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