1. Think of a time in Biodanza when you experienced or witnessed a power imbalance. What did you observe / see / hear?
- Experienced directly the teacher touching and kissing me in a sexual way in a vivencia. Heard, observed, seen, experienced.
- Biodanza is an investment personally and financially. When Biodanza becomes about making money as a main business and because money was invested - especially in didactic training, it seems to bring in to play the need to protect one's territory and to control one's participants and where they may go. It also unfortunately seems to at times result in intentional attempts to poach people from another facilitators group. While it is understandable to want to protect what one has invested in and what one is building and to be able to draw a reasonable income from your offerings, it should not be at the expense of the relationships in the community.
- Use of contact and caress (where genuineness / sincerity / maturity / feedback need to be applied) as a vehicle through which to take advantage of more vulnerable individuals who may be less able to set appropriate boundaries through feedback. This has been observed and raised both in relation to facilitators and seasoned biodanceros.
- Manipulation (intentional and unintentional) of people who are vulnerable emotionally / naive, by playing on their emotions and vulnerabilities and unresolved needs as ways to keep people loyal to them and their offering (facilitators) or to favour them (as students / participants) or to position them because they have a spark to help them to draw people to their offerings. May result in broken relationships and smaller cliques forming allies that then also disrupt to suit an agenda and this influences wider Biodanza community. This breaks trust and relationships.
- I saw middle-aged male facilitators pull young women into the centre of the circle to demonstrate sexualised dances with them.
- Someone pushing someone aside in the choosing of a partner and saying it should be a man and a woman, not two women
- I saw and heard a school director yelling and shouting at supervisees during their supervised classes in front of the group during their facilitation, thus shaming, embarrassing and making them feel inadequate
- I have personally observed a school director raising their voice and shouting at a student during a time when the student was facing significant challenges, such as an episodic mental health crisis. This behaviour was highly inappropriate and unprofessional.
- As I approached the final stages of my teacher training, I received an unexpected call from my school director. To my surprise, she insisted that I purchase her music collection, a request that had never been brought up previously. However, when I politely declined, she began to shout at me over the phone. This sudden outburst caught me off guard, as I had always maintained a respectful and professional relationship with her.
- During the didactic training, I witnessed a rather distressing scene. Two female facilitators were shedding tears, and naturally, I couldn't help but inquire about the cause of their emotional turmoil. To my utter disbelief, one of them revealed that she had been approached by one of the esteemed top-trainers, who shamelessly propositioned her for a "toilet quickie". The audacity! As if that wasn't enough, the other facilitator had fallen under the delusion that she and another trainer had formed a genuine connection. They even spent the night together, only to be callously disregarded the very next day. How heartless can one be?
- To add insult to injury, I, too, became a victim of inappropriate behaviour. One of the top-trainers had the audacity to lay hands on my breasts without any regard for personal boundaries or consent. It was completely devoid of any semblance of professionalism.
- And if that wasn't infuriating enough, this same individual had the nerve to publicly announce to the whole group of trainees, right from the start, that he would only entertain positive feedback. Anything else, according to him, should be taken elsewhere. How convenient! It seems that honest verbal feedback is not welcome in this supposedly educational process. In conclusion, this didactic training has proven to be nothing short of a gruelling experience. The unprofessional conduct, the disregard for boundaries, and the blatant favouritism towards positive feedback have left me feeling utterly disillusioned. It is a sad state of affairs when such behaviour is tolerated and even perpetuated by those in positions of authority.
- I have observed a lot of territorialism transforming once affectionate connections into a ruthless and cutthroat competitiveness; the camaraderie that once existed between trainee-facilitators, replaced by an insatiable desire to outdo one another once qualified.
- I was only informed that the didactic training would not suffice to start a school after I had paid for it.
- I have observed an instance where school directors neglected to disclose conflicting interests and to abstain from voting on matters directly influenced by these conflicts during an Annual General Meeting of our Association of Facilitators.
- School director bringing his new girlfriend to participate in the 'closed group of biodanza trainees' in their final years of training
- School director asking his students not to attend the opening of a new school in the same country
- There are so many instances........With my school director came to my mind straight away.
