Founder of Dance of Oneness®
Banafsheh Sayyad
Bridge the sublime and the sensual through sacred dance — and become luminous.
Take root in the pulsating presence of life by honoring your true divine nature and the sacred vessel through which your life unfolds.
For many of us, the idea of embodying our divine nature means that we must first override our humanness, or the parts of ourselves that we find difficult to accept, honor, and love.
But what if our physical presence is actually the material part of our souls — through which we can experience a union of spirit and matter... the sublime and the sensual?
What if our bodies are living fields of higher consciousness and divine love where we can take root in the pulsating presence of life through physical form? Or as the Persian poet Rumi said:
“Look and see spirit blending with the earthbowl. How long will you speak of the seen and the unseen? Look and see the unseen blending with the seen. How long will you speak of this world and that world? Look and see that world blending with this world.”
In Sufism, which is the path of living love, our human and spiritual selves blend and we enter into oneness with All That Is.
One of the central pieces of this sacred path is Sama, or whirling dance — known to create coherence and a profound sense of oneness. This beautiful dance connects the head, heart, body, and soul and opens a channel for compassion, wisdom, and divine guidance.
As you journey on this path of embodied love with sacred dancer and acclaimed teacher of embodiment Banafsheh Sayyad, you’ll have the chance to experience this ancient Sufi wisdom and the alchemical power of your divine nature through a dance that activates the deeper potential of your energy centers, known as chakras in the East.
As a result, sacred dance can harmonize your energies, ground you in the present moment where you can truly honor the sacred and sensual vessel through which your life unfolds.
As the founder of Dance of Oneness™, Banafsheh performs and teaches internationally, initiating people into the wisdom of their bodies. During your time with her, you’ll discover dance as a language between you and the Divine as your Beloved that is capable of shifting, influencing, and shaping consciousness — and ignite your inherent ability to receive and transmit love through sacred movement.
You’ll enter the body temple and be simultaneously anointed by the Great Mother while you transform mystery into matter through the sacred spiral...
... the most advanced human movement that engages all of your chakras — which are spiraling themselves.
You’ll activate your sacred sexuality, liberate your life-force and the intuitive, life-bearing, being aspect of your psyche, access self-authority through movements inspired by the fiery flamenco...
... and awaken and activate your pineal gland to dissolve dualistic thinking and the illusion of separation between you and the world.
Are you ready to bridge the sublime and the sensual through sacred dance — and embody light and love?
Join Banafsheh on the path of living love through a dance that activates and blesses your chakras, harmonizes your energies and honors the sacred, sensual vessel through which your life unfolds.
Do I Have to Be a Dancer to Participate?
Who Is the Sacred Feminine?
What Is Sama?
During this journey into sacred dance and your sublime and sensual divinity, you’ll:
- Explore the Sufi Path as the path of living love
- Awaken loving awareness in your whole body
- Experience an intimate connection with the transcendent and immanent Divine-Beloved through dance
- Learn how moving in spirals brings you into balance — and teaches you how to remain present, grounded, and centered in the midst of chaos
- Receive direct transmissions from the Source through Sama
- Walk with loving awareness, correct alignment, and beauty — bridging the seen and the unseen
- Gain tools to get out of your head and direct your energy down into the rest of your body to be more fully yourself — and to live with more capacity
- Cultivate a true sense of belonging in your body, feeling ease and joy in your skin regardless of pain or restrictions
- Activate and balance your root chakra and begin to develop an intimate bond with the Earth as the basis, root, and foundation for all your movement, as well as your bonds and relationships
- Activate your pineal gland to receive higher insights and intuitive guidance
- Learn how to whirl without getting dizzy and persevere in the spin for a sustained period of time
- Embody your true strength as you burn away unworthiness and begin to express yourself with courage, compassion, responsibility, and stewardship toward the greater eco-field
- Activate and open your heart chakra — and experience your heart as the gateway to the quantum field of infinite consciousness
- Cultivate inner detachment and tune in to the power of dance to influence and shape consciousness
- Discover the sacred and the unfathomable in the still depths of your being beyond concepts, dogmas, conditioned activity, and all preferences
- Be here in the NOW and surrender to what is as you access inner peace and joy, regardless of circumstance
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Modules
In this 7-part transformational intensive, Banafsheh will guide you through the fundamental skills and competencies you’ll need to embody your sublime and sensual divinity and cultivate a body of light through sacred dance.
