ROLANDO TORO ARANEDA: CREATOR OF BIODANZA SYSTEM
Rolando Mario Toro Araneda was born in Concepción, Chile, on April 19, 1924.
He studied basic teaching at the “José Abelardo Núñez” Normal School, graduating in 1943. He was a teacher in the cities of Valparaíso, Talcahuano, Pocuro and Santiago de Chile, from 1944 to 1957.
He was a professor of Educational Psychology at the School of Education of the University of Concepción, Chile.
Graduated from the School of Psychology of the Pedagogical Institute of the University of Chile in 1964.
The following year he was appointed Professor of the Center for Medical Anthropology Studies of the School of Medicine of the University of Chile, holding that position until 1973.
In those years, he also conducted research on violence in the Santiago Penitentiary. In addition, he belonged to the Research Institute of the Psychiatric Hospital of Santiago.
In 1966 he was appointed Professor of Psychology of Expression and Psychology of Art at the Institute of Aesthetics of the Catholic University of Chile.
The beginnings of Biodanza (at that time called Psicodanza) date back to 1965 and between 1968 and 1973 he applied this system in the Psychiatric Hospital of Santiago and in the Institute of Aesthetics of the Catholic University of Chile.
In 1974 he moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he proposed the Biodanza System to mastectomized patients at LALCEC (Argentine League for the Fight Against Cancer).
He was appointed Emeritus Professor of the Inter-American Open University of Buenos Aires.
In 1979 he moved to São Paulo, Brazil, where he established a Private Biodanza Institute, achieving the expansion of this system throughout Latin America. In addition, he works with the mentally ill at the Juqueri Hospital in São Paulo.
In 1989 he emigrated for eight years to Milan, Italy, where he worked with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s patients in the cities of Como and Varese. He oversaw the creation of the first Biodanza Training Schools in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, England, and Spain. Then schools were created in almost every country in Europe.
In 1998 he returned to Santiago de Chile, from where he directed the world movement of Biodanza, with training schools now widespread in Latin America, Europe, the United States, Canada, Russia, Israel, South Africa, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
In 2001 he was nominated to apply for the Nobel Peace Prize through the Casa de América in Madrid, for his work in Biodanza and Biocentric Education.
In 2006 he was named Doctor Honoris Causa from the Federal University of Paraiba (Brazil).
In 2008 he was appointed Emeritus Professor by the Metropolitan University of Peru.
He was also a poet and painter, holding exhibitions in Brazil, Argentina, Italy and France.
He published the following books: Biodanza, Project Minotaur, Biodanza and the 4 elements, The Biocentric Principle, Biocentric Education, Presentiment of the Angel, Affective Intelligence, Neurobiology and Biodanza.
He also published numerous books of poetry: The Night, In the Footsteps of Aphrodite, Ecstasy of the Revenant, The Dreams of the Sea, Ballad of the Fallen Angel, The Impossible Can Happen, The Unique Note, Epiphany of the Goddess, Poetic Anthology.
On February 16, 2010, he passed away at the age of 85 in Santiago de Chile.