Miriam Peretz
Your Journey Awaits
Enroll in the On-Demand Course With Miriam Peretz
The live course has ended, but you can still embark on this transformative journey with Miriam Peretz by enrolling in the on-demand version! Enjoy the flexibility to learn at your own pace, access course materials anytime, and revisit the content as often as you’d like.
Get startedAwaken profound love, inner peace, and a connection with yourself, spirit, and all of creation — through the ancient heart-centered practices of devotional whirling, embodied ritual, breath, and sacred dance.
Experience movement as prayer... and rediscover your body as a living temple of love.
Are you longing to express divine love and live a richer and more soulful life attuned to the wisdom of your heart?
Tuning in to the heart as the center of your being is a powerful theme in Sufi mysticism, affirms celebrated sacred dance artist Miriam Peretz.
Join us for a 7-module course and experience how focusing your intention and prayer through movement, ritual, Sufi whirling, and sacred dance can transform your consciousness — and bring profound healing to your body and even emotional wounds.
Rooted in a lineage of mystics (her parents) and guided by decades of cross-cultural study, Miriam’s work integrates spiritual devotion with the artistry of movement as a sacred embodiment practice. Her lifelong exploration of sacred dance has taken her throughout the Middle East and Central Asia where she has studied and been immersed in the cultural and spiritual practices.
Miriam is the student of Hilal Sala, a Sufi Sheikha of the Mevlevi Order of America, and the late Dr. Ibrahim Baba Farajaje,a sheikh from the Chishti lineage.
Miriam’s work has also been deeply inspired by many contemporary visionaries, including Anna Halprin, Dr. Ilene Serlin, Sharlyn Sawyer, and Shift Network faculty Banafsheh Sayyad, whose pioneering devotion to sacred dance has opened hearts around the world.
Through her teachings, Miriam reveals dance as both a spiritual discipline and a universal bridge of understanding among cultures. Miriam ultimately found her spiritual home in Central Asian dance, Sufi whirling, and sacred circle dances rooted in shamanic wisdom traditions.
Indigenous cultures throughout time have used movement and dance to sanctify the body and connect the human spirit to the Divine — as a living devotion that reconnects us to our original rhythm of love, gratitude, and joy.
Miriam shares with students from around the world that many of these earth-based wisdom traditions — particularly those connected to the Divine Feminine — have been lost over time in Western cultures dominated by a patriarchal system.
This disconnection has created an imbalance and sense of alienation for many women. Amid great transformation, a growing number of us feel called to reclaim ritual and embodied prayer — expressions of feminine spirituality that nurture connection and wholeness.
Thankfully, the embodied spiritual practices of Sufi whirling, breathwork, and sacred dance offer profound pathways for transforming the spiritual, emotional, and physical challenges we face. Miriam teaches dance as a remembrance — a living prayer in motion — inviting us to embody gratitude and devotion with every gesture.
Throughout this 7-module journey with Miriam, you’ll move within the sacred geometry of circles and spirals, attuning your body to the universal rhythms that unite your heart with the cosmos. You’ll also experience the ecstatic union of voice and movement through chanting divine names — a Sufi practice known as Zikr that opens the heart to the Beloved.
Sacred dance will become a form of embodied prayer that you can take with you — aligning breath, movement, and intention — sanctifying your body as the living temple of your soul.
In this 7-module self-paced video course, you’ll explore:
- Connecting body, mind, heart, and spirit through the ancient practices of whirling, sacred dance, mystical poetry, and personal 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 help dissolve the ego and enable listening to the wisdom of the heart
- The sacred poetry of the great Sufi mystics to absorb their timeless wisdom
- Allowing the voice to create a clear channel connecting the heart with the words of our mouth through the chanting of sacred names
Each session builds upon the last, guiding you from grounding and purification through humility, ecstatic devotion, and finally into the cosmic cycles of life and death. You’ll emerge with embodied practices that sustain your connection to the Divine in everyday life.
What You’ll Discover in These 7 On-Demand Modules
In this 7-module transformational course, Miriam guides you to explore sacred dance, Sufi whirling, and breath as a spiritual path to healing, embodiment, and wholeness.