This course will feature step-by-step teachings and experiential practices with Banafsheh. Each session will build harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to embody your sublime and sensual divinity and cultivate a body of light through sacred dance.
Module 1: Root Chakra — Enter the Body Temple
You’ll begin your journey with an initiation into the root chakra’s sacred truth: All is one. This is your link and your interconnection with all of life, as we are all part of one divine family. Every choice you make and every belief you hold exerts influence upon the whole of life.
Your wellbeing and your dance are dependent upon your connection with the Earth as Gaia, one of the supreme manifestations of the Great Mother — the more you revere and honor the Earth the healthier and more vibrant you will feel.
When you don’t honor the Earth, you are unable to honor your body and your bond with others… you’re actually unable to be.
As most of us are focused in our heads, the goal of this opening class is to actively remember you have a body and are one with the Earth.
During your initiation into the sacred truth of the root chakra, you’ll also:
- Awaken loving awareness in your whole body with The Weave, designed to ground you and bring you into presence
- Explore walking with loving awareness, correct alignment, and beauty — bridging the seen and the unseen with Dance Your Walk
- Activate and balance your root chakra and begin to develop an intimate bond with the Earth as the basis, root, and foundation for all your movement, as well as your bonds and relationships through tribal dance
- Gain tools Gain tools to get out of your head and direct your energy down into the rest of your body to be more fully yourself — and to live with more capacity
- Let go and relax into the now, releasing the tension from external stimuli through the Active Relaxation method
- Cultivate a true sense of belonging in your body, feeling ease and joy in your skin regardless of pain or restrictions
Module 2: Sacral Chakra — Awaken Sacred Sexuality
The sacred truth of the sacral chakra is that sexual energy is sacred, a key aspect to your relationship to power.
Shame and guilt make you powerless, creating an energetic armor around your hips that traps your life-force. You’ll begin to loosen the armor in this class to liberate your life-force and free energy in your body and your energetic field.
The sacral chakra is also the realm of duality — male and female. The imbalance between masculine and feminine energies has tilted in favor of the masculine for eons, leading us to value doing over being... the active principle of yang over the receptive principle of yin.
You’ll dance to harmonize and marry the two flames — the intuitive, life-bearing, being aspect of your psyche with the active and intellectual doing aspect.
Ultimately, your dance becomes a lovemaking with the Beloved — the union of spirit and matter in your body in ever-expanding, sublime, wild, and tender ways.
As you reconnect with the sacred sexual energy of the sacral chakra, you’ll:
- Shake to purify and clear yourself of yourself — and disidentify with the limited “separate” self
- Awaken your life force and let it ignite your whole body, energizing and uplifting you through Shake to Liberate
- Open yourself to the sheer radiance of eros, reclaim your sexuality as sacred, and freely, ecstatically express your sensuality as natural and holy
- Activate and open your sacral chakra, and begin to balance the energies of yin and yang — feminine and masculine inside yourself
- Feel and begin to embody your own beauty with radiant confidence
- Elevate yourself and feel energized throughout the day
Module 3: Solar Plexus Chakra — Flamenco to Activate Self-Authority
Rumi said, “life is the sound of your inner dialogue.” In other words, your life amplifies how you feel about yourself — and echoes your thoughts and feelings back to you.
You’ll explore the solar plexus’ sacred truth that self-love is your anchor... and learn to activate your center to access a point of light that can expand into a sun — whose radiance rests upon how you feel about yourself.
The more you regard yourself and your body with kindness and love, the warmer, and more radiant will the sun emanate in your body, your life, and out into the world. This is why when you don’t feel good about yourself, the world appears dim and gloomy.
You’ll also learn movements inspired by fiery flamenco that activate self-authority. As you claim your power you will realize there is no room for victimhood and blame.
