Banafsheh Sayyad
Whirl to find your center, become more present in any situation, and transform emotional, mental, and physical pain into vibrant health and freedom.
Dance with conscious love to activate the divine revolutionary acts in your body that lead to whole-being freedom — and experience the sacred and ecstatic bliss of being alive.
When was the last time you felt freedom in your body, mind, and spirit?
To answer this, we must first understand where we have been unnaturally conditioned to expect and live within some form of limitation — whether in or on our bodies, health, career, relationships, dreams, or our divine right to create our best lives.
Acclaimed embodiment teacher, modern mystic, and sacred dancer Banafsheh Sayyad says any infringement upon our freedom can be traced to the areas of our bodies that feel restricted, heavy, depleted, in pain… or that are simply numb as we learned to detach from rather than process the ongoing turbulence of life.
Dance is a potent technology that can free us of these blocks, she says, as we release the conditioning that has distorted our health, wellbeing, and overall potential — and activate the sovereign part of ourselves that is always unlimited…
You’ll experience how sacred dance can free your mind, body, and spirit when you join this enlivening course, designed to improve your health and help you embody your wholeness, unleash your wild aliveness, and empower your authentic vision — by activating the divine revolutionary acts in your body that lead to whole-being freedom.
As the founder of Dance of Oneness®, Banafsheh’s healing modality combines freestyle and guided dance such as Flamenco, Persian dance, and whirling, with the teachings of the Tao, the Sufi path of living love, the Divine Feminine, and Traditional Chinese Medicine and chakra work to initiate us into the wisdom, beauty, mysticism, and spirituality of our bodies.
She teaches that as we reclaim our sovereignty through sacred whirling and other forms of dance, we allow love to attune us to our true unlimited natures and the sacred, timeless wisdom of our bodies… a felt connection with Mother Earth and the Source of life… and the hope, love, and goodness that connects us all.
Free from the shackles of fear, oppression, and repression through dance, our humanness becomes holy…
... suffused with grounded, passionate presence in the light, sovereignty, and expression of our inherent natures.
From here — at ease, joyful, and at home in our physical divinity — the innate ability our bodies have to transform emotional, mental, and physical burdens and blocks into vibrant health, expansiveness, connection, and aliveness is also set free...
… allowing us to rise, expand into our greater selves, and live love for the betterment of all beings.
You’ll experience this firsthand as Banafsheh guides you through dance practices that reconnect you with the wisdom, wildness, and divinity of your body and its ability to align you with your greatest health and potential — and unleash the joy and ease that’s buried beneath the stress, tension, and trauma of modern living.
You’ll enter the spinning state through Sama, the sacred whirling dance, holding the joys and sorrows of life in a strong, compassionate, and wide-open heart…
… as you alchemize the inner and outer chaos and become a channel for love — and how love wants to be expressed through you.
During this enlivening course, you’ll:
- Experience dance as a fierce yet tender expression of freedom and aliveness — and your body as a channel for the Divine
- Create unity, harmony, and body-heart-mind coherence throughSama — as you touch the place within you that never changes
- Reclaim your connection to the Earth — and the sacredness of life that exists in your very bones
- Heal and dissolve body aches and pains through conscious movement
- Activate your life force and allow it to ignite, purify, uplift, and energize your body and entire being during the Shake to Liberate practice
- Learn how to access stability in the midst of chaos and turbulence by activating Divine revolutionary acts through your body — holding the joy and pain of life in a wide-open heart
- Free yourself from fear, competitiveness, insecurity, and loneliness — and activate your default state of joy regardless of circumstances
- Learn how Oneness nourishes your vitality and expression — and how your wholeness, in turn, nourishes Oneness
- Explore the Sufi Path as a feminine path of living love — and activate your intuition and access inner guidance
As we embody love in our bodies and daily lives, Banafsheh says we learn how to live a consecrated human life — where the freedom of all beings is honored.
This inner revolution of love through sacred dance leads to outer evolution as we become the change we wish to see in our world.
Experiencing yourself as a vital light in the Oneness of All That Is , you’ll no longer be at the mercy of your fears, competitiveness, insecurity, or loneliness — all of which stem from the feeling of separation... a competitive, survivalist, disconnecting poison of patriarchy that has only ever caused pain and suffering.
You’ll free yourself of these distortions by dancing with wild abandon as your body and soul unite to convey the deepest emotions and yearnings of your heart, your wish for our world, and the sheer bliss of being alive...
... activating your life force with fierce acceptance, tenderness, and self-authority — and reinforcing peace and love in our world through your sacred heart.
No previous dance experience is required!
You’ll also explore how our individual blocks tend to reflect larger power-driven imbalances in our world... particularly those that stifle or silence the life-giving attributes of the feminine.
In Iran, Banafsheh’s motherland, the basic human rights of millions hinge on the brutality and insidiousness of a heartless and power-hungry regime.
There, the world’s first women-led revolution was born from the sovereign declaration of Woman, Life, Freedom and has inspired the world with the reminder of what we can do when we stand together for freedom — including standing for Mother Earth’s freedom to live with balance, health, and harmony.
This course presences the brave freedom fighters in Iran and the possibility that we, too, can free ourselves from the chains that bind us...
... unafraid to speak and dance truth, honoring the divinity of our bodies, and standing for a just and equitable world — all while remaining aligned to what we love.
Embodying our divine right to self-direct our lives, we are also better equipped to co-create a world that values and nurtures the best in all of us.
If you’d like to explore how sacred dance can help you blaze a path to physical, mental, and emotional freedom for yourself and our world, join us.
