by Banafsheh | Sep 13, 2019 |
with Banafsheh and Tony Khalife
7-day Intensive: September 13-20, 2019
Weekend only: September 13-15, 2019
The entire universe belongs to the dancer. If you don’t dance, you won’t know what will come to pass.
-Jesus
Dance invites us to take up space in the world with confidence, conviction and service. It’s exhilarating, joyous, sacred, sensual, transformative, communal, and disruptive. Dance makes us whole and brings us into rhythm with others. Though resilient, adaptable, and flexible, dance also breaks the rules. In dance, polarities unite and birth art. Dance is universal. Dance is freedom. Dance is the hope for our humanity if we accept the invitation to dance our lives.
Experience Banafsheh’s transformational teaching in a fusion of passionate yet peaceful dance to embody Spirit. Explore the secrets of dance technique and philosophy as a conscious vehicle to come in touch with who we TRULY are and can offer in this time of infinite potential and need. Discover how dance and movement can shift, influence and shape consciousness and the environment.
From high-powered guided, and free-style dance to the deep serenity of whirling, and vocal training, take a journey in your inner terrain with Tony Khalife’s blend of Middle Eastern and Indian trance music. Feel your fullest presence in the Here and Now with movement and voice work, luscious and devotion that bring you in touch with your core – peaceful, centered, strong, vibrant, open, free, and in community with others.
7-day Intensive is intermediate level
Weekend Only is open to all/mixed levels
50 hrs towards the 200/400-hr Dance of Oneness® Certification Program
TO REGISTER:
Prices start at $1,588
Early Bird rates available until May 1, 2019
By application only
Click here to fill out the application
Contact Shauna Devlin for more information.
Explore the Path of the Dancer
Learn more about the Intensive
Preparing for a Dance of Oneness® Workshop
By the end of the workshop, I was present in every cell and I enjoyed being a fluid body. I have been in all sorts of classes but in no class whatsoever was there the opportunity to express oneself. To move as one is called to, as one feels like and to explore deeper and deeper one’s own body language and what it says. This workshop allows that.
Gida Hussami, workshop participant, Schweibenalp, Switzerland
The sessions with Banafsheh activate a yummy vibration in my power chakra, the womb space, which feels delicious and self-nurturing. I felt my Dantien grounded and activated as soon as I sat down next to Banafsheh in a sharing circle. Watching Banafsheh perform I feel the ecstasy of her dance physically in my body. Banafsheh’s teaching that I practice regularly take me out of a emotionally dark space into a delicious, blissful connection with myself in my body.
Her teaching is vital to my recovery from “corporate exhaustion. Since finding this amazing spiritual teacher at the beginning of the year, I have dedicated myself seriously to this study.
Tony Khalife was such a powerful addition to Banafsheh’s teaching. His music supported and elevated the experience of her teaching skillfully and magically. Tony led us in vocalizations that gave me a completely new experience of my voice resonating in my body, not squeezed in my throat, even when going up with the tone.
Susanne Bowra, workshop participant, Multiversity, Santa Cruz, CA
by Banafsheh | Aug 12, 2019 |
Week-long Intensive presented by Ubiquity Chartres Academy
August 12-19, 2019
Chartres, France
Join us at Chartres’ holiest time during the Feast of the Assumption of Mary and the adoration of the Black Madonna in procession out in the open for a time for a full immersion in the divine feminine and her union with the divine masculine through deep reflection, joyous celebration, ritual, walking the labyrinth, dance and singing.
This pilgrimage will center us deeply in the heart of Chartres. We will be there on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (August 15) which honors the Church doctrine, enunciated by the Pope in 1950, that Mary was assumed directly into heaven upon her death and now presides as the Mother of God. Carl Jung believed that this doctrine elevating the feminine into the Godhead marked the most important development in Christian theology in the last 2000 years. This year’s Feast coincides with the full moon. A city that has reverenced the feminine for several thousand years honors the feminine in the deepest of ways. On the Day of the Assumption, the Black Madonna is carried through the streets before being placed in front of the statue of the Assumption of Mary. She is kept in the Choir for one week and then hidden away till the following year.
