Biodanza

“I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”

Joseph Campbell

Biodanza – The Dance of Life

Biodanza is a gentle yet powerful path back to what it truly means to be alive. Through music, movement, and human connection, it awakens our vitality, joy, and capacity to love. Rooted in science, nourished by love and art — Biodanza invites us to rediscover and reconnect with life through the body. 

Photo: Maya Herrera

Origins & Vision

Biodanza was created in the 1960s by Chilean anthropologist, psychologist and poet Prof. Rolando Toro Araneda (1924 – 2010). It emerged from his deep reflections on trauma, ecstasy, and the human longing for love and connection.

Inspired by biology, psychology, anthropology, and the arts, Biodanza is a response to the fragmentation of modern life — a call to return to the wisdom of the body, the sacredness of life, and the dignity of being human. 

“I sought a different way of living, a new perspective for our existential trajectory. I believe that our deepest need is to live in a world without violence, where the human condition can recover its essential meaning. In the search for a solution, I have devised a methodology aimed at developing an evolutionary process of affective transformation: Biodanza, an education that has Life as its basic reference, and that gives access to happiness; a sociology of love, the attractor of order out of chaos in our existences.” – Rolando Toro

Interview: The world of Biodanza with Rolando Toro 
The transcript of this interview in English can be found here

Photo: Ulrich Mattes

The Heart of Biodanza

The heart of Biodanza is the vivencia — a fully lived experience here and now. It engages body, senses, and emotion — opening us to joy, intimacy, tenderness, sensuality, and belonging.

In a vivencia, we don’t talk about life — we feel it.

There are five vivencia lines of Biodanza which represent core dimensions of human potential:

  • Vitality – awakening our life energy, joy, and physical aliveness
  • Sexuality – reconnecting with pleasure, sensuality, and the joy of being in a body
  • Creativity – expressing ourselves uniquely and freely, bringing freshness into life
  • Affectivity – opening to love, empathy, tenderness, and authentic relationships
  • Transcendence – experiencing connection beyond the self — with nature, humanity, and the mystery of life

Together, these five lines foster a balanced, integrated, and deeply human way of being.

Photo: Ulrich Mattes

How It Works?

Music, Movement & Encounter

Each Biodanza session is a carefully crafted journey using:

  • Curated music to evoke specific physiological and emotional responses
  • Guided movement — individual, in pairs, or in group — to foster integration and expression
  • Non-verbal interaction to build connection and trust beyond words

There is no choreography, no judgment — only presence, spontaneity, and the invitation to be you.

Photo: Ulrich Mattes

Why Biodanza?

Biodanza supports a wide range of personal and collective transformations:

  • Human Integration — reconnect with your essence, with others, and with life
  • Organic Renewal — stimulate inner balance, regeneration, and resilience
  • Affective Re-education — awaken your capacity to love, be loved, and relate authentically
  • Restoring the Instincts — restore the natural intelligence of joy, creativity, pleasure, and connection

Photo: Ulrich Mattes

Scientific Foundations

Biodanza is a gigantic conjunction of science, art and love. All exercises are created based on a wide range of solid scientific knowledge & findings. It especially

  • Influences the autonomic nervous system, balancing activation and rest, facilitate social engagement state and biological homeostasis
  • Stimulates the right brain hemisphere, promoting emotion, creativity, and bonding
  • Informed by neurobiology, psychoneuroimmunology, and systems theory

Biodanza invites transformation not just at the mental level — to consciously decide for living life fully and truly — but deep within the body and nervous system, at the cellular level. 

Database for Biodanza Research and Biocentric Science 

Photo: Ulrich Mattes

The Biocentric Principle

At its core, Biodanza rests on the biocentric principle: Life — not matter — is the central organizing force of the universe.

Life is the center!

We are part of a sacred, interconnected whole, evolving toward ever deeper unity, beauty, and consciousness.

Photo: Ulrich Mattes

Where and for Whom?

Biodanza is practiced in 73 countries now and adapted to many settings:

  • For children, adults, elders, and people with diverse abilities
  • In therapy, education, community building, and organizational development
  • Always acting on the healthy, creative, and resilient part of each human being

It is not about fixing — it is about unfolding.  

Photo: Ulrich Mattes

A Philosophy of Connection

More than a method, Biodanza is a celebration of life, a way of living.
A remembering of who we are — and how deeply we belong.

As Rolando Toro wrote:

MANIFESTO

We are the memories of the world.
We only must remember what is in our cells.
The fruits of summer, the voluptuous love.
The capacity to put ourselves in the place of the other.
The contact.
The courage to innovate.
The embrace, the goodbye, the encounter.
The sea on our skin. The music of life. The dance of life.
Biodanza gives us back the ancestral memory, the absolute possibility of love.

Photo: Axel Hebenstreit

Biodanza Events & Sessions

Whether you’re curious, called, or simply seeking a space to breathe and move again — you’re warmly invited to join one of my Biodanza offerings.

From weekly dance groups to deep-dive retreats, each space is crafted with care, presence, and the invitation to come home to yourself.

