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Solstice dance, gong bath

Tirgan: A Solstice Rite of Renewal

An immersive weekend of dance performance with video art, whirling workshop & sound healing

@Electric Lodge in Venice, CA

Located at 1416 Electric Ave.

Gather for the Summer Solstice at the zenith of light for an immersive weekend of dance performance with video art, whirling workshop, sound healing, and community dialogue rooted in Iranian mystical and artistic traditions. Through a sacred journey of movement, visual storytelling, sharing, and sound, we will explore grief, renewal, resilience, and deeper purpose — illuminating the path, nourishing the spirit, and offering healing connection in these turbulent times.

The weekend features dancer/choreographer Banafsheh Sayyad, video artist Shaghayegh Cyrous, sound healer Shila Ommi, and mythologist Maryam Sayyad, with an original soundtrack and DJ set.

This project is made possible by in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Saturday, June 20

FREE Admission | Donations Welcome | RSVP Required

An Evening of Performance, Visual Storytelling, Spiritual Insight & Open Dance for Freedom

7:30 – 9:30pm PT

At the Summer Solstice, the sun reaches its highest point and the Earth is bathed in its greatest abundance of light. It is also a sacred turning… the moment when darkness quietly begins its return, reminding us that light and dark are interwoven in the dance of life.

We come together on this night to honor both the beauty and heartbreak of our times. Inspired by Tirgan, the ancient Iranian festival that celebrates the sacred waters of renewal — where grief is cleansed, life is restored, and a new dawn begins to rise. This gathering offers a space to transform sorrow into prayer, longing into devotion, and separation into connection, resilience, and hope.

Rooted in the rich mystical and artistic traditions of Iran, the evening will begin with a talk by mythologist Maryam Sayyad, PhD, followed by a multimedia performance by Banafsheh and video artist Shaghayegh Cyrous, creating a tapestry of sacred movement, imagery, and intention dedicated to the people of Iran and all those working courageously on behalf of freedom, dignity, and human flourishing.

Banafsheh will then offer a talk and reading inspired by her acclaimed book, Dance of Oneness: Embody Love & Luminosity to Transform Your Life, and open the space for community dialogue and interaction.

Summer Solstice free event

 

Following the reading, you will be invited into a free-style dance journey, offering space to release any heavy emotions and replenish yourself with the vital energy, clarity, and resilience needed to meet the challenges of our times.

Books will be available for purchase, and Banafsheh will be honored to sign copies.

This is an evening for anyone longing for renewal, belonging, inspiration, and authentic connection. A chance to gather in community, nourish the heart, and remember that even in difficult times, light continues to live within us and between us.

RSVP

Sunday, June 21

A FREE Sacred Dance Workshop – Limited Space!

Donations Welcome | RSVP Required

Whirling & Gong Journey: The Spiral of Light

with Banafsheh Sayyad & Shila Ommi

4 – 6:30pm PT

Be suffused with the expansive energy of the Solstice light through the sacred art of whirling with Banafsheh, a moving meditation that has guided seekers into stillness, ecstasy, and union for centuries, followed.

It is especially auspicious to whirl at this time when light is at its zenith and the body becomes a vessel for receiving and transmitting light. You will learn the foundations of whirling, turning with grace and ease, discovering the still point within movement, and the profound sense of unity that emerges when body, heart, and spirit move as one.

Guided by Banafsheh’s feminine approach, this transformative practice cultivates joy, presence, clarity, and a deep connection with the luminous intelligence that animates all of life.

Summer Solstice event, free solstice event

Following the whirling practice, a sharing circle will bring us together in community dialogue and interaction, offering space to reflect, integrate, and connect through the wisdom of our shared experience.

The journey will conclude with a soothing, healing gong immersion led by Shila Ommi, inviting you to rest, receive, and integrate the experience through waves of sacred sound.

RSVP

Benefits of this Workshop

Find yourself in the dance of creation, activating presence and spiritual guidance

Awaken stability, belonging, and harmony within the interconnected web of life.

Learn a feminine approach to whirling that feels safe and prevents dizziness.

Discover the hidden power of stillness in motion and connect with the Divine.

Dance Experience & Preparation

Mixed Levels: All are welcome.

Dress in comfortable attire. White attire is recommended but not required.

Don't eat a heavy meal one hour of our workshop.

Bring socks or soft soled dance shoes for whirling.

Bring a water bottle.

Bring a soft yoga mat to lie on and a small pillow for under your head

Bring a meditation cushion to sit on

A blanket and head pillow are suggested

An eye mask is suggested

Please have socks or soft soled dance shoes (recommendations: Capezio, and SoDanca)

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Book Tour

Get Your Copy of the Dance of Oneness Book!

Embody Love and Luminosity to Transform Your Life

Discover how spiritual embodiment through sacred dance leads to healing, transformation, joyful liberation, and living a more vibrant, aligned, and abundant life with this empowering, interactive guide to embodied spirituality.

