Miriam Peretz
Transform your movements into sacred rituals that awaken profound love, inner peace, and a connection with yourself, spirit, and all of creation — through the ancient heart-centered practices of devotional whirling, Sufi ritual, breath, and sacred dance.
Are you longing to express divine love and live a more rich and soulful life attuned to the wisdom of your heart?
Tuning into the heart as the center of your being is a powerful theme in Sufi mysticism, says Miriam Peretz, internationally celebrated sacred dance artist, ritualist, and movement educator.
A child of two mystics, Miriam is on a lifelong journey to connect with the Divine through embodiment. Her love of dance has taken her throughout the Middle East and Central Asia as she studied with many prominent mentors, including Hilal Anne, a Sufi sheikha of the Mevlevi Order of America.
Miriam ultimately found her spiritual home in Central Asian dance, Sufi whirling, and sacred circle dances rooted in shamanic wisdom traditions.
As Miriam shares with her students around the world, Indigenous cultures throughout time have used movement and dance to sanctify the body and connect the human spirit to the Divine.
Unfortunately, many of these earth-based wisdom traditions — particularly those connected to the Divine Feminine — have been lost over time in Western cultures where patriarchy is so widespread.
This disconnection has created a sense of imbalance and alienation. As a result, many of us feel a rising desire for ritual and embodied prayer that aligns with feminine spirituality — especially in this time of great change.
Thankfully, the embodied spiritual practices of devotional whirling, Sufi ritual, breathwork, and sacred dance can powerfully transform the spiritual, emotional, and physical struggles we encounter.
Join Miriam for a new 7-week course and experience how movement, Sufi ritual, and wisdom can transform your consciousness when you focus your intention and prayer — and bring profound healing to your body and your emotional wounds.
The art of creating a sacred dance practice aligns your intentions and prayers with your breath and movement and sanctifies your body as the holy temple of your soul.
During your seven weeks with Miriam, you’ll be guided to cultivate a profound love, sense of unity, and a deep connection with all of creation.
In this 7-week live video course, you’ll explore:
- Connecting body, mind, heart, and spirit through the ancient practices of whirling, sacred dance, poetry of the mystics, and intentional prayer
- Embodied intention and movement ritual as sacred practice and as pathways to wholeness
- Honoring the body as a temple, with your heart as its innermost sanctuary
- The connection of the body to the cosmos and the universe
- Integrating intentional breath with movement to deepen the healing potential of dance
- Dance as a spiritual practice and pathway to transformation in Indigenous cultures
- Movement and dance as embodiments of Divine Feminine spirituality and pathways to both self-love and divine love
- Integrating breath with movement in a unique embodiment practice to accompany the elemental purification breath techniques passed down by the great master Hazrat Innayat Khan
- The art of bowing — lowering the head in service of the heart and coming closer to the earth — to cultivate humility
- The practice of whirling to listen to your heart’s wisdom as you dissolve the ego
- The sacred poetry of the great Sufi mystics to absorb their timeless wisdom
- Letting go of negative energies with chanting, prayer, and ecstatic whirling
- Circle, spiral, and cycle symbols to honor your departed loved ones
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Weeks
In this 7-week transformational course, Miriam will guide you to successfully create sacred dance, Sufi whirling, and breath as a spiritual path to healing, embodiment, and wholeness.
Join the Livestream — or Stream Later to Watch at Your Convenience
You’ll connect with Miriam and experience her teachings through livestreaming video via any connected device. This connection is easy to use and will enhance the impact of Miriam’s transmissions. Can’t make it live? After each class, you can stream the video and audio recordings to enjoy anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
Weekly Sessions Thursdays at 5:00pm Pacific
This course will feature LIVE teachings, interactive sessions, experiential practices, and Q&A with Miriam. 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 awaken profound love, inner peace, and a connection with yourself, spirit, and all of creation by transforming your movements into sacred practice.
Module 1: Embodied Spiritual Practices for Cultivating Healing Energy for Your Body as a Temple of the Soul (2025-02-20 5:00:00 pm)
Miriam will explain how dance was often at the heart of spiritual practice and devotion, with a deep understanding that the body is the temple of the soul.
