Banafsheh Sayyad
Activate the 7 elemental energies of the Earth and Cosmos — earth, water, fire, air, sound, light, and ether — that are within and around you.
Explore sacred dance, conscious movement, and ecstatic somatic practices for dissolving physical, mental, and emotional blocks, easing chronic ailments, increasing your energy, and instilling greater peace and presence.
You are born of the Earth and Cosmos, a blend of celestial sensuality that can inspire optimal wellbeing in your bodily systems and fuel your spiritual growth — if you know how to access and wield them.
These elemental forces, combined with the sacred dances that activate them, can be powerful change agents for releasing trauma, re-establishing a loving, conscious connection with your body, and regulating your health.
When balanced, the seven elemental forces — earth, water, fire, air, sound, light, and ether — support our ability to regulate our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Too often, however, our elemental nature is imbalanced — too much fire, not enough water; too much water, not enough earth, etc. — which could result in pain, illness, overwhelm, chronic conditions, aimlessness, illness, weight gain, relationship dysfunctions, addictions, and even dis-ease.
During this 7-module self-paced course with acclaimed sacred dancer and embodiment teacher Banafsheh Sayyad, you’ll learn how to harness the energy and wisdom of the seven elemental forces through sacred dance and somatic practices. You’ll explore bringing yourself into balance and becoming empowered to shift your own sense of wellness when you’re in pain, dealing with challenges beyond what you feel you can manage, or feeling unwell or unsure of how to move forward in your life.
Banafsheh’s approach to embodiment is anchored in her MFA in Dance from UCLA, an MA in Traditional Chinese Medicine, extensive study of Gurdjieff movements and philosophies, Sufi whirling, mystical poetry, and her sacred initiation into Divine Feminine wisdom.
All of this synergizes in her work to clear the physical and energetic blockages that lead to pain — elevating the overall experience of life and amplifying the intelligence of the Earth and Cosmos that permeates our cells.
Banafsheh guides you through a potent mix of practices — Sufi whirling, Persian dance, Tai Chi-inspired movement, Flamenco dance, Middle Eastern/tribal dances, and more.
While engaged in sacred dance, conscious movement, ecstatic somatic practices, breathing exercises, meditation, chanting, mystical poetry, and wisdom teachings drawn from Sufi and Divine Feminine traditions...
... you’ll learn how to summon the element that can best help you balance your body systems, release stress, reset your nervous system, and re-establish a conscious and compassionate connection with your body.
How you’re feeling in the moment will determine which element you call upon:
Previous students of Banafsheh’s have eased, if not alleviated, stiffness and muscle contractions, emotional overwhelm, mental fixations, anxiety, and depression, circulatory health conditions, and chronic conditions — and began to connect with others in a more easeful, open, and meaningful way as a result of their daily sacred dance practice.
If you’d like to discover a sacred movement practice that optimizes your body systems, increases vitality and mobility, and supports you to embody your sacred self and its many gifts, you won’t want to miss this course!
In this sacred somatic journey, you’ll:
- Summon the 7 elemental forces that are within you and around you — along with their healing intelligence, love, and support — through sacred dance and conscious movement practices
- Be guided through Sufi whirling, Persian dance, Tai Chi-inspired movement, Flamenco dance, Dance of Oneness dances, Middle Eastern/tribal dances, and more
- Summon, through sacred dance, the cooling power of water, the buoyancy of air, the alchemical power of fire, and more, to ease anxiety and anger, calm your senses, uplift you when you feel heavy, and transmute what isn’t serving you
- Optimize your body systems and increase vitality, strength, flexibility, and resilience
- Reclaim physical and spiritual vitality, awareness, courage, and confidence by reconnecting with your body in a sacred, supportive, and empowering space
- Create unity, harmony, and coherence between your body, heart, and mind through the profound Sufi movement meditation of Sama (whirling)
- Learn how to shift your state through sacred dance and somatic practices when you feel disconnected, anxious, or fearful
- Embody your sacred self through movement practices that balance, heal, and instill greater joy by weaving your physicality and spirituality together
- Gain deeper access to your inner vision, imagination, and intuition
- Embody your own beauty with radiant confidence
- Discover the changes that happen in your body when you set clear boundaries and accept “what is” — including with your body itself
- Experience the sacred and the unfathomable in the still depths of your being beyond concepts, dogmas, conditioned activity, and all preferences
Knowing how to activate the right element at the right time, you’ll regain inner stability and balance — which allows you to heal while also instilling a felt sense of health, clarity, calm, strength, and capacity.
