Listen…listen with your heart… and allow this to lead you into a dance that dissolves your small I, so you can feel Spirit acting through you.
If you long to meditate with movement and feel drawn to truly ground your spirituality in your body and gain practical tools for living a more energized, peaceful and lucidly creative life, this workshop is for you.
Guided by the teachings of Rumi, delve into grounding and centering techniques that awaken your body and re-connect you with the Earth and your core, so you can open your central channel and your heart, and align with Spirit.
This workshop demystifies turning, offering access to Sufi whirling meditation in a few simple steps. This method allows people of all experience levels to turn for a long period with ease. An age-old practice of the legendary Sufi masters Rumi and Shams, the Sama is an inner journey and a direct path to creativity. It dissolves mental chatter into the vast ocean of presence, and you begin to simply be…unchained, free, present, and wildly inspired.
Explore the love poems that poured forth from Rumi as he whirled, and the symbolism and philosophy of the Sama as a complete spiritual path, one of the clearest ways to “embody the transcendent:, which H.H. the Dalai Lama calls, ‘the true meaning of life’.
“Like the ground turning green in a spring wind,
Like birdsong beginning inside the egg,
Like the universe coming into existence,
The lover wakes and whirls
In a dancing joy that kneels down in praise.”
— Rumi
For more information about the structure of the workshop – click here.
This workshop is on the beautiful sacred grounds of Menla Mountain Retreat. Accommodations at the retreat center are available, see the website for details.
Tuition (+lodging): $450-$938 REGISTER NOW!
More info: Email| Call 845.688.6897 10 hrs towards Dance of Oneness® Certification Program
We are learning embodied connection to our Divine nature. There have been remarkable shifts into peace for me. The preparation for “whirling” and connecting to our source energy was meticulous and thorough with great attention being given to precision and detail.
Jyoti Louise Bruun, Hollyhock 2017
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
NOW is all there is and when you dance to align your body, heart, and mind with your purpose for being ALIVE in community with others, then NOW becomes super potent for transformation on both the personal and collective levels.
Guided by the poetry of Rumi, claim your body and being in the present moment through a yin-yang synthesis of passionate and exuberant movement with peaceful and sensual embodiment.
Learn effective grounding, centering, heart opening and empowering techniques through guided and free-style dance, whirling, meditation and laughter to help you clear yourself of drama, listen for guidance from Spirit, and ground your soul in your body.
Mixed levels. Open to All, best suited for people with a background in dance and movement.
Mixed levels. Please bring soft-soled dance shoes or socks.
Thank you Banafsheh for unapologetically being who you are and sharing what you uniquely share in the world – what the Divine offers through you. Thank you for so generously sharing your practices and the wisdom that brought you to these practices and the wisdom that moves through you during these practices.
Candice Salyers, Rowe Center, MA 2017
Workshop participant Guy Crittenden shares beautiful insight into Sufi Dance of Oneness® at Menla Retreat Center last month. Original post can be found here.
Over the weekend of November 4 to 5, 2017 I was privileged to attend a workshop in Sufi whirling dance with renowned international teacher Banafsheh Sayyad. It’s not an overstatement to say the experience was life changing.
At this seminal time when the veil between the two worlds is the thinnest, you are invited to dance away your restrictions even for a brief fleeting moment so as to listen and receive guidance, let go of patterns that no longer serve you so you can make room for a new story to emerge.
Immerse yourself in a fusion of rigorous yet organic dance technique with embodied spirituality set to magical Middle Eastern and World music grooves with Banafsheh, transformational master teacher of conscious embodiment. Through a yin/yang synthesis of passionate, exuberant and explosive movement with serene, peaceful and grounded embodiment, release the unnecessary and surrender to your being’s magnificent potential so you can be a true agent of positive change in the world.
Please wear comfortable clothes you feel beautiful in and soft-soled dance shoes or socks.
Mixed levels. Open to All, with or without a background in dance and movement.
Dance of Oneness® is dance as a spiritual path and science of embodiment— a joyful, loving and contemplative way to embody Spirit and live more freely, passionately and of service in the world. A fusion of the art of dance: rigorous technique and self-expression; wisdom teachings, and healing, Dance of Oneness® is based in Sufi ritual and whirling, flamenco, Persian and Modern dance, Tai Chi and Chi Gong. Mystical teachings and the poetry of Rumi, divine feminine wisdom, Chinese Medicine and the Chakra system are the theoretical groundwork.
“I have a new piece now, a new piece of the mystery, a new level of understanding myself, spirit, others.”
Jeri Preston, The Rowe Center, MA 2016
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