderness and love.” DdeM

“Just to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the weekend, it was truly wonderful and I feel as if I have experienced real life changing moments…. we shared moments of great power, intimacy and tenderness as we watched each one unfold and blossom!! For me personally it was a moment of the greatest aliveness I have ever experienced being fully alive in every fibre of my being, so thank you again!!!” CleR

“The weekend was wonderful and so informative. I understood Biodanza’s application in the world in a completely new way.” GV