- 1969-70 Rolando Toro discovers psychodrama, founded by Jacob Levy Moreno (1889 –1974), a psychiatrist, psychosociologist, and educator, and the foremost pioneer of group psychotherapy.
- 1973 RT starts to do his own psychodanza. RT takes psychodrama to Chile, complementing it and expanding it to the point that it becomes different from the original psychodrama
- RT was then invited to teach at the university's Centre of Anthropology Studies by Claudio Naranjo (1932–2019), a Chilean-born psychiatrist known for integrating psychotherapy and the spiritual traditions. He was one of the three successors named by Fritz Perls (founder of Gestalt Therapy) and a main developer of Enneagram of Personality theories. So RT started to teach Psychodanza (development of creative potential through dance) and Psychology of Expression in the university.
- Psychodanza was a popular class. RT was in tune with the students, who were excited about the process. From the initial set of 25 exercises RT took the walk, the segmental movements for relaxation, and the free dance. He also created his own dances, e.g. the dance of Shiva, the dances of love, the batucadas, etc. From a book given to him by Claudio Naranjo, RT took the caresses of the hair and of the face and the compact group. RT picked up exercises from different sources, but his filter was their capacity to boost vitality and increase the will to live.
- RT was married to Cecilia Luzzi for 10 years, during which Cecilia started to work with him, typing things down, going to congresses, e.g. psychodrama congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At that time RT was going into the artistic field e.g. the show Juegos de Psicodanza
- In September 1973 there was a bloody military coup in Chile, after which there were no opportunities to do any group work, so RT was doing other things until the end of 1975, only returning to psychodanza when invited to Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Cecilia was assisting RT in his two daily classes and she started to suggest new exercises and to give feedback on what was not working, leading to an increase in the number of exercises and music. At times RT would come up with an idea for a new exercise in the middle of a class, enunciate it, and ask Cecilia to put a music! And the music chosen on the spot by Cecilia worked well then and is still working well today. Together they listened to music every morning, and went to many congresses, e.g. music therapy, psychosomatic medicine, cancer, etc. During this early period it was just RT and CL. Cecilia would help to demonstrate the exercises and do the music. Then RTs late son Leonardo started to teach his own biodanza in Buenos Aires.
- RT and CL would reflect daily on the themes, make changes in the theoretical model, etc.
- One thing led to another. At the music therapy congress RT was invited to teach in Brazil so RT and CL travelled and taught courses there. RT was then invited to do psychodanza in Sâo Paulo, in Rio de Janeiro and in Brazilia.
- Meantime, from 1976, CL started to teach biodanza for children and then for teenagers.
- Roberto Crema introduced RT to Cezar Wagner, who became excited about psychodanza and gave RT a new vision of a social movement and not just a system of personal development. Cezar wanted to see it in the community because of his political and social awareness.
- It would not be appropriate to bring psychodanza to the community because the local communities had different needs, and so Cezar and Ruth Cavalcante started biocentric education, which uses elements of biodanza but is much bigger.
- The term biodanza was created in Brazil when the psychology authorities insisted that anything with “psyche” in it should be taught in universities. RT didn’t want psychodanza to be regulated by the universities and decided to change the name. He also felt that the term psychodanza implied a split between psyche and soma, i.e. a body-mind dissociation. Cecilia suggested the term biodanza. She thinks of biodanza not as the "dance OF life", but as “dance IN life”.
- In time RT met people who started to collaborate to open schools. The 1st school, for example, was created by Cezar Wagner in Fortaleza, Brazil. Cezar then suggested that there should be an association, and the Latin American Biodanza Association (ALAB) was created with RT as the director. Therefore, biodanza was created by RT and by the intense collaboration of other people who gave their whole lives to biodanza
- In 1983 CL separated from RT and went to Argentina where she started a school. However, she continued to work with RT on the biodanza book on a daily basis.
- During the congress in Argentina it was proposed that ALAB´s new director should be chosen democratically, and Carlos Garcia got the majority.
- CL was director of the Paulista School, among others
- It is now time to recognise all the people who have contributed to biodanza
Notes from Cecilia Luzzi's Talk
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