As you dance with the awareness of your solar plexus chakra, you’ll:
- Find your center, your womb-dantian, and develop the ability to initiate your movements from your center with Activate the Inner Sun
- Activate self-authority and sovereignty as the Queen of your own Queendom and the King of our own Kingdom through the fiery and empowering movements of flamenco
- Boost your confidence and self-esteem
- Build resilience and adaptability through your nervous system
- Awaken and enliven your inherent joy regardless of the circumstance
- Embody your true strength as you burn away unworthiness and begin to express yourself with courage, compassion, responsibility, and stewardship toward the greater eco-field
Module 4: Heart Chakra — Open the Portal to the Infinite
Love is divine power and the most powerful state of being. This is the sacred truth of the heart chakra.
The midpoint of chakras, your heart chakra mediates between body and spirit where you can tune in to your subtle body, become more energy than matter, and enter the quantum field of oneness.
In this module, you’ll learn about the sacred physiology of the heart, and be introduced to the Sufi Path. For the Sufis, life is a love affair with the Beloved and the heart is the home of the Beloved — the “I AM” presence. Through falling in love with the Beloved, you polish your heart of the debris of separateness and step into your true self.
Your heart has an electromagnetic field that extends beyond the physical heart by about five to eight feet. What you create in your heart influences yourself and the world around you. This is why all healing begins in the heart.
As you journey deep into your heart, you’ll:
- Explore the Sufi Path as the path of living love
- Experience your heart as the gateway to the quantum field of infinite consciousness
- Learn from the wisdom of your anatomical heart
- Activate and open your heart chakra through the Waves of Love — and experience light as liquid
- Dance to let your body become an instrument playing a love song
- Learn how to maintain an open heart by remaining grounded and centered, and create balance between giving and receiving love
Module 5: Throat Chakra — Whirl to Surrender to Love
The throat chakra teaches us to surrender personal will to Divine will. It is about finding your authentic voice, and listening — attuning to inner guidance. It bridges the head and heart to create coherence.
One of our toughest armors is around our throat. You’ll learn to loosen this armor to activate your voice and creativity.
You’ll be initiated into Sama (whirling dance) through a simple method that allows everyone access to this profound Sufi practice. An inner journey to the Beloved, Sama dissolves the limited mind into the unlimited ocean of presence, and you begin to simply be... a channel for compassion and wisdom.
The science of physics states that matter is actually space spinning. How profound to spin consciously, activate supernatural powers, and upgrade ourselves!.
Rumi’s poetry flowered while whirling in perfect rhyme and meter — a testament to the power of Sama to receive direct transmissions from the Source, and create body-heart-mind coherence.
As you activate your throat chakra and its sacred voice, you’ll also:
- Ground and center yourself in preparation for whirling
- Learn how to whirl without getting dizzy and persevere in the spin for a sustained period of time
- Learn the philosophy and short history of Sama as a spiritual path
- Create unity, harmony, and coherence between your body, heart, and mind through the profound Sufi movement meditation of Sama
- Begin to surrender your mind and become empty
- Become silent and still enough to listen to your inner voice of guidance through a seated meditation following the Sama
Module 6: Third Eye Chakra — Activate the Pineal Gland & Experience Dance as Invisible Architecture
The Third Eye chakra teaches us to see only the truth. Considered the mother of all the chakras, this is where you are beckoned to open yourself to the unknown and expand your mind to gain wisdom that can guide your actions. As the center of intuition, you can access profound inner vision and insight when your pineal gland is awakened and activated... including dissolving the illusion of separation between you and the world.
“Walk with the universe,” say the Navajo. Walk in beauty, feeling the harmony between yourself, the world around you, and all of existence.
As you deepen your journey into Sama, you’ll activate intuition and insight, and begin to experience the stillpoint at the center of all movement at the core of your being.
By approaching dance as invisible architecture and becoming aware of the patterns as you move, your dance will become a powerful way to shift, influence, and shape consciousness.