- As a background, I trained in Biodanza at the London School up to 2008, all but the final weekend. I find that the general idea that Biodanza is good for you can be oppressive. Sometimes I find that the ending activation circle can be oppressive in the sense that I can feel co-opted into the contagion of the group feeling 'good' when I prefer my activation to be low key. I'm not looking for a euphoric ending to a vivencia.
- As a man, I felt I was not welcome
- Directors withholding / not sharing information, unequal opportunities to access of knowledge / information. Didactics not incorporated in the overall structures.
- After a Vivencia, the Biodanza facilitator (also a teacher of Biodanza) slandered me without foundation.
2. How did you feel?
2.a How did it affect you or others involved?
- It confused me and I felt repulsion
- All of the above examples reflect power dynamics and use of power in different ways and raise the questions of ethics, trauma, and broken trust and broken relationships that play out and divide the Biodanza community and therefore also damage the Biocentric purpose of Biodanza and its credibility because this energy also plays out in vivencias and in how people relate with one another.
- I couldn’t quite believe they could get away with being so explicit.
- It was not good to see and affected those involved as a discussion followed at the end of the vivencia between them
- I felt shocked, a sense of disbelief. No one said a thing.
- I realised I was in an unsafe space. It is disheartening to witness such a lack of empathy and understanding from an individual in a position of authority. Instead of providing support and guidance, the school director resorted to yelling, exacerbating the student's already difficult situation.
- I felt extremely distressed and distraught. I did not appreciate being shouted at and spoken to for a whole hour.
- Completely disenchanted
- Sad and disillusioned
- This left me feeling deceived and manipulated.
- It was both outraging and disheartening
- I felt trust was broken as the agreement was that the training would be closed to newcomers after the 2nd year, seeing the growth journey that biodanza takes us on.
- I felt deeply saddened as this felt so contrary to the essence of biodanza as I had come to understand and experience it
- Very sad and chaotic and disintegrated
- As above.
- Saddened to the point I will never attend another event where the person has any control in it
- Felt sidelined, [directors] holding on to preserve their own position
- I felt sad & angry. I have never attended any Vivencias facilitated by that teacher since. I felt excluded and betrayed. Sadly, the teacher worked a power imbalance on another participant (also now a teacher) who colluded with the injustice. This second teacher later apologised to me for her actions. However, I am unable to trust this second teacher either and avoid Vivencias in which she is involved.
3. What were you or others needing?
What were the unmet needs behind the feelings?
- I needed care respect and safety in the vivencia and so did others
- Space for concerns to be voiced and to be heard and for steps to be taken to promote reconciliation / healing without blame and accusations. Spaces for non-violent communication and listening to become aware of one's own blind spots as facilitators.
- I wasn’t in my home country. I assumed standards were different in different countries.
- The needs were for freedom of choice which were not met in this instance
- Professionalism, respect, consideration, safety
- A safe environment where students feel valued, understood, and supported, even during their most challenging moments.
- Autonomy, respect, consideration
- Honesty, clear communication
- Friendship, community, mutual support
- I required accurate and comprehensive information in order to make informed decisions.
- I needed professionalism and fairness
- My need for communication, mutual respect and the honouring of existing agreements was not met.
- I felt the need for my own personal choice to be respected. I felt the need for inclusivity, connection, affectivity, trust was not met.
- Less of lecture. More of interactive ways of teaching theory.
- I don't know about the others, but I was feeling co-opted into a more energised activation than I needed or wanted.
- I needed to be heard and was ignored because of my gender
- Freer access to knowledge/sharing of broader Biodanza happenings eg extensions.
- I needed fair dealing from the (1st) teacher. I needed her to be honest about the situation. I suspect that she didn't want people like me (gender non-binary) in her group. I would rather she had been honest & told me this, without fabricating an untrue explanation that she then shared with other participants.
4. What could have been done differently to promote empowerment?
- Inviting and offering 'safe' spaces for sharing (a listening and non-violent communication approach) and being intentional to be accountable and take reasonable steps to make reconciliation possible.
- Explained how the orgiastic fusion worked, the rationale for this exercise and choice about engagement consent around touch, sexual boundaries
- Inviting and offering 'safe' spaces for sharing (a listening and non-violent communication approach) and being intentional to be accountable and take reasonable steps to make reconciliation possible.
