Dance of Oneness®: Call to Love and Freedom
with Banafsheh and guest musicians
7-day Women’s Dance Retreat
June xxx, 2023
Mutlu Baba Cultural Center, Gokcedere, Yalova, Turkey
Dance of Oneness®: Call to Love and Freedom
with Banafsheh and guest musicians 7-day Women’s Dance Retreat
June xxx, 2023
Mutlu Baba Cultural Center, Gokcedere, Yalova, Turkey
with Banafsheh and guest musicians
7-day Women’s Dance Retreat
Open the treasure house of abundance from inside yourself
Too many of us women have became tame and docile. It’s time to tap into your wild, passionate, juicy, sensual, sacred self… present and divine… and nothing helps you do that better than abandoning yourself through dance.
Dance to free yourself, and cultivate strength, dignity, passion, wildness, audacity, and courage.
Dance to live with nobility and poignancy, to hold both the joy and the pain as inseparable dance partners, to let wild grace inspire and carry you, to never be tamed, never overcome!
Learn to trust your deepest understanding and unleash your wild sweet nectar through timeless, sacred dance, whirling, free-style dance, chanting, mystical poetry, meditation and lots of laughter. Gain transformative tools for living creatively and passionately in your day to day life and make a true positive contribution to our world.
Decode the mysteries of feminine wisdom teachings and claim your birthright to take up conscious residence in your body with love in the full radiance of a woman’s power – both tender and strong, receptive and discerning. Feel the full embrace of the Great Goddess, learn to trust your deepest understanding and unleash your wild sweet nectar through timeless, wild sacred dance.
Sacred dance is not just about feeling blissed out and flying into transcendent light. It’s about doing the real work of embodiment, disentangling yourself of your dramas, opening to the greater field of consciousness and letting the transcendent light flood your body, heart and mind, and the world through you.
When you surrender to the alchemy of the dance, you can move beyond the personal and collective stories that have traumatized and limited you. You move the stories to break them open and transmute and heal the traumas, so you can feel yourself as a “ray of divine majesty.” (Rumi)
Dance is the joy of the soul. The soul’s entry into the body is a dance. Regardless of what you do, your soul wants to dance, touch and kiss the infinite, and that can only happen through a deep letting go, trusting, and loving yourself as the Beloved’s beloved, nakedly, presently, right here, right now.
From Call to Love Retreat:
Call to Love is really a call to heal and to truly live! Let this call inspire you and open your being to what can live in you and through you in this time of great need and potential. With peaceful groundedness, sovereign and passionate engagement, move, dance and whirl to embody love’s intoxicating yet lucid power. Develop a keen awareness of your energy anatomy, heal, tone and sculpt your body while dancing the passion in your Heart. Transform sensations of fatigue, depression or anxiety into lasting exuberance, joy and serenity as you put love into action in your life! Cultivate the strength to persevere in love in these times of extreme turmoil and rapid change in community with like-minded and like-hearted people.
Shift your focus from the outer world to your rich inner world, and ignite the fire in your heart, so you can step into your divine self. When you extend love and compassion toward yourself, the Earth and all beings, you are emulating the creator of all worlds. The more you emulate the creator of all worlds, the more you become a conscious creator of your own world. Release longterm resistances and blockages in your body and mind that have held you back from experiencing magnificence, ease and comfort in your own skin. As you release tensions and old habits that have kept you in limitation and separation, you will reconnect with your body as a luscious temple of ease, love and beauty. You will feel and look beautiful, energetic and ALIVE…giving and receiving love effortlessly.
Guided by the poetry of Rumi, Rabia, Kabir and other Sufi mystics as well as Taoist philosophy and quantum physics, explore the foundations of Dance of Oneness, and how to cultivate mastery in your body through a focus on the Chakras and the Meridian system. Integrate your body, mind and soul in a sacred union and learn tools for self-healing and living in creative joy.
Our setting is a Sufi/Darvish House or Dergah in the beautiful, quaint village of Gokcedere, a true tavern of love, beyond any particular religion and open to all lovers. Our days are balanced between guided and free-style dance, whirling, wisdom teachings from the East & West, live music, yoga, chanting, meditation, sharing circle, lots of laughter, ample breaks, soaking and detoxing in the natural hot springs, and the chance to explore individually the beautiful beaches, villages and sites of Turkey’s exquisite Marmara region.
