Rolando Toro and the origin of Biodanza
Biodanza was born in Chile in the 1960s, from the work of a teacher and psychologist who saw music and dance as a way to reconnect people with life.
Who Rolando Toro was
Rolando Toro Araneda was born in Concepción, Chile, in 1924 and died in Santiago in 2010. He was a teacher, psychologist, anthropologist, researcher, poet and painter, and taught the psychology of expression and art at the Catholic University of Chile.
From Psychodance to Biodanza
In 1965 he began developing a system he called Psychodance. Between 1968 and 1973 he applied it at a psychiatric hospital in Santiago and at the Catholic University's Institute of Aesthetics.
In that work he noticed that music had very different effects on people. Some melodic, inward-looking music made certain patients worse, while rhythmic, joyful music helped them reconnect with reality and with others. These observations are the basis of Biodanza's theoretical model, which later took the name it has today.
From South America to the world
- 1974He moves to Buenos Aires, where he proposes Biodanza for women who had undergone mastectomies.
- 1979He moves to São Paulo and founds a Biodanza institute.
- 1989He settles in Milan. Over the following years he supervises the first training schools in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, England and Spain.
- 1998He returns to Santiago and continues to guide the international movement from there.
- 2001Casa de América in Madrid nominates him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Biodanza today
The International Biodanza Federation (IBFed) brings together schools and facilitators around the world. Facilitator training follows the same programme everywhere: about three years of monthly modules, followed by an internship supervised by an experienced facilitator.
SRT stands for Sistema Rolando Toro and identifies Biodanza practised according to its creator's model.
In Portugal there are training schools and the Portuguese Association of Biodanza Facilitators (APFB), which keeps a directory of facilitators across the country.
Our training
We trained at the Escola de Biodanza SRT de Lisboa and are now in supervision. More about us.
Come and try it
A trial class costs €5. Send us a message so we can welcome you properly.