How bad can be competition?

The Danzamovimentoterapia (DMT) is a path to combat discrimination, whatever they are, even those in sports environments against lgbtqi people. It is a practice that involves the demolition of the judgment towards oneself and towards others and that involves the elaboration of an internal witness in order to become familiar with the “mindfulness”. We explain this experience through the words of a dancer who is also a dance therapist. “When practicing, I become aware of how the movement feels inside, in my body, but at the same time, I have to be aware of how it appears on the outside, to the audience. I am in touch with my own experience of the dance as well as a part that witnesses myself in the studio mirror-observing how my dance experience appears. The more I bring mindfulness into rehealsal, the more prepared I am to accomplish what every dancer ‘s goal in performance – to quiet my mind and allow my body to take over – to be totally present in the experience”. Rappaport, Z.A. 2013, Personal communication.

One of the most difficult obstacles to remove is the elimination of competition, central to the sport to achieve the result, win the game, the tournament, the final, but if it becomes a life attitude, if it becomes a criterion of strength, ruin relations. Strength can not be measured in terms of “superiority” compared to the other. In the DMT sessions the participants are invited starting from a spontaneous movement of their body – from a gesture, from a sound, from a vocalization – to following it, to promoting movement from within itself. Already the experimentation of the “authentic” movement, free from the constraint of wills or rules, is a formative and liberating experience.  After they are invited to make contact with the gestures made, the feelings, the emotions. An external witness, often the one who leads the session, thus helps to elaborate “the internal witness”.