Come... Dance With Me
06/02/2009 - By Jaquelin Levin Jaquelin Levin is a pioneer of Biodanza®Vital Development in the USA. She describes how all her paths converged, leading her to Biodanza over 10 years ago and her continuing journey and passion with the work.
I have always been a seeker of truth and my quest has taken me across the planet. I have searched for nirvana in Africa, Europe and the remote mountains of Italy. I have partied in the Himalayas and explored the forests of Portugal. In my search for truth, I have drummed in a Bedouin village and cultivated permaculture gardens in Lesotho. I have sought it in exotic love affairs, meditation, yoga, veganism and even magick. Then I found Biodanza®. My journey to wholeness led me straight back to where I began and where I am now: in my body.
I first encountered Biodanza, or “the dance of life,” in South Africa. Shortly after a painful breakup, I was at one of the lowest points in my life. In a state of depression, I was uninspired, unmotivated and desolate. I experienced a deep craving to come “home,” aching with the knowledge of what I had lost in myself and what had not yet been awakened.
At this time I encountered a radiant woman. She expressed an excitement and passion for life that had been foreign to me for too long. She danced Biodanza. I was, of course, intrigued.
I signed up for my first Biodanza class. The teacher was a Brazilian woman in her 50s. Uncomfortable at first, it was difficult for me to walk around the room, let alone dance, amongst strangers. Self-conscious giggles were the only way I could mask my embarrassment.
Then I watched the teacher closely as she demonstrated her interpretation of the dances. In awe of the way she expressed her sensuality, I found myself wanting to feel this comfortable too, to experience this desire for myself, to get carried away by the moment.
The days that followed were filled with new sensations. A channel had been reopened within me. Although apprehensive, I returned the following week to perhaps experience a hint of what the teacher had expressed. Little did I know that this would lead me back into alignment with my life’s path—a journey deep into myself and the human species.
Through the dance, I began to experience pleasure that I had never felt before. By entering into my sensation and feeling the rhythm of life from within, I was able to experience myself as one with the universe.
When I found my dance, I could remove the cobwebs that obscured my dreams. When I re-entered myself, I was able to take my power back and rediscover the abundance of life.
Biodanza is a system of integration and organic renovation that utilizes music, movement and emotion to reduce stress, release emotions and promote health, clear communication and fluid social integration. It was founded in Chile in the 60s and has since developed into a global movement. Biodanza was created to rescue humanity. Society places an excess value on culture over nature—reason over instinct. The aim of Biodanza is to reestablish an original link with the species as a biological totality.
The system is therapeutic and pedagogic. Through the various dances, we relearn and refine our instinctive human needs. It is therapeutic in that we are able to recover the parts of ourselves that may have been lost over time.
Biodanza is experiential as participants are guided through different exercises by a poetic explanation. Each dance has an intention that relates to a different aspect of life. Sometimes the participant dances alone, sometimes with another person, and sometimes with the entire group with no verbal communication.
Devoid of choreography, the participant is guided to express his/her own dance. Communication skills and the understanding of feedback are taught in the dances.
Biodanza induces integration within a group setting, which is central to the experience. We are provided with a non-judgmental space where we can relate to other Biodanceros. Our existential growth occurs through the presence of other people. To be with others is a biological necessity. Groups who practice Biodanza on a regular basis develop bonds of intimacy. Through the group, each person is able to discover something within themselves.
Biodanza proposes to awaken a dormant sensitivity to find a new way to live, as opposed to merely surviving. With regular practice, we start to live with passion, love and intensity, which filters into every aspect of our lives.
Movement is our most primordial form of expression. In Biodanza, we access this primal nature, organically arriving at the comprehension that we have been born with the potential to express all of our possibilities. In order to do that, we need to nurture the soul. Biodanza is this food for the soul.
In Biodanza our instinctive needs have been identified as five “lines.” They are: vitality: to be and feel alive; sexuality: to feel desire and pleasure; creativity: to apply renovation in our daily lives; affectivity: to feel love, tenderness, and respect among people; and finally, transcendence: to move beyond our egos and reach higher levels of integration within all life.
Through my dance I continually realize that there is an energy within the universe linked to me. When we disconnect from this, we create a dis-harmony inside of us and this translates into our world. Further, when our body stops recognizing itself through this process, dis-ease manifests.
There is a reference of the universe within all of us—embedded in our biology—in each cell. In Biodanza, we reconnect with this energy.
The more we immerse ourselves into the group which represents humanity, the more we understand that life is at the center of creation. There is an organizing unity in the universe where life creates more life, as it has an intrinsic desire to grow and evolve.
In Biodanza, we access this through the Vivencia, an intense experience of the here and now where there is no past and no future. The dances are designed to evoke this very sensation where we are at our most essential being. At this place of presence, there can be no programming of reactions and experiences. There are no social mandates or constraints. When we enter the Vivencia, this conditioning disappears as we enter the body. It is a very pure experience and we start to discover the unknown that exists within. At this moment, soul, spirit and flesh fuse. No longer separate from the music, we become the dance.
This is the story of my love affair with Biodanza. It is my passion and my calling in life. As I grew from these experiences, my life filled with pleasures. My relationship with myself transformed as did my relationships with my family, friends and the world. Biodanza focuses on the healthy parts of us, thus enabling us to eliminate toxic relationships.
I committed myself to the Biodanza experience, finding a paradisiacal world to which I now hold the key. Biodanza builds community and traverses boundaries of culture, language and dogma. I find Biodanceros everywhere. In Brazil, I danced with Biodanceros in their 90s who taught me a thing or two about vitality. I have danced with and taught Biodanceros in Africa, the UK, Europe and South America. In 2005, I was invited to teach at The Esalen Institute in Big Sur, CA, and continue to do so regularly. This opened the way for me to dance in the United States, branching into Los Angeles, which gave me the opportunity to teach in diverse settings—from my weekly group to youth and senior programs, to dancing with people who have special needs and Alzheimer’s. In any group, Biodanza works!
This journey has given me an understanding of existential creativity, to make a work of art from my life. I recognize the gift of potential that has been seeded within me and each time I enter the dance, I receive the nourishment required by these seeds to blossom.
Biodanza enables me to live how I wish to see and experience the world. The dances are tools through which I manifest my dreams and desires. When I embarked upon this adventure so many years ago, I had no inkling of the magic I would be able to dance into my life.
Biodanza is a discovery of the self, the “other,” and the enchantment of life. We rediscover the poetry of the human encounter and the body as a source of light and pleasure.
When we are in our power, we attract life. We walk tall, illuminated by our immensity. Biodanza is pure medicine to be the best person we can possibly be.
Life is a precious gift. Let us embrace it by living each moment with intensity. So, come dance with me.