In dancing with your Third Eye chakra focus, you’ll:
- Explore and activate the pineal gland as your inner or Third Eye through special focus, as well as the Sama
- Deepen the practice of Sama and begin to receive direct transmissions from the source
- Dissolve the illusion of separation between yourself and the world, and loosen your identification with the limited self through Sama
- Begin to surrender the patterns of your limited mind to become empty and silent through Sama and seated meditation
- Learn to observe yourself moving, becoming aware of the shapes that you create
- Cultivate inner detachment and tune in to the power of dance to influence and shape consciousness
- Realize the stillness that is always already present at the core of your being
Module 7: Crown Chakra — Reside in the NOW Beyond Name & Form
The sacred truth of the crown chakra is to live in the present moment. It requires courage, trust and a constant disidentification from our limited self... for to be in the present moment is to lovingly release the past.
Your crown chakra is your connection to spirit — the greater field of consciousness — that motivates you to seek an intimate connection to the Divine in everything you do. Sacred dance is about experiencing this connection.
During the concluding class, you’ll learn to move in spirals and integrate the learning from previous classes. The spiral is a sacred pattern seen in all living forms — from galaxies to our DNA molecules. It is the way nature resolves conflict and restores balance.
The visible world flowers from the invisible through the spiral. At the innermost level is divine mystery, and at the outermost, physical forms of matter.
The spiral is the most advanced human movement, engaging all the chakras — which are spiraling themselves.
As you embody the sacred truth of the crown chakra, you’ll:
- Learn how moving in spirals brings you into balance — and teaches you how to remain present, grounded, and centered in the midst of chaos
- Discover the sacred and the unfathomable in the still depths of your being beyond concepts, dogmas, conditioned activity, and all preferences
- Activate deep inner surrender, and being thoughtlessly present beyond sensations of comfort and discomfort, pleasure and aversion
- Experience an intimate connection with the Beloved through dance
- Be here in the now and surrendered to what is as you access inner peace and joy, regardless of circumstance
- Integrate all teachings from past modules
The Body of Light Bonus Collection
In addition to Banafsheh’s transformative 7-module virtual course, you’ll receive these special bonuses with leading visionaries and teachers to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Fluid Movement for Radiant Embodiment
Curated Series of 6 Sessions From Shift Network Summits
Watch devotion, prayer, and adoration in motion as Banafsheh shares her passion for sacred dance in this session taken from Shift’s 2020 Shamanism Summit. As a child, Banafsheh’s love for dance was overshadowed by cultural shaming and the perception that dancing causes degradation. As her relationship with the Divine deepened, however, so did her initiation into sacred dance and her resolve to rise above this cultural framing of what is sacred.
You’ll also receive five sessions from Shift’s 2021 Somatic Movement Summit with featured speakers: Judith Aston, Steve Haines, Bernadette Pleasant, Yasmin Lambat, and Simon Borg-Olivier!
Plus... you’ll receive these bonuses too!
Oneness Yoga: Surrendering to the Ground of Being
Video Teaching From Banafsheh Sayyad
In this mixed level yoga and stretching practice, Banafsheh will guide you on a journey from rigorous asanas to a lying down meditation that will ground you deeply in the wisdom of your body. You will experience how the deeper you go, the more you merge with the ground of being and the oneness of All That Is. When you go inside your sensation deep enough you realize there is only one sensation — your sensation is everyone else’s sensation... and the sensation of the Earth and all the elements.
Plus... you’ll receive these bonuses too!
In the Fire of Grace
Video Experience From Banafsheh Sayyad and Andrew Harvey
Featuring Banafsheh’s choreography, this acclaimed film explores the path of Divine Love and the soul’s archetypal journey into union with the Beloved through dance and the poetry of Rumi.
Banafsheh’s signature style of the timeless Divine Feminine inside a contemporary gypsy darvish, beckons us to live with passion, wildness, and reverence. Spiritual teacher and scholar Andrew Harvey lends his powerful voice to Rumi’s poetry and summons Banafsheh deeper into the flames of death and rebirth. In the Fire of Grace highlights the devastating yet glorious paradoxes of the mystical journey and how love is both pain and joy — a rare jewel that will inspire and elevate you on your spiritual path. The dances throughout the film are illuminated by discussions exploring the urgency of Rumi’s message of love to our turbulent world.