She’ll share insights from her unique journey as a sacred dancer, and explain her approach to embodied spirituality, which she calls a practice of remembrance.
This approach synthesizes her lifelong study of Indigenous movement traditions, her path as a whirling dervish, and her practice of deep attunement with her ancestors.
In this module, you’ll explore:
- The cultural roots of the movement practices that have inspired the practices you’ll experience in these next seven weeks
- A daily movement practice that integrates intention-driven movement and gesture with breath awareness
- An embodiment practice to cultivate gratitude for each part of the body and for all aspects of life
- A movement practice to cleanse the vital organs
Module 2: Elemental Purification Breath to Connect to the Divine Presence Within You (2025-02-27 5:00:00 pm)
Breath is the essence of your living soul within the body. It’s one of the most important aspects of your health and wellbeing, and lies at the core of many movements and spiritual practices.
In Sufi meditation and prayer, breath is your direct connection to the divine presence residing within. Deepening our breath practice is a powerful way to invite transformative healing into your life.
Focus on integrating breath with movement with a unique embodiment practice to accompany the elemental purification breath techniques passed down by the great master Hazrat Innayat Khan.
Khan taught that this practice was meant for all of humanity, not just followers of the Sufi path. With this purification practice, you can begin each day by connecting to the Divine through the elements found in nature, earth, water, fire, air, and ether.
In this module, you’ll:
- Encounter the traditional elemental breath practices passed down by Hazrat Innayat Khan
- Discover movements that complement the breath practices that you can use at home or out in nature
- Learn an invocation dance, inspired by Central Asian dance aesthetics, mystical whirling, and the movements found in nature
Module 3: Cultivate Humility to Navigate Life's Obstacles With Acceptance & Grace (2025-03-06 5:00:00 pm)
The word “humility” comes from the Latin word humus (from the earth) or humilis (something low or close to the earth).
Cultivating a deep sense of humility is one of the most important first steps on any spiritual path. Humility can be practiced through daily embodiment and gesture.
The art of bowing — lowering the head in service of the heart and coming closer to the earth — is a profound way that humility is remembered viscerally in Sufi tradition, as well as in cultures throughout the East.
When you’re humble, you stay open to life’s ever-changing circumstances. You avoid getting stuck in rigid ways of being or thinking, and remain an open channel — ready to flow with grace and acceptance.
Like a drop of water falling into the ocean, the humble soul is ready to merge with all beings.
In this module, you’ll:
- Study the importance of the Sufi tradition of bowing to transform the negative constraints of the ego and allow your mind to be of service to your heart
- Explore an improvisational practice of bowing as a deep meditation on humility and embracing your divine impermanence
- Practice movements of expansion and contraction to balance your healthy connection to your purpose in the world
- Learn a movement meditation based on the practice of swaying and finding fluidity in the spine as a path to flow with greater ease through life’s ever-changing circumstances
- Practice swaying as a method of self-soothing and rocking your inner child, so you can navigate challenging people and situations
Module 4: Practice the Art of Whirling to Attune to the Wisdom of Your Heart as You Dissolve the Ego (2025-03-13 5:00:00 pm)
We turn for God and for the world, and it is the most beautiful thing you can imagine.— Suleyman Hayatidede
The ancient practice of whirling connects the human form with all of creation — after all, everything in the universe is always revolving.
When you whirl, you come into an alignment with the cosmic order and with all of reality. You turn toward your heart to become an open and clear channel for prayer and deep intention — not just for yourself, but for all of humanity.
Sufi whirling in Turkey and Iran is called “sema,” meaning “sky.” It carries a sense of the vast, ever-expanding heavens above, and is a form of deep prayer through listening and attuning to the wisdom of the heart — and feeling connected to the universal wisdom of love.
The practice of whirling invites you to allow a dying of the ego and your sense of a separate self. The ego dissolves into the greater ocean of divine love and oneness. Rumi once said, “If you break the cup of the ego, all the water will flow together and be one.”
