In this 3-part course, Banafsheh initiates you into Sama, the holy ritual of whirling. She offers a clear, straightforward method that allows everyone regardless of their level of ability to access this profound Sufi movement meditation. Whirling opens the heart, activates the pineal gland, and induces powerful intuition.
An age-old practice of the legendary Sufi masters Rumi and Shams, Sama is an inner journey to the Beloved. It dissolves mental chatter into the vast ocean of presence, and you begin to simply be…unchained, free, present, and wildly inspired.
Listen…listen with your heart… and allow this listening to lead you into a spinning dance that connects you to the greater universal field of love. You can receive blessings and guidance from the infinite source of being as you become a channel for blessings and wisdom in our traumatized world.
The new physics informs us that everything we see as matter is actually space spinning. This is how everything comes to exist. Space time spins itself into protons, atoms, planets, stars, galaxies, universes and of course, you! How profound, then, to step into the spin consciously with the intention of creating coherence between the body, heart, and mind… activate supernatural powers and upgrade ourselves to the next level of being!
“Life forms become coherent through the spin.” – Nassim Haramein
The poetry of Rumi flowered through him as he whirled in perfect rhyme and meter. It stands as a testament to the power of this sacred dance to create coherence and connect directly with the source of consciousness. Rumi became Rumi through the Sama!
If you are drawn to meditation through movement or you long to ground your soul and dance your prayers, this course is for you. Experience the love poems that flowered from Rumi as he whirled, and gain insight into the philosophy and symbolism of Sama.
This course is suitable for ALL who love to move. It offers trained dancers, psychotherapists, yoga instructors, creative arts therapists, and other movement practitioners the opportunity to deepen their professional skills.
This course counts as a foundational Dance of Oneness® course and fulfills 2.5 hours of the 200-hr Dance of Oneness® Certification Program.
We are called to journey deep into the wisdom of the Earth, our bodies and our ancestors, and apply age-old mystical teachings that can help us survive and thrive in these difficult times we live in. In this introductory session, you are invited to tune into the wisdom of the Sufi lineage, those dedicated to self realization through love and living love in the world. Learn how Sama, the practice of polishing the heart through listening, is one of the central pillars of the Sufi Path.
In this session, you will take introductory steps or strokes in the vast ocean that Sama initiates us into. Beginning with an invocation, we will do a warm up to weave consciousness into our body. You will learn the technique of whirling and how to persevere without getting dizzy. We will explore some of the key symbols of this sacred practice that you can apply to your daily life for accessing presence, greater awareness and love. We will end with a seated meditation infused with a poem by Rumi. When you hear Rumi’s poetry while whirling or after you whirl, you will have completely new insights, because you will be in a similar state as he was, when he recited them.
In this session, we will go deeper in this journey with the aim of creating coherence, not just between your heart and mind, but between your heart, mind and body. In the Sufi tradition, the Divine says, “I was a hidden treasure and I loved to be known.” Hence, the Divine created the world so that She would be known. Sama is a journey in discovering the hidden treasure in the depths of your being, accessed through your heart, finding your anchor in this discovery, and expanding this deep knowing, letting your deep knowing permeate your whole being. This is the meaning of Rumi’s teaching when he says, “Let the beauty you love, be what you do”…for your sake, for the sake of life, for all beings, for the expansion of love, for the Beloved to know herself.
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Banafsheh Sayyad is a master Persian sacred dancer, choreographer, activist and founder of Dance of Oneness®. With an MFA in Dance & Choreography and an MA in Chinese Medicine, she is a deeply profound and highly accessible spiritual teacher of embodiment, dedicated to individual and collective healing through dance. Banafsheh performs and teaches internationally, initiating people into the wisdom of their bodies. Her signature style of holy wildness ignites transformation and illumination in all those who dance with her from around the globe. Her easeful instruction and welcoming spirit empowers students from all stages of life to feel a true sense of belonging in their bodies and passion in their lives, by integrating wisdom teachings.
Dance of Oneness® is the dance I had been waiting to do all my life. From a young age I had danced, read watched and followed Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Joffery Ballet, Margie Gillis, Gabriel Roth and many more than I can name that moved in a way that spoke to me. Dance of Oneness® is the culmination of all that I had been drawn to in the other dance forms which seemed to be missing the main ingredient. Banafsheh has found the missing thread which is the opening to the Beloved, to truly give yourself in movement to the Divine energy that resides and moves through all of us from the Earth and the Heavens. I felt that for the first time in our dancing. It also reintroduced me to my own body, allowed me to accept my imperfections and for the first time in years swim naked in the ocean. All of this and more.
Janet Sawatsky
Transformative! Banafsheh skillfully takes us step by step to an experience of dance that brings me deeper into my body, to peace, feeling grounded and open to beauty and to love. Most importantly for me, the process brought me to experience a lovingness toward myself. I appreciate her presence of gentleness and fierce passion, and I’m inspired to bring my best self into my world.
Mary Regis