Parading the Black Madonna recalls the way the Druids in ancient times brought her out of the grotto underneath the granite promontory upon which the cathedral today stands. They honored Mother Earth and the cycles of the seasons through the Black Madonna. Being in Chartres at this one time of the year will both deepen our Memory of ancient rites and activate our souls to a greater reverence for the Mother of God.
It is within this sacred space that we will honor the divine feminine and contemplate how she can most powerfully be present with us today. She has many guises and appears as She wills. The aspect we will explore is new visions of the relationship between the divine feminine and divine masculine, so powerfully depicted in the north (Mary) and south (Christ) rose windows of the cathedral.
There is no issue challenging human society more than how we understand the relationship between the feminine and the masculine in the aftermath of 5,000 years of patriarchy. This mandates in turn a fundamental revisioning of the feminine and the masculine aspects of ourselves. Rising women with Rising men erotically, passionately, dynamically, synergistically and compassionately can powerfully shape the world to come.
There is nowhere this exploration is more appropriate than Chartres, the locus of sacred power of the feminine since time immemorial, and the cathedral that represents the union of the divine feminine and the divine masculine in full splendor.
Daily Program
Each day will include Sacred Practice, an opening Session, presentations on the Divine Feminine and Masculine, a sound bath, sacred dance, immersion in the Cathedral, and personal time for meditation and exploration. Women and men will meet separately and together during the course of our time together. We plan to have one private evening in the cathedral devoted to walking the labyrinth, accompanied by Gregorian chant, and another private evening in the crypt. We will spend time in the cathedral reflecting on the many aspects of Mary and communing with the Black Madonna.
Faculty: Anne Baring (virtually), Apela Colorado, Ruth Cunningham, Jim Garrison, Andrew Harvey, Banafsheh Sayyad.
Ubiquity Chartres Community Webinars – Join the faculty and participants in our monthly webinar on the second Sunday of every month for discussions on the topics included in the intensive. Register for the Webinars here. Watch past Webinars here.
TO REGISTER:
Click here to register!
More info: Email | 702-358-0551
36 hrs towards Dance of Oneness® Certification Program
Preparing for a Dance of Oneness® Retreat
by Banafsheh | Jul 14, 2019 |
4-day Workshop
July 14-18
Hollyhock, Cortes Island, British Columbia
Stella Maris is the sun in the sea, a reference to Mother Mary, and originally, the Goddess Isis. It was the Persian Mehrab that was later used in mosques to indicate the direction of prayer. Mehrab points us to the secret that at the heart of darkness is a blinding light—our journey toward light is through darkness, and our guide is love. Mehr in Persian means both sun and love. Mehrab then is the sea of love, the sea of light.
Dance to submerge yourself in the sea of love, melt and give yourself fully to the divine love energy that moves through all of existence. You’ll be surprised to find that surrendering in this way is the key to transforming all your relationships…with your body, yourself, the people in your life, and life herself.
Explore the mysteries of Stella Maris through dance, poetry, and meditation. Dive into the sea of love as we dance at the edge of the sea and in the sea.
TO REGISTER:
Click here to register!
26 hrs towards Dance of Oneness® Certification Program
Preparing for a Dance of Oneness® Retreat
by Banafsheh | Jun 21, 2019 |
Weekend Workshop
Friday, 21 June – Sunday, 23 June, 2019
Waldhaus Centre Lützelflüh,
3432 Lützelflüh, Switzerland
Dance for the Sun that gives you life, and cultivate the energy of the Sun within. Embody and live your dreams, and create positive change in yourself and the world.
Loving kindness is the Sun within which makes us most ALIVE and vital. Affirm life like the Sun and generate ALIVENESS like the Sun in the world of darkness.
Learn to trust your deepest understanding and unleash your wild sweet nectar through sacred dance, whirling, poetry, and meditation. Gain transformative tools for living creatively in your day to day life and make true positive contribution to our world.
Mixed levels. Most appropriate for those with a background in dance, yoga or other movement modalities.
Click here to view the German translation.