ORDER

What Experts in Transformation & Healing Say About The Dance of Oneness Modality for Healing & Transformation:

caroline-myss
“Dance of Oneness elevates dance to a mystical path of finding joy and wonder in every expression of life, but especially in the sacred design of our physical body. This book is pure inspiration. I loved every page.”
Caroline Myss
Best-selling Author & Spiritual Teacher
Jeff-brown-author
“Dance of Oneness is an embodied cry for freedom! In a world that is becoming increasingly more artificial, Banafsheh Sayyad calls us back to the most authentic path there is: the path of the body. Not as a theoretical construct, ... but as a reverential experience that rebodies us of who we are. The practices that thread through this piece of art cannot help but bring you home to anything that got lost along the way—your feelings, your healings, your clarity as to why you are here.” Read more
Jeff Brown
Best-selling Author
HeatherAsh Amara
“If Rumi and Martha Graham dreamt together to create a manifestation of sacred movement and divine wisdom in form, that being would be Banafsheh. Dance of Oneness lights the way into the depths of our own heart. ... Here, no matter your age, skill, or background, you will find healing through Banafsheh’s profound stories and simple embodied movement practices that brilliantly unites matter and spirit, healing and expression. I’ve been reading each page with tears in my eyes for the beauty and passion of Banafsheh bringing dance and the divine to all.” Read more
 HeatherAsh Amara
Best-selling Author & Spiritual Teacher
OMID-ARABIAN-cropped
“Dance of Oneness is an invaluable gift, part personal story, part spiritual map, part call to awaken. With courage, empathy, and poetic subtlety, Banafsheh Sayyad invites us to reclaim our bodies as temples, to dance ourselves whole, and to embody love as a living force ... in the world. This is not just a book about dance; it is a guide to becoming fully alive.” Read more
Omid Arabian
Author & Teacher 
Mirabai Starr
“I will never forget the first time I saw Banafsheh dance. Not only was she wordlessly embodying every mystical tradition I had studied and practiced, but her dance invited me to fully inhabit my own body, marrying the sacred with the sensual, perennial wisdom with lived experience ... In this brilliant book, Banafsheh shares her own compelling story of growing up in Iranian culture, with both its political tensions and its timeless beauty, and finding a spiral path toward the holy ground of dance. Then, step by joyous step, she leads us out onto the stage of our own life, where she sets us spinning in ecstasy and then settles us into sublime stillness.” Read more
Mirabai Starr
Best-selling Author  & Spiritual Teacher
Eve_Ensler_at_a_Hudson_Union_Society_event_in_March_2011
“How extraordinary that Banafsheh has been able to translate her embodied wisdom and divine physical movement into a book of words that compels us to dance. Dance of Oneness is both a 'how to manual' and mystical enchantment, swirling us, lifting us, moving us towards each other ... and a new holy freedom. Read it and dance, dance, dance.” Read more
V (formerly Eve Ensler)
Best-selling Author & Theater Director
Stephen-Dinan-Headshot-Photo-Square
“The task of our day is how to become divinely embodied human beings and Banafsheh is one of our most luminous guides for how to become the Beloved in motion!”
Stephen Dinan, Author & Founder
The Shift Network
David-gere
“Each of us has our own reasons for dancing: to focus our energy, to explore, to celebrate, to protest, to find stillness. Banafsheh Sayyad dances for all these reasons ... but most of all to experience healing, which, seems to me, is the true subject of her remarkably wise book.” Read more
David Gere
PhD, Director, UCLA Art & Global Health Center
Annine Van Der Meer endorses Banafsheh Sayyad
“In this profound and priceless book, Banafsheh Sayyad describes an evolutionary pathway to the Divine. She reveals how she – only after high ups and very deep downs ... – succeeded in becoming a manifestation of the Divine Feminine, integrating her experiences as dancer and spiritual embodiment teacher into ONE. This book can initiate its readers into the secrets of Divine life inside a conscious, sacred and brilliantly shining body.” Read more
Annine Van Der Meer
Spiritual Author

In this sacred dance workshop and gong journey, you'll discover:

Sacred dance as a spiritual practice for uniting body and soul and awakening greater connection, presence, wellbeing, peace, and fulfillment.

Divine Feminine, Taoist, Sufi, and mystical wisdom teachings that expand your awareness and inspire truth, joy, connection, and freedom.

Mystical poetry by Rumi spoken in Persian and translated into English from his original words to inspire and welcome you home to yourself.

The healing frequencies of the gong, dissolving mental noise, heavy emotions, and tension and guide you into stillness, peace, and expanded awareness.

About Banafsheh

Banafsheh Sayyad

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.

Her 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 to legendary filmmaker Parviz Sayyad, 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 at centers such as Esalen, Kripalu, Omega, and Hollyhock, Banafsheh has inspired thousands across the world to awaken, embody love, and dance the divine into being.

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

USA

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

Canada