In this module, you’ll:
- Delve into the roots, sacred symbology, physical positions, and sacred garments of whirling from Central Asia, and specifically learn about the sacred symbology of Mevlevi Sufi whirling
- Integrate the elemental purification breath and bowing practices you learned in Modules 2 and 3 into your whirling practice
- Learn about the Mevlevi Sema ceremony that honors Shebi Arus, the “wedding” night of the great mystic Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi
- Practice the techniques of turning and positions of the body used in sema and free-form whirling, known as Ayin-i-Cem
- Be guided in prayer and intention setting via the 3 Cycles of Whirling practice
Module 5: Awaken the Ecstasy of Divine Love & Wisdom With the Sacred Poetry of the Great Sufi Mystics (2025-03-27 5:00:00 pm)
Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.— Rumi
Sufi poetry is a language of love that flows beyond the confines of religion, speaking directly to the universal heart. It’s a sacred expression that invites the soul into mystical states, drawing us closer to the divine.
The words of the mystics often point to the power of embodiment — asking us to surrender to the movement of spirit through dance and whirling. Rumi, in particular, is known for reciting his most profound verses while whirling in an ecstatic state in the streets.
Dive into the sacred poetry of the great Sufi mystics, exploring the profound connection between word, movement, and spirit through dance and whirling.
When you dance the poetry, you invite its words to take root within you, imprinting their wisdom on your soul.
In this module, you’ll explore:
- An introduction to the great Sufi poets — Rumi, Hafez, Omar Khayyam, and Yunus Emre — and receive a compilation of their poetry as a packet for study and reflection
- The art of gesture, expressing the words of poetry
- The art of improvisation, allowing the words of poems to guide your movements
- A dance to accompany a poem, transforming it into a mantra — a movement prayer you can repeat or weave into a personal, daily practice
- Choose one or two poems to add movement and mantra — ending with whirling, reciting poetry, and allow the words to whirl you
Module 6: Transform Negative Energies & Open the Gates of Your Heart With Chanting, Prayer & Ecstatic Whirling (2025-04-03 5:00:00 pm)
Explore cathartic release through chanting, prayer, and ecstatic whirling.
The practice of Zikr (chanting of divine names) is a practice of remembering that the Divine resides within you, and within all of creation. Use the sacred portal of the voice to connect your heart to the world, calling forth personal and collective healing.
Explore a more ecstatic and wild form of whirling that involves full release of the body, allowing for the transformation of negative energies.
This form of whirling is rooted in Central Asia and continued today in Iran and other regions.
In this module, you’ll:
- Explore shaking, swinging, and movements that allow you to enter a “trance state” where healing and transformation can flow easily
- Learn a type of whirling that involves full release of the head, neck and thoracic spine
- Practice Zikr, an embodied remembrance of the divine through the chanting of sacred names
- Practice connecting to the deepest part of the Self as you reach a state of equanimity, peace, and calm for deep healing
Module 7: The Sacred Symbolism of Circles, Spirals & Cycles to Reflect on the Unity of All Creation (2025-04-10 5:00:00 pm)
The microcosm of the human body, with its luminous spiraling fascia, is mirrored in the macrocosm of the galaxies.
Explore the sacred symbolism of the circle and spiral — cycles in nature and your body — through movement mantra and dancing in circles and spirals.
Sufi embodiment practices are deeply connected to their shamanic roots, especially evident when you work with the Sufi dance and ritual Alevi Bektashi Semah.
Discover some of the movements and symbology found in the Alevi Bektashi Semah. Experience a dance inspired by these practices for remembering your loved ones who’ve passed from the physical realm.