Discover my current offerings here:
Events & Biodanza Sessions  

Photo: Ulrich Mattes

Curious and interested to know more about Biodanza?

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Voices from the circle:

In Biodanza, I feel that I am ‘right’ just the way I am… That my longing for LIFE and tender, mindful connection is shared by so many like-hearted people. Dear Yunbei — thank you for your work and your courage to create such healing spaces! Your being and doing truly make the world a better place for me.”
“Dancing with you all is nourishing and healing soul food every single time. Thank you from my heart, Yunbei — and to each of you!”
“It was a beautiful weekend — thank you all for this healing space and the many life-affirming inspirations.”
“I’ve already attended Biodanza twice with Yunbei and Rodrigo and I can highly recommend their workshops. To me, they are the living embodiment of Biodanza — you can truly feel how deeply they integrate it into their lives.
Their workshops are always deeply enriching, creating a loving, safe space that fosters connection with the group and allows even the deepest emotions to be expressed. As Yunbei wrote in her piece ‘My Healing and Growth Journey through Biodanza’: Biodanza is so much more than dance or therapy. And I couldn’t agree more. Even though the exercises may seem simple, Biodanza can dissolve blocks surprisingly quickly and lead to healing, resilience, and truly transformative changes in quality of life. I honestly can’t imagine my life without it anymore. I thank Yunbei and Rodrigo from the bottom of my heart for opening this path of aliveness and gratitude — and I hope to join many more of their workshops in the future!”

Voices in German:

All diese heilsamen und neuen Erfahrungen, die ich da machen darf, die Entdeckung, dass es schön sein kann, Menschen nahe zu sein…. dieser Schutzraum, in dem ich viele vorsichtige kleine Schritte hin zu mehr Frau sein machen darf… die Poesie und Schönheit von Kontakt zu erleben …Ich kann echt sagen, Biodanza hat mein Leben gerettet!!! … und gibt mir so viel Hoffnung!
Meine Träume und inneren Bilder vom gesunden miteinander Mensch-Sein werden da Realität. Da erlebe ich, dass ich “richtig” bin… Dass meine Sehnsucht nach LEBEN und zärtlichem achtsamem Umgang von vielen Gleichgesinnten geteilt wird. Liebe Yunbei – DANKE für Dein Wirken und Deinen Mut solche Heilräume zu erschaffen! Dein Tun und Sein macht die Welt für mich zu einem besseren Ort!
Liebe Yunbei, ich habe die Biodanza Session sehr genossen, weil der gemeinsame Tanz sehr viele meiner Bedürfnisse erfüllt hat: Gemeinschaft, Bewegung, Freude, Verbindung, Körpergefühl, Selbstbestimmung im Ausdruck, Nähe und Distanz, Achtsamkeit, Kreativität und Berührung. Vielen Dank dafür, durch deine liebevolle Begleitung habe ich mich in der Gruppe sehr wohl gefühlt…
Es ist jedes Mal wunderbare und heilsame Seelennahrung mit euch zu tanzen! Danke Yunbei und euch allen von Herzen
Es war eine erfüllte und energievolle Zeit in tiefer Verbundenheit mit Euch allen. Danke dafür! Mich trägt diese starke, wunderbare Energie noch immer durch die Tage🙏💕. Diese tiefen Erfahrungen verbunden mit dem Wunsch nach Stabilität (“innere Achse”), Achtsamkeit und Freude lassen meine Energie fließen.
Auch im Alltag gelingt es mir besser, Belastungen und Zweifel kleiner werden zu lassen, das Leben in der inneren Fülle wahrzunehmen und positive Denkstrukturen weiter auszubauen. Danke!
Es war ein wunderschönes Wochenende, vielen Dank Euch für diesen heilsamen Raum und die vielen lebensbejahenden Inspirationen.
Yunbei und Rodrigo sind für mich die menschliche Verkörperung von Biodanza und man merkt, dass sie Biodanza in ihr Leben integriert haben. Die Workshops mit ihnen sind immer sehr erfüllend und bereichernd und sie schaffen einen wunderbaren Rahmen für Biodanza und eine Verbundenheit mit der Gruppe, die auch tiefe Emotionen zulässt.
So wie Yunbei in ihrer Arbeit „My healing and growth journey through Biodanza” geschrieben hat, ist Biodanza viel mehr als jede Form von Tanz und Therapie. Ich kann nur zustimmen, dass Biodanza trotz seiner einfachen Übungen Blockaden sehr schnell lösen und zu einer schnellen Heilung und Resilienz sowie einer bahnbrechenden Veränderung und Verbesserung der Lebensqualität führen kann. Mittlerweile kann ich mir ein Leben ohne Biodanza nicht mehr vorstellen. Ich danke Yunbei und Rodrigo von ganzem Herzen, dass sie es ermöglicht haben, mir Biodanza und die damit einhergehende Lebensfülle und Dankbarkeit zu vermitteln. Ich hoffe, dass ich noch möglichst oft an ihren Seminaren teilnehmen kann.”