“Let life penetrate you.” was the instruction given by one of the teachers at the Biodanza Festival I attended near Prague. It became the hallmark for me of the 5-day festival, which left me feeling enriched and enlivened.
Biodanza, a dance/movement/expression practice, is an amazingly therapeutic experience that I first encountered 24 years ago before leaving my life in Johannesburg to move to Peru. After a 10-year gap, I found a Biodanza teacher in Pisac who teaches a weekly “vivencia” at Paz y Luz which I thoroughly enjoy.
In South Africa, the classes were with 20-30 people. At Paz y Luz we are happy when 5-8 arrive. At this festival, we had 75 participants and five teachers with 6 vivencias that last about 2 hours each.
The principles of Biodanza, using music and movement, assist each person to integrate their feelings within themselves, with another (in pairs or threes) and also with a group. To dance with 80 people interacting with each other is hard to describe. The energy and the emotions evoked were palpable. In Biodanza, you dance/move together without speaking but interact in sometimes very intimate ways with touch and gaze.
There are 3 experiences that stand out for me from the vivencias at the festival. We were instructed to choose a partner and stand across from each other on different sides of the room. Your partner calls your name and you run into their arms. It is a highly energizing experience, especially with 40 pairs doing it at the same time. Right after we finished that movement, my partner left the room.
The next instruction was to keep your same partner for the next dance. As I danced alone in the company of the other pairs, I suddenly felt deflated. Not knowing my previous partner, I knew it had nothing to do with him, yet I felt left, abandoned. I soon was able to associate the feeling with my husband Christer and his unexpected leaving when he died in 2011.
As I integrated those emotions and was able to release them, the next instruction was to pick a new partner who would hold you while you relaxed and stretched, being held and supported. I was able to relax completely in my partner’s embrace in a way I had not ever felt previously, knowing I wouldn’t fall – that I could completely let go. I began to cry from a very deep place with a mixture of sadness, joy and relief. It was a profound moment that I shared with a beautiful Czech woman who spoke no English and yet our communication was complete as tears streamed down both of our cheeks.
The second experience was similar when the entire group was instructed to move to the middle of the room leaving no space between us. We became a human pillar swaying gently to the music. I happened to be in the very middle of this pillar. Again, I could completely relax and know there was no way for me to fall. Not only did I feel supported, I felt one with all of them and one with the world in general. It granted me a profound knowing that humans live and breathe and feel in similar ways, beyond culture, language and politics. It deepened by belief that peace on earth is possible.
The third powerful experience I had was a movement where we had many partners, changing after only a few minutes together where we listened to each other’s heartbeat. I’m not sure if I ever put my ear to someone’s chest to hear that amazing thumping sound but I certainly never did it with 10 or 15 people in a row, while allowing them to listen to my heart beating. Heart beats sound the same in old and young, male and female, tall and short. It was totally disarming and awesomely beautiful.
I arrived not knowing anyone and was one of 8 people who didn’t speak Czech. I left feeling in love with life and a tender affection with people whose names I don’t know, as well as the ones who are now new friends. Biodanza was created by a Chilean psychiatrist in the 60s to assist clients to rise out of depression and experience the joy of living. Studies over the years, of people doing Biodanza, documents how the brain is rewired by doing this practice. Now it is taught most places around the world. I highly recommend it for your own wellbeing but also to help bring about change on a grand scale.
