The Dance between Us

“If a tree does not know how to dance, 

the wind will teach it.”

_African Proverb

Meaning when we dance in Biodanza doesn’t depend only on my own movements but emerges through relationship, whether we are dancing with another or dancing in the presence of the group. Each dance provides a language rich in communication, sometimes through touch but also distance. The quality of our movements and presence carry information about ourselves and about how we meet another.

A single note does not necessarily make music which usually emerges through the relationship of a series sounds and the intervals between them. In the same way a dance is more than one movement. Dance is created through a continuous conversation where each movement carries the one before it and opens possibilities for what might come next. As we respond to each other we create a shared experience in which the anticipation of is what to come and the pleasure that arises from the resolution and surprise from what emerges starts to give meaning to the dance.

We hold up a mirror for each other in the dance because the way in which we enter into relationship reflects something about how we meet life. As we become comfortable and build trust in the group we see that what once may have begun as distance can become intimacy. If there was any fear it can give way to vulnerability. When we create dances through relationship we find that if we change the way we dance with each other we may also begin to change the way in which we experience ourselves and the world. Biodanza may mean “dancing with life” but its not a rigid life but rather an ever changing and emerging and enriched life full of meaning.

_Christos Daskalakos