“The whole universe is love’s endless dance.”
– Kabir
Please read slowly, and as you read come in touch with something you are grateful for. Allow the feeling of gratitude to expand inside of you, into every cell, until you feel your wings.
The energy of gratitude is both enlivening and soothing. Let this energy open you to the grace that can live in you and through you for the benefit of all. Gratitude and grace both stem from the Latin root of gratus. Gratitude is about appreciation and extending grace. Whatever you give, you actually fill yourself with. When you extend gratitude, you are filled with grace.
Whirling is the practice of ecstatic gratitude – when you feel genuine thankfulness with such resplendent intensity that you generate a surge of endorphins in your body and slip into a full-scale outbreak of euphoria. In the state of ecstatic gratitude, you are able to navigate harshness and negativity with grace.
Guided by the poetry of Sufi mystics Rumi, Rabia and Kabir, ground your soul and come home to your body with luscious awareness, and rediscover your heart as the seat of the infinite.
Open to all. Banafsheh and Tony will lead a nurturing weave of dance, whirling, chanting, live music, meditation and wisdom teachings.
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
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
Calling all lovers of Rumi who believe in the transformative power of dance in a circle of like-hearted people!
Dance is the joy of the soul and the body. The soul’s entry into the body is a dance. Regardless of your work or what you do, your soul wants to dance, touch and kiss the infinite. Trust, let go, and listen to your own divine essence.
Rumi’s vision of sacred passion in action is returning to galvanize our hearts and minds. Dive in and embody his passionate and transformative message and immerse yourself in a sacred field of empowering grace that supports you in living with reverence and light from your deepest passion in the very midst of life.
Sacred dance is not just about feeling blissed out and flying into transcendent light. It’s about uncovering your purpose for being alive and doing the real work of radical embodiment, where you feel yourself as light and matter, male and female, your divine self and shadow, all at once, simply, nakedly, presently, right here, right now as an instrument of love in the world.
Join Banafsheh and musicians Tony Khalife and Eskandar Alexander in a wild, deep and nurturing weave of dance and live music! The workshop includes a performance and ecstatic dance celebration.
Open to all!
Suitable for women and men with little or no background in movement or dance as well as trained dancers, yoga and other movement practitioners. The only pre-requisite is a desire to connect your mind, body and soul through sacred movement.
For a deeper look into the structure of the workshop – click here.
Tuition (+lodging): $675-$5,605 REGISTER NOW!
More info: Email or call 831.667.3000 26 hrs towards Dance of Oneness® Certification Program
A guide and a mystic, Banafsheh is an unexpected gift in my life. I have reconnected to the divine around and in me and feel empowered to share this loving with others.
– Kathi Coyle
This is deep soul healing for me. Dancing with Banafsheh and Tony is my spiritual practice. It has opened me to new truths. I love them both so much, they bring such love, joy and light into the world. I love the tenderness and the ability to flow with what is present in the moment even if it is grief. This is pure magic!
– Kira Preston
I was immensely moved! It was fun, meaningful, spiritual and educational! Helped me integrate and invigorate! I feel more ALIVE and grounded in my spirituality. I feel committed and more clear about my personal path in life.
– Deborah Braun
I have a renewed love affair with life!
– Tara Miller
Dance is love made manifest. The time is NOW to connect deeply with true love, to align with Source energy and ignite your creative flame. Lean to be PASSIONATELY ALIVE and PRESENT to be of true service in our world today. Since “no one can truly light your flame for you and keep it alive”, says Rumi, “but yourself”, it is imperative to have a body/spirit based practice that serves as a cauldron to nourish this flame.
Dance to connect to you inner core of joy and weave magic into every aspect of living so that all parts of living are enjoyable. This is a secret in the path of dance, the secret of passionate aliveness grounded in peace that grows stronger in the face of calamity. No wonder Rumi says,
“Passion burns down every branch of exhaustion.
Passion is the supreme alchemical elixir, and renews all things.
No-one can grow exhausted when passion is born,
so don’t sigh heavily, your brows bleak with boredom and cynicism and despair—
Let divine passion triumph, and rebirth you in yourself.”
Join in a nurturing yet thrilling weave of guided and free-style dance at Hollyhock Center on Cortes Island in British Columbia, which is one of the most beautiful sites in North America – the perfect environment for Dance of Oneness. It is beautiful, lush, peaceful and particularly feminine in its serenity and sensual wildness.
Through peaceful groundedness, empowered embodiment and passionate engagement and service, we live our flame to the extent that even chaos can feel like home. Once you dance your passion, you begin to dance your life!
All levels of experience are welcome!
REGISTER NOW!
More Info: Email| 800.933.6339 or 250.935.6576 outside North America 26 hrs towards Dance of Oneness® Certification Program
This practice of oneness, through Dance, with the Beloved that is so alive in the being of you, Banafsheh, has been a total joy! A truly transformational & healing journey deeper into the love within, into the Beloved. Thank you, for the gentleness & humbleness with which you teach. Thank you for touching my heart with such deep beauty and for the reminder that the love comes from within.
Niomi Starspires, Hollyhock 2017
Creative fire rises out of the yin, receptive waters of the unconscious. Ignite your creative flame, embody and live your dreams and create positive change in yourself and the world. Creative fire makes us feel truly ALIVE. Learn to ground your creative fire in receptivity and being. Explore this interplay through dance and claim your birthright to take up conscious residence in your body with ecstatic serenity.
Feel the embrace of the Beloved, learn to trust your deepest understanding and unleash your wild sweet nectar through sacred dance, whirling, live music and much more. Gain transformative tools for living creatively in your life and manifest your true positive contribution to the world.
Schweibenalp, Center of Unity, in the Alps, is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world. Dance in nature and commune with the elements. Let yourself be filled with the beauty, lushness and wonder of nature that will greatly inspire and expand your creativity.
This is a mixed levels workshop. Most appropriate for people with a background in dance, yoga and other movement modalities, all artists, and those who long to live their lives artfully. Though open to all, the level of this workshop is intermediate.
Tuition: 600 CHF – Click here for more pricing/accommodationinformation REGISTER NOW!
More Info: Emailor phone: +41 (0) 33 952 20 00 26 hrs towards Dance of Oneness® Certification Program
I always get in touch with my best self in Banafsheh’s presence, not speaking of what has been brought into my creative life as a result of her magical work. I have gained freedom in my stage dance performances. I’ve incorporated movements from her classes into my daily exercise routines. I am mindful of my presence in my work interactions, and that I am responsible for making a difference in well being of people around me and especially of my patients. – Irina Azarova, RN, Schweibenalp Switzerland, 2017
“Banafsheh turns women into Goddesses and men into Gods – everyone who works with her regains a robust confidence in themselves.”
Eleanor Ambos, Student, MA
What people say …
“Banafsheh’s work is entirely distinctive from what has commonly been called Persian Dance. Highly artistic and virtuosic in choreography and execution, it is a dance that for the first time can be called “contemporary Persian Dance” or “Banafsheh Dance”, representative of Persia, borne in a period where dance is forbidden. “Banafsheh Dance” is a heartfelt expression of the Persian cultural and artistic needs that have been long oppressed.”