Embarking on this sacred dance journey, you’ll also repair your bond with Mother Earth as you get reacquainted with nature and discover the many ways you can return to nature — and your own true nature — through your mind, body, and soul, opening yourself to living sustainably and regeneratively.
As the founder of Dance of Oneness® and a gentle and adept transformational guide, Banafsheh helps you ignite a deeper connection between your body, the Earth, and your sacred essence, as you awaken the elemental forces within you and your true potential.
You’ll experience this as she guides you into the sacred sensuality of your own body where you’ll learn how to hold space for all that stirs within — light and shadow, joy and grief — and how to transmute adversity, pain, and sorrow into passion and purpose.
Through sacred dance you’ll not only discover your true strength, capacity, and beauty, but also your true self.
With the help of the elements, begin to consciously embody all the wonderful qualities that make you who you are with confidence, coherence, and ease.
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Modules
In this 7-part transformational course, Banafsheh guides you through the fundamental skills and competencies you’ll need to successfully awaken the 7 elemental forces within and around you through sacred dance, conscious movement, and ancient wisdom practices.
This course features step-by-step teachings and experiential practices from Banafsheh. Each session builds harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a complete holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to dissolve physical, mental, and emotional blocks with sacred dance and ecstatic somatics. Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content, allowing you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.
Module 1 Earth Initiation - Awaken Your Body to Ground in Presence, Create Healthy Boundaries & Ease Anxiety, Overwhelm, and Stress
Reconnecting to the earth element is more about doing less than adding more. Simplifying, letting go, and getting back to our most primal selves can serve as a way to feel grounded, rooted, and earthed.
Grounding can lower levels of inflammation, enhance the immune system, help wounds heal quicker, and gently treat chronic inflammatory conditions.
In this module, you’ll learn to ground yourself and establish presence in your body with a focus on form and technique. You’ll explore how to execute dance and daily life movements using the economy of movement to feel energized and prevent injury.
Clear yourself of busy forgetfulness and fragmentation, so you can come to see and feel and know the blazing truth that all is love. Dedicate your dance as a prayer to Gaia, our precious Earth.
During this session, you’ll:
- Discover how to ground yourself through dance when you feel disembodied, anxious, and fearful
- Connect deeply with the Earth and access the stability and security of this connection
- Become present and focused — and more adept at dealing with mental and emotional overwhelm
- Discover the changes that happen in your body when you set clear boundaries and accept “what is”
- Be guided through the “Weave” and Middle Eastern/tribal dances
Module 2 Water Initiation - Release Resistance to Transform Anger, Increase Flow & Become More Adaptive and Resilient
Enter the element of water in this module as the inner space and the realm of the psyche, the unconscious, emotions, and feelings.
What is water like? Water is life-giving and generative — it’s fluid and flows continuously. It’s cooling, refreshing, purifying, nurturing, and nourishing. It’s resilient and adaptable, taking the form of what it’s poured into yet always free, always maintaining its own identity.
You’ll get in touch with how your body is 50 to 70% water (depending on your age) through fluid movement inspired by Tai Chi and Dance of Oneness “Waves” and “Infinities”…
… and embody the oceanic Goddess Aphrodite through liquid, sensual movement that unveils the fountain of the water of life within.
During this session, you’ll:
- Summon the cooling power of water through dance to ease anxiety and anger — and to calm your senses
- Let your creativity flow by being fluidly present in your body
- Explore how your body is 50 to 70% water
- Be guided in Tai Chi-inspired movement and Dance of Oneness “Waves” and “Infinities” to get into the flow and become more fluid
Module 3 Fire Initiation - Transmute Lethargy, Depression & Uncertainty Into Passion, Joy & Enthusiasm for Life
This module takes you into the fire element as passion, transformation, creativity, destruction, and resurrection.
You’ll learn basic Flamenco as the alchemical dance of fire, sparking the transformation of shadow content into art and the transmutation of lead into gold…
… exploring how to use fire as a tool to uplift yourself during moments of low energy, sadness, depression, uncertainty, or despair.
By summoning the energy of fire, you can transmute these emotions, sparking enthusiasm, passion, and unconditional joy. Ultimately, this exploration empowers you to activate a fiery resilience, transforming adversity into vitality and embracing life with renewed zeal.