Dance of Oneness Daily Practice, Level 1
Video Teaching From Banafsheh Sayyad
This dance and standing meditation practice guided by Banafsheh is designed for all bodies regardless of your ability and physical limitations and perfect to do on a daily basis. It activates your ability to be present, opening you to the source energy that permeates all and everything as you learn to embody grace, clarity, soft strength and fluid sensuality. You will literally feel unlimited within your skin! You will gain tools to navigate our challenging times from a grounded, centered, loving, and elevated state of joy and wisdom. Set to the live music of Tony Khalife and infused with the poetry of Rumi.
World Events Through the Lens of the Chakras
Video Dialogue With Banafsheh Sayyad and Caroline Myss
In this chat between Banafsheh and renowned author and spiritual teacher Caroline Myss, you’ll hear fresh perspectives on how current world events can be understood through the chakras. Banafsheh and Caroline discuss how collective issues and shared experiences like the pandemic, the racial crisis, and sexual identity correspond to the chakras. Their conversation highlights the current transition we are experiencing as a collective move from the solar plexus chakra to the heart chakra.
Find Your Voice
Video Teaching From Tony Khalife
Tony Khalife, a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and vedic priest will guide you into opening your throat chakra through singing and chanting. He will offer key breathing techniques and vocal exercises to free your voice. Tony will also speak about the benefits of chanting mantras.
What People Are Saying About Banafsheh Sayyad...
“Banafsheh’s gentleness, power, deep grace and support, helps us to recognize who we are, individually and collectively.”
Dance of Oneness assists us to recognize the awe and wonder of the reality of how we are all interconnected as one through dance and meditation. Banafsheh’s gentleness, power, deep grace and support, helps us to recognize who we are, individually and collectively. The experience I have had with her has been truly transformative. I am deeply grateful for her course and her being.
— Susan Beayni, Canada
“Dance of Oneness has opened the gateways of love in my body through Banafsheh’s transmission of feminine grace, power, and pure joy!”
Dance of Oneness has opened the gateways of love in my body through Banafsheh’s transmission of feminine grace, power, and pure joy! This dance is a homecoming to my soul...my spirit has landed...becoming one flow of body-breath-harmony. I deeply appreciate Banafsheh’s presence, her confident radiance of embodied Soul Beauty, which opened us all up to the Beauty of being in a woman’s body. I felt different after the workshop. Taller, more noble in bearing, more steady in my feet, more fluid in my joints, more toned in my belly, more in love with being human in a woman’s body! Thank you for the space of freedom and discipline you created, for the sacred teachings through Rumi’s poetry.
— Christa Ray, student, Canada
“To be in the presence of Banafsheh, of love, is to know we are united to that which we seek, and this is all we ever need.”
Dance of Oneness reunites us to peace and harmony, lifts us from our attachments to life’s challenges. We receive this peace while deeply walking the Earth. With reverence, we make our time on earth, an offering of love. A class for anyone, of any age, no experience required. To be in the presence of Banafsheh, of love, is to know we are united to that which we seek, and this is all we ever need. We know this from our heart, not from ideas. The feminine essence blossoming in Banafsheh is transmitted to us, and is the source of a new vision for our planet: ruling with our hearts instead of our heads, with the intention to heal our planet, ourselves, and each other. We are grounded yet ecstatic, flying into the heart of the All. We grow wings. We are set free.
— Joan Englander, student, USA
“[Banafsheh] is one of the best teachers and human beings I have ever encountered.”
Dancing with Banafsheh was one of the best experiences of my life. She is one of the best teachers and human beings I have ever encountered. Her work is of the highest level for healing, transformation, love, and awareness.
— Jewell Rosen, USA
“Banafsheh’s workshop is experiential — experiencing the states of beings I had only read about!”
This is more than a dance workshop. It is the true meaning of Dance. Banafsheh’s workshop is experiential – experiencing the states of beings I had only read about! The space she creates and the gentle initiation she offers allowed me to gracefully slip into a new state within myself. I have experienced many of her workshops — but every time, it is a new experience. I feel alive! Every cell of my body feels alive! I have had bodily injuries that have been healed throughout the years with her practices.
— Maryam Nassirbegli, USA
“I most enjoy Banafsheh’s wisdom and the way she embodies the most profound ancient truths that bring the movement to life.”
