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| Dr. Koncha Pinos-Pey |
Dr.
Koncha Pinos-Pey is a researcher, mother, grandmother, flamenco dancer and PhD who teaches at Barcelona University in Spain, doing research on the impact of compassion on the brain at different levels. Her PhD is in international politics focused on women and ethnic minorities in Central Asia.
She has worked with the United Nations as a veteran human rights reporter working in Afghanistan, Iraq and Burma for fifteen years. It was her spiritual teacher, the Dalai Lama who suggested that she study Neuroscience at the Mind and Life Institute in Dharamsala, India when he saw that she was burning out at her job.
I met Koncha at the Contemplation, Collaboration and Change Conference this past weekend in Garrison, NY. We had a chance to speak one evening about mindfulness, healing and dancing. Here is Part 2 of our interview. Here is the unedited audio of our interview.
June Tanoue: you mentioned that healing happens for the community as well. Do you mean that if you are at an event, listening to the drums, watching the dancing and not dancing, does the energy get released from your amygdala as well?
Koncha Pinos-Pey: Yes, yes, because the neuroplasticity of the brain relates to the mirror neurons. The mirror neurons are living in the neocortex and they are creating connections with other people. It's called synapses. And if you go deeper and longer, these synapses create connective mass and this connective mass is the culture.
So the dancer is like a doctor, a shaman. For example, I am from Spain. We have a dance called Cali-Flamenco. I have learned this flamenco from my family and never went to a school to study. The flamenco is its own kind of music and inspiration regarding percussion with the hands, drums, guitar, self expression, and what you are feeling. Basically the flamenco releases the suffering. So my point is the dancer is releasing the suffering of the community who is watching.
JT: That's why people are so drawn to these events.
KPP: Exactly. And they cry because they are moved by something and they cannot explain because it is something very old in the brain. If we are conscious that we have this ability to heal too, we can clap with our hands or dance. All the solar (circle) dances are about healing.
The brain has different times and different space like the dance so we can use the different tempo of the brain and different tempo of the dance. You know the shaman and doctors of ancient cultures can visualize what is going to happen with someone. How can they do it? Because they have this connection from old brain to new brain. The brain is still the same from many centuries ago. Now we know more. But maybe they know from another way to know. Ancient wisdom I mean.
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| The view of the Mediterranean from Koncha's home Barcelona, Spain |
JT: Tell me about your dance practice.
KPP: I grew up in Granada in the south of Spain where there are plenty of flamenco people. It is one of the most beautiful places to learn how to dance or how to play guitar. And for me the flamenco is like my blood. I have the rhythm in my blood (claps her hands). For example when I am a little bit sad, I know it is because I have not danced for a long time. I need it. I need to dance. So my practice dancing with the flamenco is like dancing with life because you must be present and you must release suffering. Sometimes you use one rhythm, sometimes another rhythm or sometimes you use more your hands or more your feet. But it doesn't matter, you are releasing your suffering or the suffering I am perceiving in some place.
The Flamenco comes originally from India, so the gypsies living in India have been traveling around the Middle East and then came to Spain. It is mixed with Muslim songs and Hebrew songs. So we have this rich heritage. Flamenco is like jazz in United States. It's talking about the suffering and at the same time relating to the passion of freedom. The gypsies were slaves so flamenco is about freedom from slavery. It's also about freedom from pain, and that is the sadness because you have lost your country or whatever.
The poetry in Flamenco is about freedom, love and suffering.
JT: Any last words?
KPP: Thank you and maybe we can dance sometime together.
