Toro started to investigate Biodanza in 1965 in Chile. At the time, he was a professor at the School of Medicine of Chile University working for the Centre for Medical Anthropology with a view to transform the concept of health, i.e. to move away from its focus on symptoms and to create a system that would promote health and the luminous side of all human beings.
In the development of exercises to promote integrative processes, Toro integrated into his theory Gestalt, person-centred therapy, psychodrama and art therapy, biology, quantum physics, neuroscience, and jungian psychology, among other subjects. For his creation, he was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize in 2001.
As a system of human development, Biodanza is currently offered in many countries in regular groups, in health institutions, social action, education and in the corporate world.
There are over 200 training schools around the world, in countries such as the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Dominican Republic, United States, Canada, South Africa, Japan and Australia, among others. In the Dominican Republic, Biodanza has already been applied in education and health by the state government. In Brazil, it is now recognised as an integrative and complementary health practice.
The educational, therapeutic and social effects have been so evident that increasingly more people are looking for Biodanza, not only for their personal development in a regular group, but also professionally, as a complement to their careers.
Danielle Tavares