I most enjoy Banafsheh’s wisdom and the way she embodies the most profound ancient truths that bring the movement to life. She is teaching us to love. And even though I’ve been stumbling through it woefully, her tenderness and strength beckons me to keep dancing.
— Ivy Joeva, USA
“Banafsheh magically unites all participants into a circle of interconnection, love, respect, and caring for each other...”
Banafsheh magically unites all participants into a circle of interconnection, love, respect, and caring for each other, for Gaia and our world’s wellbeing. She is on a mission to liberate us from “smallness” and to lead us to our “greatness”; to bring awareness to our sacredness; to give us a ground so we could ground ourselves; to give us wings so we could fly!
— Irina Azarova, USA
“I feel stronger, more resilient and able to meet the challenges of this time.”
Banafsheh’s Dance of Oneness online classes have been a lifeline for me, bringing ease, balance, and deep peace into my everyday existence. I feel stronger, more resilient, and able to meet the challenges of this time. I am deeply grateful for this offering, and for the wonderful community of dancers across the globe.
— Colette de Gagnier, USA
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-Minute Class Sessions With Banafsheh Sayyad
Experience a unique opportunity to learn from sacred dancer, choreographer, acupuncturist, and teacher Banafsheh Sayyad, founder of Dance of Oneness — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a streaming video option and guides you to discover specific skills and abilities to bridge the sublime and sensual through sacred dance and the embodiment of your luminosity.
Seven Transcripts of Class Sessions
In addition to the high-quality videos, you’ll also receive the entire class transcription after each session is completed. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
Between class sessions, you’ll have the option of completing related exercises, practicing new tools, and answering questions to accelerate your learning and integrate each lesson.
The Body of Light Bonus Collection
- Fluid Movement for Radiant Embodiment
Curated Series of 6 Sessions From Shift Network Summits
- Oneness Yoga: Surrendering to the Ground of Being
Video Teaching From Banafsheh Sayyad
- In the Fire of Grace
Video Experience From Banafsheh Sayyad and Andrew Harvey - Dance of Oneness Daily Practice, Level 1
Video Teaching From Banafsheh Sayyad - World Events Through the Lens of the Chakras
Video Dialogue With Banafsheh Sayyad and Caroline Myss - Find Your Voice
Video Teaching From Tony Khalife
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Cultivate a Body of Light With Sacred Sufi Dance Online Training
We feel honored that Banafsheh Sayyad has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive online training. This is a unique opportunity to learn from a sacred dancer, choreographer, acupuncturist, teacher, and founder of Dance of Oneness whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about embodying your sublime and sensual divinity through sacred dance, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind training.
If you’re ready to take the next step in evolving yourself, click the register button below to reserve your space now.
Your Satisfaction Is 100% Guaranteed!
Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed! If you don’t absolutely LOVE Cultivate a Body of Light With Sacred Sufi Dance — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form 2 weeks from your date of purchase and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Banafsheh Sayyad...
— Bestselling Author Andrew Harvey: “I Believe That Banafsheh
Is Quite Simply the Greatest Living Teacher of Sacred Dance”
“Her dancing is more than a feast for the eyes, it’s a joy to the spirit and an opening of the heart.”
Banafsheh uses dance as a holy ritual. Her dancing is more than a feast for the eyes, it’s a joy to the spirit and an opening of the heart.
— Marianne Williamson, internationally acclaimed spiritual author and lecturer
“Banafsheh is one of the greatest sacred dancers I have seen.”
— Deepak Chopra, bestselling author and founder of The Chopra Foundation
“Banafsheh is the quintessential professional in her field...”
In watching Banafsheh dance, I knew I was witnessing a master performer in action. Banafsheh is the quintessential professional in her field not only as a dancer but as an artistic interpreter of Rumi and in explaining the brilliance of that renowned Sufi mystic.
— Caroline Myss, bestselling author, medical intuitive, and founder of CMED (Caroline Myss Education)
“... when Banafsheh teaches or performs, she moves with an attitude of liquid gold pouring over silk velvet.”
Master of mystical Persian dance, when Banafsheh teaches or performs, she moves with an attitude of liquid gold pouring over silk velvet. She embodies what it means to dance with abandon, what it means to fully live the ecstatic poetry of Rumi, of luminous moonlight on radiant silver clouds.