During this session, you’ll discover:
- How to summon fire through dance to enliven your energy and uplift your mind and spirit when in despair
- Flamenco dance as the alchemical dance of fire and its transmutative power
- Your own capacity for easeful change through renewed vitality and a revived zest for life
- How to turn adversity into passion and purpose for being alive
Module 4 Air Initiation - Dispel Mental Overwhelm & Pressure and Feel Lighter Through the Synergy of Breath & Dance
What is your breath but the presence of the unlimited — the presence of Spirit in you?
For an element that can’t be seen, air certainly holds a vast array of sacred symbolism — such as communication, breath, and life. When we consider how the air element interacts with our senses, we can experience this part of nature in a way that helps us become more present and sensitive to the world around us.
This week, you’ll discover air as the element that connects you to the present moment through your breath… and dance with awareness of your life-giving breath and the divinity within you.
You’ll experience how what you seek is truly within you and learn to blend the celestial and the sensual through the ethereal beauty of Persian dance as you experience your body as more energy than matter.
During this session, you’ll:
- Summon the buoyancy of air through dance to uplift you when you feel heavy — and when situations and responsibilities are weighing you down
- Learn how to breathe for optimum health
- Experience the celestial and sensual through Persian dance
- Be guided through a breathing practice to build coherence between the mind, heart, and body
Module 5 Sound Initiation - Chant & Whirl to Create Unity, Harmony & Coherence in Your Body, Heart & Mind
For the journey into sound, you will be initiated into Sama , the Sufi practice of whirling, which means “to listen.”
An inner journey to the Beloved as the source of All That Is, Sama dissolves the limited mind into the unlimited ocean of presence, and you begin to simply be a channel for compassion and wisdom.
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.
Banafsheh will also guide you through a chanting practice to open to unconditional loving.
During this session, you’ll:
- Embody the element of sound through sacred dance to dissolve the limited mind and open to deeper presence
- Discover how to effectively 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 the chatter of the mind and become empty
- Become silent and still enough to listen to your inner voice for guidance through a seated meditation following the Sama
Module 6 Light Initiation - Ignite Your Life Force & Your Intuition to Awaken Inner Vision & Embody Radiance
This week, you’ll clear yourself of distractions — including the incessant need to stay busy — and be open to receiving and filling yourself with light.
You’ll explore how the more light you can hold and emit, the higher the frequency of your being and your level of consciousness.
As you begin healing and repatterning ailments, limited beliefs, and fragmentation, you’ll begin to access your lightbody more and more…
… and sustain an elevated and empowered, loving, and joyful state in your heart, body, and mind — truly opening your wings to fly.
Through the “Shake to Liberate ” routine, you’ll free the central channel of your body to receive light unobstructedly — and activate your inner vision, imagination, and intuition.
During this session, you’ll:
- Access your lightbody through sacred dance and illuminate your true self and potential
- Awaken your life force and let it ignite your whole body, energizing and uplifting you through the “Shake to Liberate” dance routine
- Gain deeper access to your inner vision, imagination, and intuition
- Elevate yourself — and feel energized — throughout the day
- Feel and begin to embody your own beauty with radiant confidence
Module 7 Ether Initiation - Quiet Mental Chatter, Come Home to Your Body & Access Possibility, Interconnectedness & Freedom
Moving from the stability of earth, through the flow of water, the passion of fire, the lightness of air, sound, and light… you’ll reach the element that makes everything else possible — ether (or space).
In this final module, you’ll explore ether as nothing and everything at the same time. It’s stillness, yet it’s the very thing that makes all movement and life possible — connecting us to spirituality, intuition, and our full potential.
Medieval alchemists were fascinated with the ether element, believing it could turn lead into gold and even prolong life. They referred to the space element as “quintessence,” a term also used to describe the heavenly bodies, such as stars and galaxies.
For the journey into ether, you’ll deepen your experience of Sama (whirling) and access the profound stillness at the core of your being.
You’ll also integrate all that you’ve learned through a celebration of coming home to your body and discover your capacity to dance the pain and the joy, the sorrow, and the deliverance.
