Danzaterapia (María Fux)

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Maria Fux · Buenos Aires, Argentina

What it is

María Fux (Buenos Aires, 2 January 1922 – 31 July 2023) was an Argentine dancer and choreographer, trained with Ekatherina Galanta and Martha Graham. She ran her studio on Avenida Callao in Buenos Aires, which her granddaughter Irene Aschero now directs. Her teaching began with a deaf four-year-old…

Format

• No formal phase model. None of the sources describes treatment phases, session counts or criteria for moving on. Fux's books are organised as a sequence of experiences (in Después de la caída: internal and external spaces; immobilisation of limbs; limits; elastics; tenderness; cords; form and…
• Format (as practised).

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Before starting: medical clearance for movement (the Fux certification itself asks trainees for a medical certificate); falls history, joint and cardiac limits, epilepsy, pregnancy, hearing or vision aids; trauma history including experiences of touch, restraint and body shaming; consent to the group, to being watched and to any touch.
• Training and professional frame.
• The Método María Fux certification lasts three years: 12 weekend intensive seminars of 12 hours (three a year), 135 hours of regular practical classes (45 a year) and three online theory modules (23 hours). Entry needs secondary schooling and a medical certificate. An optional further year of supervised teaching with the Buenos Aires group, and a year of supervision with your own groups, follow. Seminars in 2022…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• for deaf members, use visible or vibrating sounds (drum on the floor). Working: answers become playful and inventive.
• anyone moving faster than their balance allows, competing to keep up, or not using the stop signal when clearly uncomfortable.
• falls (see 4.0 and the documented fall in this group). Working: the person moves further from the wall and with less guarding.
• music with strong personal associations (funerals, partners, war); volume. Working: movement changes across repetitions rather than repeating.
• projected light and flicker in people with photosensitive epilepsy. Working: the colour visibly changes quality of movement (speed, size, level).

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.