Biodanza: the path to joy |

Have you found the formula for happiness yet? For the director of the Biodança Training School, Eliana Almeida, practicing this activity can be the way to feel better. The technique, which integrates music, dance, movement, meeting and communication with the other, seeks to strengthen the identity of each one. Classes are based on segments or lines of experience, as practitioners prefer to call them. Altogether there are five: vitality, sexuality, creativity, affectivity and transcendence.

In meetings, Biodanza fans get together to express these potentials, through exercises based especially on music and dance. The purpose of the activity is to promote contact with oneself, with others and with the universe. “The method is experiential, that is, each one feels the experience differently. It is through Biodanza that we develop unconditional love, forgetting our own interests and thinking more about others”, explains Eliana.

relearning to live

Biodança is aimed at people of all age groups, in addition to clinical groups, such as people with cancer or Parkinson’s disease, for example. According to the specialist, the practice cannot be considered a therapy, since it does not work around symptoms. But it is a kind of “pedagogy of love”, in which the person re-learns how to live better and develop their potential. Practitioners believe that by working on these traits they are better able to make good choices in life.

And anyone who thinks that to practice Biodanza you need to know how to dance is wrong. Eliana guarantees that the spaces where the practice takes place are democratic. No practitioner can be judged or evaluated on their abilities. “Biodança rescues movements and connects you with your deepest emotions, after all, our identity is permeable to music”, recalls the specialist.

To find out where to find Biodanza classes in your city, visit www.biodanza.org.

The living lines

affectivity: considered the main line in Biodança, it stimulates the creation of deep bonds with the other, through soft music. “When you feel it, you manage to integrate with the environment”, warns Eliana.

Vitality: to stimulate this quality strong music is used. The goal is to release each other’s energy.

Sexuality: here the idea is to get rid of taboos and recover the pleasure of living. The rhythms are sensual, made through sinuous movements. “Rolling is not ugly and unblocks sexual energy”, explains the expert.

Creativity: How about orchestrating your own life? The goal is to get out of the routine and imposed patterns, experiencing new and intense rhythms.

transcendence: according to Eliana, this is one of the lines most blocked by people. In a busy world, where everyone is always in a state of alert, it is difficult to exercise control over yourself. “We must love and feel more. Body and soul must be one,” she recalls.

word of those who practice

Anna Cristina Peralva – businesswoman and Biodanza teacher, 55 years old: “Biodanza taught me to chase my dreams. Before attending classes I had gone through a separation process and I was not happy. After becoming adept at the method, I made new friends, took courage to leave a job that did not bring me satisfaction and opened my own business”.

Márcia Luz Ferreira – civil engineer, 52 years old: “I’ve been practicing Biodanza for eight years and this is where I recharge my energies. I was alone for almost ten years and when I learned to allow myself more, I found a new love for my life”.

Bruna Aguiar Fois – dentist and jewelry designer, 32 years old: “I confess that the first class scared me a little. After all, in Biodanza there is emotional contact with other participants and I wasn’t used to being affectionate. Today I learned that I can go further”.

Alberto de Almeida Leite – member of the group of Biodanza facilitators, 58 years old: “I went through an existential crisis eight years ago, when I started questioning myself too much. Biodanza allowed me to live in a lighter way. I learned to feel more and think less.”