In this module, you’ll explore:
- A visualization focused on picturing human fascial structures and the cosmos next to each other, tapping into the unity of all creation and the greater cosmos
- A meditation on the connection of our bodies to the cosmos
- Sacred symbology of the circle teachings
- Sacred circle dances for healing rooted in shamanic traditions
- The Alevi Bektashi Semah dances and the deeper layers of meaning in movements
- A creative interpretation of an Alevi Bektashi Semah dance to remember those who have passed on
- How the movements you’ve learned help you gather blessings to share with the world, acting as portals of healing energy
The Turning Toward the Heart Bonus Offering
In addition to Miriam’s transformative 7-week online course, you’ll receive this special bonus offering to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Meditation on the Rose
Video Recording With Maryam Hasnaa
The mystical rose holds the essence of divine love and spiritual awakening, inviting us to open our hearts fully to the sacred mysteries within. In this video, intuitive channel and Sufi medicine woman Maryam Hasnaa guides you to connect to its presence, helping you bloom in alignment with your true essence and higher purpose.
Interfaith Performance of Sacred Music & Dance
Video recording with Miriam Peretz and The Qadim Ensemble
This very special performance was part of a sacred music festival performed at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. This video features vocalist Rachel Valfer, with Eliyahu and The Qadim Ensemble. Also featured are special guests Yael Illah and Amir Etemadzadeh.
What People Are Saying About Miriam Peretz…
With Miriam’s classes and teachings, I feel cradled in sanctuary, guided to the deepest inspirations, healings, and joys. I believe that Miriam’s classes are for everyone — a loving call and a guiding hand to our better selves. Her teachings and rituals have become core to my practice and identity. I am indescribably grateful for all that she shares.
Boston, Massachusetts
Your dance prayers have supported me through these difficult times. You open my heart from the moment of your first transparent gesture. I love so much that you invite us into dance through blessings and rituals, so I feel connected from the very first moment to the essence, what the movement is about. You somehow open a space where we can speak in another language of our dreams, our joys, our sufferings, and our longings, and experience what is sacred.
Salzburg, Germany
Thank you for the joy you bring out in me with your lessons full of love, passion, generosity, and connection with the whole Universe. Every time I dance with you I feel like I’m blooming again like roses in Spring.
Rome, Italy
What you have done is bring the true spirit of dance, as a divine expression, into the present — from such a distant past we know not when. But the soul understands. When you dance, my soul dances too.
Berkeley, California
Miriam Peretz’s teachings transcend physicality and transmit sincere potent spiritual wisdom teachings. She is a living embodiment of divine grace, illuminating pathways towards the sacred within every heart.
Florida
Join the Global Community
Turning Toward the Heart offers some of the most transformational online teachings available, within a thriving global community of learning and practice.
Join fellow students and practitioners to support and inspire each other as you integrate the teachings and practices Miriam Peretz will share in this powerful program.
You’ll join an international community on the leading edge of manifesting a world grounded in the principles of cooperation, harmony, and reverence for all of life.
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-Minute Class Sessions With Miriam Peretz
Experience a unique opportunity to be mentored by and learn from internationally celebrated dance instructor and performer Miriam Peretz — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a livestreaming video option and will guide you to explore the ancient heart-centered practices of devotional whirling, Sufi ritual, breath, and sacred dance. Course sessions are on Thursdays at 5:00pm Pacific.
Seven Video Recordings of Class Sessions
After each class, the video will be available for you to stream in a high-quality format. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can watch anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
Seven Audio Recordings of Class Sessions
After each class, the audio will be available for you to stream. You’ll never have to worry about missing a session, and you can listen anytime and anywhere at your convenience.
Seven Transcripts of Class Sessions
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.
Seven 30-Minute Interactive Group Practice Sessions
With live class attendance, there will be a 30-minute optional interactive practice session directly following each class. You’ll be placed in an intimate group with several other participants on the Zoom call to interact, share, and do additional practices to help further integrate the weekly lessons. Practice sessions are available for live attendance only and are not recorded for playback. If you’re unable to attend the calls live, the Facebook online community group allows you to connect with each other and find alternative times to interact.
Interactive 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 week’s lesson.
Online Community
Our exclusive Facebook online community is the perfect place to continue your discovery process after each class. Here, you can continue the discussion about your course materials and interact with your fellow students to take your exploration to an even deeper level.
