Answer Your Soul’s Longing for Peace & Wholeness as You Dance, Whirl, Meditate & Commune with a Like-Hearted Community
Discover how compassionately weaving paradoxes together creates a third force — one that initiates ecstatic embodiment, healing, and transfiguration, a profound spiritual process Sufi mystics described as the alchemy of the heart, Rumi called the meeting place beyond opposites, and modern quantum physics understands as emergence through coherence and superposition.
At a time when our world feels fractured by uncertainty, polarization, and power-over politics, Alchemy of Oneness: The 3rd Force invites you into ecstatic embodiment as a path to unity and your deepest calling — where body and spirit, energy and form, stillness and wildness are compassionately unified through movement, intention, and presence. Held on the luminous land of Menla Retreat Center in New York, whose natural beauty and high-frequency field support transfiguration, this retreat becomes a crucible for the birthing of your divine humanity.
Here, paradox is not resolved by choosing sides, but by allowing a coherent third force to emerge — born when opposites meet in coherence. Through sacred dance, you’ll alchemize inner divides and awaken the third force, awakening renewed vitality, embodied clarity, emotional release, spiritual and creative freedom, and a visceral sense of belonging in your body and our world that becomes prayer in motion and medicine for all.
Drawing from Banafsheh’s book, Dance of Oneness: Embody Love & Luminosity to Transform Your Life, a methodology for spiritual embodiment through sacred dance including Sufi whirling that inspires healing, awakening, and transformation, you’ll be initiated into a feminine embodiment lineage and practices, and new dance sequences grounded in sacred sensuality, communion with the Beloved, mystical poetry, modern and ancient science, and Divine Feminine wisdom.
Experience freedom and the joyful feeling of coming home to yourself like never before as you connect with the Divine, embrace your authenticity, and embody love as the antidote to pain, blocks, isolation, stagnation, and disconnect.
In this dance journey, you’ll:
- Enter ecstatic embodiment through sacred dance — awakening vitality, sensual presence, and a felt sense of unity between body, spirit, and soul
- Learn and deepen the profound practice of Sufi whirling through which you can experience oneness and the interconnection of all that is in your very body
- Alchemize inner paradoxes — joy and grief, stillness and wildness, strength and softness — into a coherent third force that brings clarity, healing, and creative power
- Experience emotional release and heart-opening transfiguration, dissolving old blocks while cultivating compassion, sovereignty, and embodied self-trust
- Be initiated into a feminine embodiment lineage through guided movement, mystical poetry, sacred sensuality, and Divine Feminine wisdom woven with ancient and modern science
- Feel a profound sense of belonging in your body, and in community and the greater web of life — as movement becomes medicine and connection becomes ceremony
Menla Retreat Center
Retreat Schedule
Thursday, July 30
3-6pm: Check-in
6-7pm: Dinner
7:30-9 pm: Welcome Program
Friday, July 31
8-9am: Breakfast
10am-12pm: Morning Program
12:30-1:30pm: Lunch
1:30pm-3:30pm: Break
3:30-5:30pm: Afternoon Program
6-7pm: Dinner
7:30-9pm: Evening Program
Saturday, August 1
8-9am: Breakfast
10am-12pm: Morning Program
12:30-1:30pm: Lunch
1:30pm-3:30pm Break
3:30-5:30: Afternoon Program
6-7pm: Dinner
7:30-9pm: Evening Program
Sunday, August 2
8-9am: Breakfast
10am-12pm: Morning Program
12:30-1:30pm: Lunch
Learning Streams
Dance & Movement Style
A combination of new sacred movement and routines from the Dance of Oneness repertoire, Sufi whirling, Persian dance, yoga, seated meditation, and free-style dance.
Divine Feminine Wisdom
You will be initiated into the mysteries and wisdom transmissions of the Divine Feminine. She calls us to enter a harmonious relationship with all Her creation. By coming into loving conscious awareness in your body, you’ll dissolve inner divides and experience greater wholeness, vitality, joy, and presence.
Mystical Teachings & Science
Experience gnosis, or the experiential knowing of the Sufis and the Taoists, and drink from the poetic wellspring of Jalaleddin Rumi and other mystics. You’ll also explore parallels between these mystical teachings and insights from quantum physics.
Healing
Experience the full-on transformation that comes from discovering and releasing deep-seated beliefs that have blocked you from living your full potential. You’ll find the balm you yearn for to heal the wounded places inside your being. And, you’ll discover the medicine you carry within you to heal and bless our world.
Community
Through dancing and sharing, you’ll enter an energy field that supports each of us in finding our unique gift. Our own light becomes magnified when shared and merged with like-hearted people.
Dance Experience
This retreat is mixed level and open to ALL who love to move.
Additionally, this retreat offers trained dancers, somatic practitioners, psychotherapists, yoga instructors, creative arts therapists, and other movement practitioners the opportunity to deepen their professional skills.
Certification
This retreat fulfills 14.5 hours of the 200-hr Dance of Oneness® Certification Program.
What Students Say
Benefits of this Sacred Dance Retreat
Dance to embody Divine Feminine wisdom, courage, and spiritual power
Cultivate a true sense of connection and belonging in your body
Bring loving awareness to inner conflicts that cause pain and isolation
Experience ecstatic embodiment through sacred sensuality
Calm your mind, reduce stress, and increase a deep sense of peace
Awaken joy, peace, and stability regardless of the circumstance
How to Prepare for this Journey
Please bring a water bottle with you
Dress in comfortable attire suitable for movement that you feel beautiful in
Bring socks or soft soled dance shoes for whirling
Bring a yoga mat
Plan on not eating a heavy meal within one hour of our sessions
Carpool is encouraged
Tuition for Alchemy of Oneness: Sacred Dance & the 3rd Force
Starting at $717
Directly on the Menla Website
About Banafsheh
Banafsheh Sayyad, MFA, Choreography and MA, Chinese Medicine, is a master sacred dancer, choreographer, and visionary teacher of spiritual embodiment whose life’s work is devoted to helping people activate greater health, awareness, and resilience through conscious movement. Internationally acclaimed for her pioneering fusion of spirituality and sensuality, she is the founder of Dance of Oneness®, a Divine Feminine lineage of healing and transformation uniting Sufi whirling, Persian dance, flamenco, mysticism, and Taoist wisdom.
Banafsheh’s forthcoming book, Dance of Oneness (St. Martin’s Essentials, March 2026), invites readers to rediscover the body as a portal to presence, vitality, and joy. Drawing from her own awakening through dance that transmuted the pain of exile from Iran, Banafsheh weaves Rumi’s poetry, feminine mysticism, and embodied healing into a radiant call to live as a channel of love and light. Born in Iran, she defied cultural taboos to create a feminine expression of Sufi whirling, transforming dance into a pathway of liberation, divine communion, and activism.
Through her non-profit Dance of Oneness and her transformative teachings, Banafsheh has inspired thousands across the world to awaken, embody love, and dance the divine into being.