During this session, you’ll:
- Embody the element of ether — emptiness and spaciousness — through sacred dance to open to possibility when feeling confined and hopeless
- Integrate all that you’ve learned over the past 6 modules
- Be here now, surrendered to “what is” as you access inner peace and joy — regardless of circumstance
- Experience the sacred and the unfathomable in the still depths of your being beyond concepts, dogmas, conditioned activity, and all preferences
- Learn to summon an element on the spot when you need its qualities
SPECIAL BONUS OFFER
In addition to Banafsheh’s transformative 7-module course, you’ll receive this special bonus offering to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Transmute Difficult Emotions Through Dance
Video Teaching From Banafsheh Sayyad at the Somatics Summit
In this video, Banafsheh Sayyad discusses how dance can give us the capacity to not only withstand emotional difficulty and challenges with grace, but also to process them. We can access an expanded state of being that allows us to tune into a perspective that is greater than the difficulty, enabling us to transmute challenges into wisdom and compassion. After all, challenges are nothing more than opportunities for growth and spiritual evolution. Learn about the power of dance to help you withstand and process difficult emotions, how being present in the body helps you live with more joy and fulfillment, and gain practical tools for being present and more at ease in your body through an experiential practice.
The Chinese 5 Elements
Video Dialogue With Banafsheh Sayyad and Chinese Medicine Wisdom Keeper Anastacia White
In this video, Banafsheh Sayyad and Anastacia White explore the Five Elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. These foundational principles of Chinese philosophy and medicine reveal the interconnected dynamics of the universe. Each element represents a transformative phase, a season, and unique qualities — Wood embodies growth and vitality, Fire ignites passion and expansion, Earth offers stability and nurturing, Metal refines with clarity, and Water flows with introspection. Together, these elements create cycles of creation and regulation, offering profound insights into natural rhythms, health, and harmony.
What People Are Saying About Banafsheh Sayyad…
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Editor-in-Chief at LA Yoga Magazine
Canada
Internationally-acclaimed spiritual author and lecturer
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven Pre-Recorded 90-Minute Modules
Experience a unique opportunity to learn from Banafsheh Sayyad — founder of Dance of Oneness® — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a streaming video and guides you to awaken the elemental forces within for healing and transformation.
Seven Transcripts of Sessions
You’ll also receive the session transcriptions. 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.
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Online Course, Sacred Dance for Activating the 7 Elemental Forces
We feel honored that Banafsheh Sayyad has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive online course. This is a unique opportunity to learn from a sacred dancer, choreographer, 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 discovering how sacred dance and soulful somatic practices can help you awaken the elemental forces within and spark greater healing and transformation in your life, then you owe it to yourself, your loved ones, and our world to take this one-of-a-kind program.
Your Satisfaction Is 100% Guaranteed!
If you don’t absolutely LOVE Sacred Dance for Activating the 7 Elemental Forces — or don’t feel that it meets your needs — please submit your refund request form 14 days from your date of purchase and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Banafsheh Sayyad
Bestselling author, medical intuitive, and the founder of CMED (Caroline Myss Education)
Mystical scholar, spiritual teacher, and founder of the Institute of Sacred Activism
Mystical scholar, spiritual teacher, and founder of the Institute of Sacred Activism
Newton, Massachusetts
Dublin, Ireland
About Banafsheh Sayyad
Banafsheh Sayyad is a Persian master sacred dancer, choreographer, acupuncturist, transformational teacher, activist, and founder of Dance of Oneness®. A deeply profound and 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 those who watch and dance with her from around the globe.
Banafsheh invites the dancer within to remember, reclaim, and resource the innate healing intelligence spiraling both in us and all around us. Her easeful instruction and welcoming spirit empower students to feel a true sense of belonging in their bodies. Students often experience more 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 both a spiritual path and a 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 master’s degree in dance and choreography from UCLA, and a master’s degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Her award-winning work has been presented throughout 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
Are there scholarships available for this training?
Unfortunately, all scholarship awards for this course have been fully allocated, and we are no longer accepting scholarship applications.
What is your refund policy?
The refund deadline for this course is two weeks from the date of purchase. Refund requests are not accepted after the deadline or for courses purchased with scholarship awards. We’d also love the opportunity to address and resolve your concerns directly. If we can assist with anything, please contact us at [email protected] — we’re here to help!
How can I reach Customer Support?
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.
This course was pre-recorded. Is the content still relevant?
While this is a pre-recorded course, the teachings remain as relevant and impactful today as when they were first offered. We’ve selected these programs because their wisdom, tools, and practices continue to resonate deeply with our global community.
How long will I have access to my Course Homepage and materials?
Your purchase includes 24/7 ongoing access to your course content — online via your Homepage — unless refunded or otherwise specified. We currently don’t have an expiration date for our online materials. This will allow you time to review the materials at your own pace and integration.