- Perhaps having a senior female facilitator present?
- All involved to express themselves clearly in the moment
- We all had the option to speak up, there and then, instead of choosing silence, myself included.
- We could have confronted the director, but were afraid of the repercussions
- I considered the option of transferring to a different school, but I was concerned about the potential risk of the director refusing to sign the form that confirms the number of modules I had already completed. This possibility was brought to my attention by a member of the association of facilitators.
- I could have put the phone down
- Opportunities for feedback, invitations to speak up, questionnaires, etc.
- A module focusing on learning how to transform the negative emotions associated with competitiveness (insecurity/jealousy/envy) into the joy of collaborative work to help the community of biodanza professionals to shift from a mindset focused solely on individual success to one that embraces teamwork and cooperation.
- I could have started a legal action. There are laws protecting consumers from unfair trading. In the UK, Regulation Five under the CPUTR 2008 act specifically clarifies that commercial practice is a misleading action if “it causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.”
- Associations of Facilitators should strive for independence and prioritize their support for facilitators. In situations where directors are permitted to become members, it is crucial to establish regulations that prevent them from voting on matters that present conflicts of interest. This ensures fairness and transparency within the association's decision-making process.
- I would have needed there to be a discussion about whether the director's girlfriend might join or not - for this to be considered and possibly agreed as a group, perhaps on a trial basis first, and to get a sense of our director's motivation for breaking the existing closed group agreement.
- Embracing a perspective of abundance rather than lack - that a new school might bring valuable collaboration, more students generally, that students would be naturally attracted to the school that resonated most with them; trusting in own offers, creativity and value to the extent that this could not be threatened by a new school opening
- More explicit teaching on power and how it works. Power, diversity, inclusivity.
- The teacher could perhaps have been more aware of the group as group of individuals rather than one group all the same.
- Nothing. The person has an agenda against men and nothing appears to get in her way.
- Platforms where info is shared with facilitators and didactics. The lack of structure/access for Didactics is problematic. You need to know someone....
- I think it would have been better for both of us to be able to speak with an independent Biodanza teacher, so that the 1st teacher could have had any legitimate needs met and I could have been heard.
5. What request could you have made (to yourself or others)?
- Request to myself to leave the group and sit out, this was difficult, I was in a confused state. To say no to the teacher , to raise what happened in the circle and express how I felt and question what happened and why this happened. This was also difficult to do I felt anxious around this teacher, didn't trust he would respond with care and accountability.
- Raise the concerns. Create the spaces for concerns / hurts to be voiced and heard. Create a culture of ethical consciousness and affective presence and encouragement of introspection.
- I was the outsider. Everyone else seemed to be ok with it. I’m sure they had grown accustomed to it.
- As above
- To challenge and confront bullying behaviour from directors, regardless of the potential consequences, such as being expelled from the school, as others have been in the past.
- To change schools regardless of the consequences (see above)
- I could have made an official complaint, although a colleague had tried before and informed me that the association wouldn't take any action.
- To ascertain the existence of complaints procedures, and if absent, to advocate for their implementation.
- Self-compassion? To go easy on myself for being such a fool and wasting my money on that worthless training. It's time I stopped berating myself for this colossal mistake.
- To accept that no one is perfect and that personal and professional growth takes time
- I ask myself forgiveness for my past naivety.
- I have expressed my concerns to the Association of Facilitators, yet no action has been taken to address them.
- I did speak up to request communication around this and that our existing agreements be respected and, if necessary, renegotiated
- I requested help from the larger overarching biodanza body in the country in question to help with this; it brought up fears that this situation might jeopardize my own ability to graduate as a biodanza facilitator; I aimed to communicate my perspective in response to the director's
- To change the way/subject of teaching
- I have tried to resist the euphoric direction of the activation circle to no avail.
- Others tried to involve me but were ignored.
- I have raised some of the issues with fellow Didactics. My feeling is that Didactics need to 'formalized themselves.
- I did in fact seek and find not one, but two, excellent facilitators of Biodanza. I continue to dance with one of them.
