Sankofa

“The past is not the dance.”

When we dance we cannot dwell on the past. Instead of connecting with the past with nostalgia, regret or guilt, the Akan of Ghana offer us “ Sanfoka”, a philosophy that invites us to “go back and get it.” The past becomes a place of learning. We connect to learn and grow.

In dance every movement grows out of the movement that came before it. This continuity does not always represent repetition. The movement I am in now comes from, and is made possible from the movement that came before. Biodanza invites us to embody this flow especially through the expression of Creativity. We do not dance another’s choreography, nor are the movements repetitive. Instead of remaining with familiar or traditional patterns, we are invited into the space of creating new possibilities.

This does not mean we forget or disqualify the past. The African wisdom of “Sanfoka” invites us to honour the past but not be bound by it. As we dance from one “past” movement to another we experience it not as a choreography we have to follow but something which is continuously emerging. We embody and experience life not as a story already written to which we are eternally bound, but as something that continuous to unfold through us.

_Christos Daskalakos

Whole in Every Dance

“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.”

_Maya Angelou

The magic of the Biodanza group is that we co-create our Vivencia (experience) together. Dancing alone can be wonderful and fun, but something else happens when we share our dances in a group. We create a shared field of inspiration, support and affective connection. The group is not merely a collection of individuals but an environment in which our dances and experiences are amplified.

Biodanza is the existential expression of our humanity. Our unique identities are created through our genes and find individual expression through our own narratives. Although these are important, Biodanza invites us to also transcend these individual identities. The group provides a space in which we discover and embody our individuality while at the same time experiencing ourselves as part of something greater.

Dance is both a metaphor and also a direct embodied experience of the whole. This ancient practice finds its origins in our shared biology and movement. Physically and socially we share the capacity for connection. Through dancing together we discover this and at the same time connect with the magic and wonder of expressing this in our unique ways. Our dances and the dances of others become the mirror in which life is reflected back at us.

_Christos Daskalakos

Dancing with our Endogenous Mood

“Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.”

_Roy T Bennett

Dance can change the way we perceive and experience life. In Biodanza, the Vital Unconscious represents the intelligence of the living body. One of the ways this deep intelligence manifests is through what Rolando Toro calls our endogenous mood. This is more than just feeling any particular emotion but rather is something more basic. It is something ever present, deep, autonomous, and unconscious. Despite fleeting emotions that may come and go our endogenous mood is continuously the way in which our living body is orientating us towards the world.

Psychologist and neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett has explored this underlying dimension of experience, which psychologists call affect. Affect is present throughout our lives, whether or not we are experiencing a recognisable emotion and whether or not we are consciously aware of it. It influences how we perceive the world. Studies in her lab show that what we see, hear and feel is not simply received by the senses, but is shaped by the state of our body. Our endogenous mood therefore becomes part of the lens through which life is experienced.

This is one of the many reasons dance can be so transformative. If the deepest sources of our mood are largely unconscious, we cannot simply think our way into changing them. Dance offers another pathway through the body. In Biodanza, carefully selected music, poetic invitations, and natural movement create positive ecofactors that awaken joy, play, vitality and pleasure. These life affirming experiences can influence this underlying state. We are not trying to control the body or manufacture any particular emotion. Instead we create the conditions in which movement can arise from within. The vivencia, experience, is the incubator in which life is nurtured and affirmed through dance.

_Christos Daskalakos