Dance and soak, whirl and soak, and nourish your soul and your body with exceptional Turkish cuisine.
Mixed Levels. Suitable for people with some background in movement or dance, trained dancers, yoga and other movement practitioners as well as healing/medical practitioners. The only pre-requisite is a desire to connect your mind, body and spirit in healing and wholeness through movement. (30 hours towards the 400-hr Dance of Oneness Certification Program)
Dress comfortably – clothes you feel beautiful in
Bring a yoga mat, veil (see exact dimensions in the attached Terms & Conditions) and socks or soft-soled dance shoes
You will learn:
- Luscious movement that build internal strength, vitality, flexibility and balance
- How to awaken to your inner and outer feminine beauty & express your feminine radiance
- Elements of Persian dance and Flamenco as expressions of the divine feminine
- The movement meditation of Sama (whirling), it’s philosophy and symbolism
- Zikr or chanting
- Divine feminine wisdom
- The Chakra system
- Tools to access joy, peace and lucidity in your daily life
- About the Tao and the system of yin/yang as the foundation of all life processes
- Key acupressure points you can use to bring your body into balance and optimum health
- Self-healing tools
- Movements based in the pathway of Meridians in the body that activate a balanced flow of Chi
- Connection to your life’s purpose and becoming who you truly are
- The ability to observe and manage your life dramas without being overtaken by them
- Tools to transform limitation to possibilities
- To reduce stress and tools to cope with daily stress so you can be more responsive rather than reactive, and thus contribute your unique gifts to our world
- To heal various stubborn ailments and cultivate a well-balanced body
Benefits:
- Connecting with an international community of like-hearted sistas
- Laughter therapy!
Tuition for the 7-day Dance Retreat:
Early Bird Rate till March 15th
Dergah Communal Lodging: $1550
Hotel Double Room Lodging:
Hotel Single Room Lodging
(the equivalent in Euro or TRY)
After March 15th:
Dergah Communal Lodging: $1750
Hotel Double Room Lodging:
Hotel Single Room Lodging:
(the equivalent in Euro or TRY)
Above fees include:
Stellar single or double occupancy accommodations in a beautiful hotel built on healing natural hot water springs with onsite pools and a fully equipped hamam (spa). Exceptional buffet breakfast and dinner with vegetarian options.
We provide roundtrip ground transportation from the Yenikapi ferry dock in Istanbul to the hotel if you arrive at the designated departure time on June X and if you plan to go to Istanbul on June X.
Fees do NOT include airfare to Turkey, visa, roundtrip transportation from the airport to the Yenikapi Ferry dock in Istanbul; lunch and any massage, kiseh (body scrub) and facials at the hotel. The Dergah communal lodging does not include meals.
Lodging Options
Hotel:
Nearby Esila Termal
Luxury hotel with natural spring thermal water pools, Turkish hamam, massage, and a royal feast for breakfast and dinner.
The juxtaposition of staying in an abode of opulence and holding our sessions in an abode of simplicity cultivates the importance of bridging worlds for a messenger of Oneness and Love.
Cultural Center (Dergah)
You can stay in the Dergah in a communal. Meals are not included, but you can purchase food at a low cost in the village where there are a wide variety of traditional Turkish restaurants and supermarkets.
Special discounted work/study rates in Dergah lodging available for residents of Turkey and Iran who are unable to afford the regular prices. Email for more info
Planning Your Trip:
Airport: Istanbul International Airport, Istanbul
Arrival:
Please plan to arrive before noon on June X at the latest.
Transportation to Dergah:
- Take the train, bus or taxi to the Yenikapi Ferry Station
- A guide will meet you at the Yenikapi Ferry Station in front of the entrance to area where people board the ferry to Yalova between Xpm with your ferry ticket. Our group will take the Xpm ferry.
- A bus at the Yalova ferry station will bring the group to the hotel and Cultural Center (dergah).
Our orientation session will begin at Xpm on June X after dinner.
Early arrivals:
If you plan to arrive earlier or later, you can take a small bus or dolmus to the Thermal. Tell the bus driver that you’d like to go to the Esila Termal Hotel.
