Biodanza-Sud

What are the effects that Biodanza produces in individuals during regular practice?

 

This study* is based on:

 

• The definition given by the WHO:   "Health is a state of mental, physical and social well-being"

• The theoretical approach of dance as therapy: the movement of the body reflects the internal emotional state of the individual. Significant changes in his "motor behavior" (movements) and expressiveness, can lead to changes in the psyche.

• Biodanza proposes expressive movement as the path to facilitate psycho-physical integration and continuum change of mind and body.

 

A team made up of psychologist Maria Teresa Giannelli, from the University of Rome, specialists and researchers in the psychology of well-being Patrizia Giannino and Alessandro Mingarelli from APRI, and a team of 28 Biodanza facilitators, started this research project in 2010, with 295 participants, 489 questionnaires and more than 65,637 responses in 8 months of work.

 

The objectives of the research: to measure the effects of the regular practice of Biodanza at the level of the three fundamental aspects:

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• Well-being (pleasure, meaning in life, commitment)

• Stress (activation of the organism in connection with events perceived as threatening)

• Alexithymia (emotional confusion, difficulty reading one's own sensations)

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The research began under the following assumptions: The practice of Biodanza improves health in the following aspects:

 

• Increased psychological well-being

• Stress reduction

• Decreased emotional confusion

 

Three groups were formed as follows:

 

+ Biodanza:

• • 96 beginners (18 men and 78 women, average age 45).

+ Control group 1: physical activity:

• • 71 beginners (10 p.m.men and 49 women, average age 38).

+ Control group 2: sedentary people:

• • 68 people (13 men and 55 women, average age 43).

 

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The research results support the hypotheses made. Biodanza is a practice that improves health. Data is convergent and persistent:

 

+ Biodanza and well-being: the results of the research indicate the following trends:

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• • More positive relationships

  • Increased autonomy

  • More environmental control

  • Find more meaning in life experiences

 

+ Biodanza and stress: the research results show the following trends:

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• • Stress reduction

  • Decreasing control

  • Reduction of depression and anxiety

  • Decrease in deleterious psychophysical sensations

 

+ Biodanza and Alexithymia: the research results show the following trends:

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• • Decreased sense of existential effort

  • Decreased feelings of emotional confusion

  • Reduction of muscle and body pain in general

  • Reduced hyperactivity

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*Study translated from Italian by Elizabeth Rojas Ruiz.