— Felicia Tomasko, Editor-in-Chief, LA Yoga
About Banafsheh Sayyad
Banafsheh Sayyad is a Persian master sacred dancer, choreographer, acupuncturist, transformational teacher, and founder of Dance of Oneness®. A deeply profound and highly accessible spiritual teacher of embodiment, Banafsheh performs and teaches internationally, initiating people into the wisdom of their bodies. Her signature style of holy wildness infused with ancient wisdom activates transformation and illumination in all those who watch her and dance with her from around the globe.
Banafsheh invites the dancer within to remember, reclaim, and resource the innate healing intelligence spiraling in us and all around us. 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 from throughout the ages.
She is among the few virtuosos of authentic Persian dance in the world, and a pioneer in creating a liberated feminine expression in the Sufi dance genre previously performed only by men. Her modality, Dance of Oneness, is dance as a spiritual path and science of embodiment. It is a fusion of three dimensions: healing, wisdom teachings, and the rigorous technique and self-expression of the art of dance.
Banafsheh has a Masters of Fine Arts in Dance and Choreography from UCLA and a Masters in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Her award-winning work has been presented in North America, Europe, and Australia. Her dance film, “In the Fire of Grace” with Andrew Harvey, traces Rumi’s journey of the soul in dance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What’s a virtual course?
A: It’s a great way to engage live and pre-recorded teachings and each other from the comfort of your home! All you need is a computer, mobile device, or telephone. If there’s more than one person in your household taking the course, you’ll each need your own connection. We use Zoom video conferencing to make it just like an in-person event, where you can ask questions and deepen your exploration of the course themes.
There’s no additional charge for connecting to Zoom with your computer or mobile device. Please note that dialing Zoom from your telephone is a toll call; your telephone service provider will charge you according to your existing long-distance calling plan. International access numbers are available.
“I’ve never seen a course so well put together ever...”
I had never participated before in an online course. The packaging, presentation, inclusion, and Facebook postings created a wonderful, safe cocoon within which to participate. I’ve never seen a course so well put together ever — not in all the years of taking college classes — and I had my doubts about doing an online course. The wealth of organization and ease of learning materials and support made this fun as well.
— Claudia F., Medford, Massachusetts
Q: Can I get benefit from the course if I miss the live classes?
A: Absolutely! You can access the recordings and transcripts of all course sessions from our online media archive, so you never need to worry about missing live calls. You can also engage the full community and leaders on our private online community group.
Q: Can you tell me about the private online community group?
A: We’ll have a private online community group for all course participants on Facebook that will support you in making connections with others, sharing insights, engaging in discussions, and completing homework assignments that can supplement your transformational journey. You’ll have the ability to share your experiences, projects, and growth throughout the course.
Q: Are there scholarships available for this training?
A: Yes, we always make a certain percentage of spaces available for partial scholarships, for those who otherwise would not be able to enroll at the regular rate. If you’d like to apply for a scholarship, please review our guidelines, which include a link to our online application form.
Q: What’s your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee so that you can sample the course risk-free. The deadline to receive a full refund is May 5, 2022. To request a refund, please click on this refund request form and submit your request. Qualifying refunds will be processed within five business days and an email confirming the refund will be sent. However, we’d love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there’s something we can assist you with, please email us at support@theshiftnetwork.com and we’ll be happy to help! (No refund requests accepted after the above date or with scholarship awards.)
Q: What is your refund policy?
A: Your satisfaction with The Shift Network and this course is our highest priority! We offer a satisfaction guarantee for a full two weeks so that you can try out the course risk free. The deadline to receive a refund is two weeks from your date of purchase. To request a refund, please click here to submit your Refund Application Form. Your refund will be processed within five business days and we will send you an email confirmation when your refund has been completed. However, we’d love to have a chance to address and resolve your concerns first. If there’s something we can assist you with, please email us at support@theshiftnetwork.com, and we’ll be happy to help!
Q: How can I reach Customer Support?
A: Please visit our Customer Support Center, where you should be able to find the answer to your question or the solution to your problem. And if you can’t, you can submit an online request form and we’ll get right back to you.