6. What else would you like to share about power dynamics in biodanza?
- Teachers need more awareness of trauma and transference, they need to understand they are in a position of power and to respect and care for the vulnerabiltiy of participants when taken into trance and regression, they need to abide by a professional code of conduct around the engagement in sexual acts (more than expressive dance and movement) with participants
- I have seen others hurt in the Biodanza community who then leave which can also damage Biodanza's reputation. I have personally experienced manipulation and had my trust broken. I still have hope for the Biodanza community and take an approach of forgiveness since we are all human and we all played a part in the dynamics that arose in the situation.
- I love Biodanza and believe in this system's ability to bring people together, to promote peoples healing and well-being and to create in people a reverence for life and the sacredness of life. For this, it starts with the facilitators needing to heal, to introspect and for reconciliation of relationships through forgiveness and intentional repair. Any facilitator holds a great responsibility when holding space for people and journeying with them in their life - what we put in is what we will see in the vivencia and community. If we put in fragmentation, we will see fragmentation in the system.
- The training should cover this in greater depth, including awareness of cultural differences.
- The need for all to be sensitive to each other and respect all boundaries
- Certifying bodies need to devise a robust mechanism to guarantee respectful treatment of all students undergoing training in their schools.
- I think certifying bodies should put in place a confidential and independent incident reporting system, enabling the reporting of issues without fear of retaliation. This system would address concerns that would otherwise go unreported due to the prevailing climate of fear in some schools.
- It's disheartening. Biodanza schools are privately owned, lacking accountability. It seems to be a matter of sheer luck. The harsh reality is that school directors often escape consequences for their misconduct and appear to shield one another when complaints are raised. Some students, in order to obtain their certificates, endure mistreatment, tiptoeing around and suppressing their voices.
- Change will only come when dancers and facilitators stop self-censoring and start speaking up. After all, remaining silent only serves to maintain the status quo. So, let's embrace the power of our voices to lovingly shine a light on the shadow.
- I have heard attempts to rationalize competitiveness by attributing it to the survival instinct of the tiger's archetypal energy. However, it might be worth considering the hippo as well, as up to 150 hippos can share a single pool harmoniously. We should trust that our inner serpent will naturally attract to us the participants who will most benefit from our unique contributions. Additionally, it is crucial to adopt the perspective of the heron and acknowledge that participants are perceptive enough to recognise when facilitators fail to practice what they preach. For instance, if we talk about the importance of community but are seen to only prioritise our own interests, participants will quickly notice and stop believing in the biodanza system's capacity to change such attitudes. It is also worth remembering that to give everyone a chance, the law protects people from anti-competitive agreements, i.e. from "any agreements that prevent, restrict or distort competition".
- If we relinquish our own power, we cannot complain later on.
- The Association of Facilitators has student representatives, while the IBFed includes representatives from various Associations of Directors. However, it is worth questioning why there are no representatives from the Association of Facilitators in the Associations of Directors.
- I resonate with empowering understandings of seeing conflict as evolutionary impulses in action. Without glorifying conflict in any way, I find it helpful to see it as 'life looking to find it's way', as learning wanting to happen, as new horizons wanting to be acknowledged. The more I can acknowledge the connection between outer power dynamics and inner ones - how am I treating my own essence, soul, spirit? - the more things come into flow...
- I feel there is a closed circle and not enough openness when there is conflict of interest.
- Biodanza is good for everyone but not always in the same way.
- Facilitators exist to promote Biodanza Principles without any form prejudice and without the need to insert our position of authority. We are all equal. The only difference is we are trained thru schools, select the topic, pick the exercises & music. For me, those who bring power games to the table have no place in the biocentric environment. Yet those who hold the power do so in the name of Rolando Toro and his legacy.
- I would also like to add the worst offenders seem to ones who have biodanza schools as their main income. They become protectionist and only endorse facilitators in their cliche. It is detrimental to everyone who wants to embrace the incredible world of biodanza. Biodanza needs to flourish not be restricted.
- It is sad. This is where there is a difference between the Biodanza organism and the Biodanza organization where there is mire a focus on territory.
- I think this is a very significant example of the misuse of power and the lack of accountability. It runs counter to the whole ethos of Biodanza. I hear clearly (& in his native language) that Rolando Toro was inclusive in his attitude. And that such a vision of inclusion includes all aspects of diversity, including race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, age and other aspects that I have omitted. Thank you for carrying out this important research! We need Biodanza even more these days.