TO REGISTER:
To register, email or call Nurgül Usluoglu
Email | +41 77- 412 82 93
10 hrs towards Dance of Oneness® Certification Program
Fees:
Tuition Early Bird rate until May 20 2019: Fr. 275.-,
After May 20: Fr. 300.-
Accommodations at Waldhaus: start at Fr. 230.-
Please arrange for your accommodations directly on www.waldhaus.ch
Preparing for a Dance of Oneness® Retreat
by Banafsheh | May 17, 2019 |
7-day WOMEN ONLY Dance Retreat
Featuring musicians and guest speaker, Caroline Casey
“You are the Secret of God’s Secret. You are the mirror of Divine Beauty.”
– Rumi
True beauty radiates from an inner core of love – love for yourself, the Earth and all beings. Release old resistances and blockages in your body that hold you back from experiencing ease and comfort within yourself, so you can connect with your innate beauty. Rediscover your body as a luscious temple of ease, beauty and sensuality. Feel and look young, energetic and ALIVE!
Guided by the love poetry of Rumi, other Sufi mystics and Taoist philosophy, explore the foundations of Dance of Oneness and develop presence in your body through a focus on the Chakras and the Meridian system. Integrate your body, emotions, mind and soul in a sacred union and learn tools for self-healing.
- Ground your soul in your body
- Connect to your life’s purpose
- Become who you truly are
- Awaken your inner and outer feminine beauty
- Observe and manage your life dramas without being overtaken by them
- Transform limitation to possibilities
- Reduce stress and learn to cope with daily stress to become more responsive rather than reactive, and thus contribute your unique gifts to our world
- Heal your stubborn ailments and cultivate a well-balanced body
- Find and connect with an international community of like-hearted sistas
The retreat will take place at a Sufi/Darvish House or Dergah and a beautiful historic hotel built on an Aesclepian site in the quaint village of Gokcedere. The days will be balanced with guided and free-style dance, whirling, Sufi teachings, wisdom teachings from the East & West, live music, yoga, chanting, meditation, sharing circle in a community of like-minded and like-hearted women, lots of laughter, Astro-mythology sessions, ample breaks, and detoxing in the natural hot springs. A new addition this year is aquatics – movement sessions in the natural hot spring pools.
Astrologer Caroline Casey will share stories related to the constellation of the retreat to highlight the connection between the self and the cosmos.
We will convene during Ramadan, a time of prayer, purification and introspection. We will harness the energy of this time to purify, listen, focus our undivided attention on the Beloved and cultivate resiliency and perseverance in love.
Dance, whirl, and soak in the healing natural hot springs. Nourish your soul with Sufi teachings and sacred dance. Nourish your body with exceptional Turkish cuisine and on-site Turkish baths.
Mixed Levels. Suitable for women with some background in movement or dance, trained dancers, yoga and other movement practitioners as well as healing/medical practitioners. The only requirement is a desire to connect your mind, body and spirit in healing and wholeness through movement. 30 hrs towards the 400-hr Dance of Oneness® Certification Program
Looking for more information about the retreat before you’re ready to register? Click here!
TO REGISTER:
- Purchase a ticket. Scroll down until you see “tickets”
- Sign the Terms of Agreement.
Click here to open and sign the Terms of Agreement.
Questions about registration
310 499-7100
Email
Tuition
Early Bird Rate until February 1st
Hotel Single Room Lodging $1750*
($250 deposit with full payment due February 1, 2019)
(the equivalent in Euro or TRY)
After February 1st:
Hotel Single Room Lodging $1950*
(the equivalent in Euro or TRY)
Above fees include:
- Stellar accommodations in a beautiful historic hotel built on healing natural hot water springs
- Private group access to the onsite pools and fully equipped hamam (spa)
- Exceptional buffet breakfast and dinner
- Round trip ground transportation from the Yenikapi ferry dock in Istanbul to the hotel**
Fee does NOT include airfare to Turkey, visa and roundtrip transportation from the airport to the Yenikapi Ferry dock in Istanbul.
*Only Single lodging available
**Must arrive at the designated departure time on May 17 and plan to go to Istanbul on May 24.
Lodging:
Limak Hotel
Amazing historic hotel with natural spring thermal water pools, Turkish hamam, massage, beautiful views of lush mountains and a royal feast for breakfast and dinner.
Preparing for the retreat
Everything you’ll need for a Dance of Oneness® retreat
Planning Your Trip
