My name is Cristina Martines and I'm a dance movement therapist, psychologist and dancer.

​

My Passion for Dancing

The compelling desire to express my feelings through dance, preferring the voice of the body to that of words, enjoying the magic and beauty of dancing: this is me.

This strong passion for dance has permeated my entire life.

Dancing has always been my security blanket in the most difficult moments. It has also been the stage where my deepest insights were born and the place where I could transform my fear of impermanence in a creative and positive way.

 

Dance belongs to everyone

I think that everybody can dance and be moved by dance.

For this reason, my desire has always been to make dance accessible to everybody, no matter their social, mental or physical condition. 

There is a concept in Japanese Buddhism known as obaitori. It explains that a cherry is a cherry (o), a plum is a plum (bai), a peach is a peach (to), and a damson is a damson (ri). This means that every person is unique and possesses unlimited potential just as they are.

From this perspective, dancing is for me a process that should facilitate everyone to connect with their inner potential and help them to unfold it.

 

The healing power of dancing 

A serious immune system illness and digestive problems had a huge impact on my daily life and brought me to rebuild my way of approaching it.

In this process, dancing helped me in transforming my mental state, producing new and more positive ways of feeling and perceiving my illness. 

Thanks to dancing I was able to carefully listen to my body and its needs and to find creative ways to move when the usual movements were not possible due to physical pain.

The collective aspect of dancing helped me feel not alone and isolated. Its uplifting and joyful qualities gave me energy and hope in the most difficult moments.

 

Dance creates inclusion

I consider dance a collective event. 

We never dance alone, even when we dance a solo.
We dance our relationships because we are our relationships: our current relationships next to those we have with our ancestors, with our land, with our culture, all engraved in our bodies as unconscious memories and knowledge.
I believe that the healing power of dance mainly resides in bringing alive this collective nature stored in our individual bodies and exchanging it with others: this triggers a transformation that will inevitably create new stories, new relationships and new ways of being ourselves.

​