This course features step-by-step teachings and experiential practices from Miriam. Each session builds harmoniously upon the previous ones, so you’ll develop a holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles you’ll need to awaken profound love, inner peace and a connection with your spirit and all of creation through an embodied devotional practice. 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: Embodied Spiritual Practices to Cultivate Healing Energy & Sanctify the Body as a Temple of the Soul
Miriam explains how, historically, 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 shares insights from her unique journey as a sacred dancer, and explains 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 seven modules
- 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
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 your breath practice is a powerful way to invite transformative healing into your life.
Focus on integrating breath with movement through 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
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 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
- Practice swaying as a method of self-soothing and rocking your inner child, so you can navigate challenging people and situations
- 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
Module 4: Practice the Art of Whirling to Dissolve the Ego & Attune to the Wisdom of Your Heart
We turn for God and for the world, and it is the most beautiful thing you can imagine.
— Suleyman Hayati Dede
The ancient practice of whirling connects the human form with all of creation — reflecting the constantly revolving universe.
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 is referred to as “sema” (in Iran, “sama”) which means to “listen.” Sema can also mean sky (in Turkish and Arabic). 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 universal love.
The practice of whirling invites the dissolving of ego and sense of separate self to merge with 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, and physical positions of whirling from the Mevlevi Sufi tradition
- 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
- Be guided in intention setting through 3 cycles of whirling practice, honoring personal, collective and universal prayers
Module 5: Awaken the Ecstasy of Divine Love & Wisdom With the Sacred Poetry of the Great Sufi Mystics
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 poetry of Rumi, Hafez, 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
Module 6: Open the Gates of your Heart with Chanting, Prayer & Ecstatic Whirling
Miriam welcomes special guest musician Sonja Drakulich.
This session unfolds in two parts: cathartic movement to release the body’s stored tension, followed by devotional chanting and prayer to open the heart to divine presence.
The practice of Zikr (chanting of sacred names) is a practice of remembering the divine presence with us and within all of creation. We use the portal of the voice to connect our hearts to the world and pray for personal and collective healing.
In this module, you’ll:
- Explore shaking, swinging, and movements that allow you to release the constraints of the mind and enter a meditative state where healing and transformation can easily flow
- Open the heart through prayerful song and devotional chanting (Zikr) led by somatic vocal instructor Sonja Drakulich
Module 7: The Sacred Symbolism of Circles, Spirals & Cycles to Reflect on the Unity of All Creation
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.
The practice of dancing in a circle is a universal, ancient practice that is a way of bringing healing and blessings to the community and to the world. Many of the circle dances have Shamanic roots and have been passed down through the generations. The Alevi Bektashi Semah dances are one example of a long-standing tradition of sacred circle dances essential to the spiritual practices of the community.
Miriam has been deeply inspired by her studies of these dances over the years and is sharing some of the movements and her personal interpretations including a dance for remembering loved ones who’ve passed from the physical realm.
In this module, you’ll explore:
- A guided meditation inspired by a visualization of the connection between human fascial structures and the cosmos, tapping into the unity of all creation
- Sacred circle dances for healing rooted in shamanic traditions
- An introduction to the Alevi Bektashi Semah dances and the deeper layers of meaning in the movements
- A sacred circle dance to commemorate loved ones who have passed inspired by the Alevi Betkashi Semah dances
- 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-module 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…
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Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven Pre-Recorded 90-Minute Modules
Experience a unique opportunity to learn from internationally celebrated sacred dance artist and ritualist Miriam Peretz — from the comfort of your own home. Each session includes a streaming video and guides you to explore the ancient heart-centered practices of devotional whirling, Sufi ritual, breath, and sacred dance.
Seven Transcripts of Sessions
You’ll also receive transcriptions. You can then review, print, and highlight the most important insights and practices you were given.
Exercises and Questions for Each Lesson
Between 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, Turning Toward the Heart
We feel honored that Miriam Peretz has chosen to partner with The Shift Network to offer this exclusive online course. This is a unique opportunity to learn from an internationally celebrated sacred dance artist and ritualist 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.
While the original enrollment deadline has passed, you’re still welcome to join us with a few important notes:
- Non-Refundable: All sales are final.
- Course Access: You’ll get instant access to all past modules and course materials.
- Catch Up First: Please review previous sessions before asking questions, as they may have been addressed.
- Live Class Replays: Miss a live session? Replays will be available within 48 hours.
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 14 days from your date of purchase and we’ll happily issue qualifying customers a refund.
More Praise for Miriam Peretz...
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About Miriam Peretz
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Miriam Peretz is a 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.