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Online Course, Turning Toward the Heart
We feel honored that Miriam Peretz has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive LIVE online course. This is a unique opportunity to interact directly with an internationally celebrated dance instructor and performer whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re feeling called to combine devotional whirling, Sufi ritual, breath, and dance, amplified with poetry and prayer — so you can align your body, heart, and soul as vessels of healing and creation — you’re invited to gift yourself with this one-of-a-kind program.
If you’re ready to take the next step in your own evolution, 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 Turning Toward the Heart — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form on or before two weeks and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Miriam Peretz
The dance imprinted safety, inner stability, playfulness, and joy on my heart — and to feel these things in a room full of women was profound.
California
Miriam brings innovation to the art of movement through exploring the traditional, classical, and folkloric to the spiritual and post-modern styles of dance. Known for her exquisite and passionate musicality, Miriam is affectionately described as a master dancer.
Miriam’s dance classes transcend technique and choreography; they compel the dancer to become a poet, a conduit of creative intention, a vessel for music. I always leave class with ruminations on transcendence, with heightened presence, and with the sensation that I participated in something beautiful.
About Miriam Peretz
EDIT
Miriam Peretz is an internationally celebrated performing artist, ritualist, and movement educator whose work is dedicated to creating transformational experiences for her students around the world. Over the past 20 years, she has offered dance intensives and trainings in locations such as the Bay Area, Hawaii, Europe, the Middle East, and South America, cultivating a global community of dancers.
Rooted in a deep spiritual lineage, Miriam’s journey into the sacred arts began in her family of origin, where she was exposed to a variety of mystical traditions, including Kabbalah and Sufism. A disciple of the beloved Sufi Sheikh Ibrahim Baba Farajaje, former provost of Starr King School of the Ministry, Miriam’s own spiritual path was profoundly shaped by her initiation into the Mevlevi Order of Sufism as a whirling dervish.
Drawing on the Divine Feminine wisdom of embodied spirituality, Miriam integrates Indigenous dance traditions from around the world into her teachings. Her work spans a wide range of cultures and practices, incorporating elements from North African, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian dance forms. As a contemporary pioneer of sacred dance, Miriam has inspired teachers and practitioners globally to use movement and ritual as tools for creating inclusive community spaces for facilitating embodied, non-denominational prayer.
Miriam holds an MFA from Mills College of California, where she studied contemporary dance, pedagogy, and a range of somatic practices. Her thesis, Dance Art Sanctuary: A Holistic Approach to Dance Practice & Pedagogy, included a collaborative study with renowned dance therapist Dr. Ilene Serlin. In this work, Miriam explored the intersection of Indigenous sacred dance practices and contemporary therapeutic dance applications, bridging the spiritual and the healing aspects of movement.
Miriam’s studies have included travel throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, where she immersed herself in ancient forms of dance and ritual many of which are rooted in shamanic wisdom traditions. During this time, she also studied percussion and music theory at The Center for Middle Eastern Classical Music in Jerusalem, deepening her understanding of the relationship between music, movement, and ritual.
Miriam is the founder of the Nava Dance Collective, an international community of dancers based in the Bay Area. Through this collective, she teaches weekly classes and nurtures a vibrant community of students. Miriam’s choreographic work has also extended to numerous interfaith collaboration projects and theater productions, both locally and internationally, where she has used dance as a means to bridge cultural and spiritual divides, creating spaces for authentic connection through ritual and movement.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s a virtual course?
Can I still benefit from the course if I miss the live classes?
Can you tell me about the private online community group?
Are there scholarships available for this training?
Please note: Scholarship applications must be submitted before the refund deadline, as we are unable to accept applications after that point.
What’s your refund policy?
If you’re within the refund period, the deadline to receive a full refund is two weeks. To request a refund, please complete this refund request form and submit your request. Qualifying refunds will be processed within five business days, and you’ll receive an email confirming the refund.
We’d also love the opportunity to address and resolve your concerns directly. If there’s anything we can assist with, please get in touch with us at support@theshiftnetwork.com — we’re here to help!
Please note: Refund requests are not accepted after the deadline or for courses purchased with scholarship awards.