— Andrew Harvey, Bestselling Author: “I Believe That Banafsheh
Is Quite Simply the Greatest Living Teacher of Sacred Dance”
What You’ll Discover in These 7 Modules
In this 7-part transformational intensive with Banafsheh, you’ll dance to tune in to what you love and transform emotional, mental, and physical pain, limitation, and oppression into freedom.
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 how sacred dance can help you hold the joy and sorrows of life in a wide-open heart as you heal, embody your wholeness, unleash your aliveness, and empower your authentic vision in service to Oneness — and a better world.
Module 1: Uproot Your Patriarchal Conditioning to Reclaim Joyful Presence in Your Body & Reconnect With the Sacredness of Life
Most of us move through life disembodied — more aware and attuned to what’s happening outside of us than what’s going on within us.
This tendency leaves us disempowered and disconnected from ourselves, the Divine, the Earth... and the joy of the present moment.
To be swept-up in or distracted, dazed, and controlled by separation is a self-deprecating remnant of patriarchal conditioning and its power-over antics.
Few places reveal this distortion more poignantly than our relationship with the Earth and our bodies.
In this class, you’ll reclaim your connection with the Earth and the sacredness of life that exists in your very bones as a true revolutionary act...
... grounding in the present moment and uprooting your patriarchal conditioning as you consciously and lovingly take root in the Earth.
Banafsheh will guide you into her Joyful Presence dance routine, designed to ground and connect you with the Earth, and help you become present in your body in the moment.
Her invitation is to feel into where you’re holding back from allowing yourself to experience joy — and where it is resisted and twisted in our world — and release your resistances through expressive dance...
... courageously facing all of your emotions, where you are right now in your life, and where the world collectively is.
In this module, you’ll:
- Reclaim your connection to the Earth — and the sacredness of life that exists in your bones as a revolutionary act of freedom
- Awaken your whole body and weave in loving awareness with the Joyful Presence routine — designed to ground you and bring you into the present moment in a playful yet meditative way
- Feel into where you’re holding back from allowing yourself to experience joy — and release your resistances
- Direct your awareness into your body to feel whole and live with more capacity
- Experience dance as a way to journey into and with all of your emotions
- Activate healing in your feet, legs, and hips
Module 2: Free Your Life Force to Clear Blockages, Embody Sacred Sexuality & Experience Your Body as a Channel for the Divine
In this class, you’ll learn techniques to ground yourself in peace, free up your life force, and experience your body as a channel... or a flute, as Rumi describes it, a bridge between the visible and the invisible.
As you awaken your life force and allow it to ignite your body and entire being, you’ll begin to embody your sacred sensuality and sexuality — balancing your inner divides as a revolutionary act.
Banafsheh will guide you through Shake to Liberate, a practice to help you open to the universal energy of love — and allow it to move through you and awaken your natural intelligence.
You’ll also explore what it feels like in your body when you allow Source energy to move in you and through you, especially during challenging situations that can make you feel “frozen” or smoldering with fury.
Ultimately, you’ll give yourself permission to dance wildly and with abandon... and celebrate being alive with all the pain and the sorrows of life. If not now, WHEN?
In this module, you’ll:
- Awaken your life force and allow it to ignite, purify, uplift, and energize your body and entire being during the Shake to Liberate practice
- Open yourself to the sheer radiance of eros, reclaim your sexuality and sensuality as sacred
- Discover the revolutionary act of balancing polarities
- Disidentify from the limited “separate” self to experience your body and being as a channel
- Activate your intuition and access inner guidance by calming your mind and clearing yourself from distractions
- Activate healing in your hips and low back
Module 3: Transform Inner & Outer Turbulence Into Passion That’s Grounded in Peace to Empower Your Confidence, Sovereignty & Aliveness
The turbulence and drama around us can rob us of our power, stability, and sense of wellbeing.
In this class, you’ll dance to fill yourself with joy and love for yourself and transform inner and outer turbulence into empowerment... fusing discipline with wild creativity to free yourself.
The invitation is to awaken fiery passion grounded in peace, remove your hijabs — inner and outer — and let your glory shine as you dance with wildness and the joy of simply being alive so no one, including yourself, can dare diminish you.
This aliveness and deeper urging to reclaim your self-worth and sovereignty is a revolutionary act of empowerment and divine right!
You’ll learn movements inspired by fiery Flamenco that activate your inner power and self-authority — beyond victimhood and blame.
As you free yourself from the chains of smallness and unworthiness that have been the inheritance of women around the world for millennia, you’ll empower yourself through a rigorous, tender, sensual, wild, and holy dance...
... and find the energy and courage to stand up, claim your sovereignty, and create real change.
In this module, you’ll:
- Claim and live your aliveness as a revolutionary act and divine right
- Transform inner and outer turbulence into empowerment through the fiery Flamenco as you dance with rigor, discipline, and wildness
- Awaken fiery passion grounded in peace — and activate your default state of joy regardless of circumstances
- Find the energy and courage to stand up, claim your sovereignty, and create real change
- Experience your own beauty with radiant confidence
- Embody true strength as you dance away unworthiness and express yourself with courage, compassion, responsibility, and stewardship toward the greater
- Boost digestion and activate core muscles through targeted movement
Module 4: Increase Your Capacity to Hold Pain, Joy & the Wholeness of Life in Your Heart for Inner Balance, Resilience & Peace
When you give yourself to a purpose larger than yourself, you allow the great power that has created the world to move in you and through you.
In this class, you’ll learn how to balance pain and joy by opening your heart to the wholeness of life...
... and entering your heart space and the quantum field of infinite consciousness through the Waves of Love routine.
In these turbulent times, there’s so much pain and suffering on individual and collective levels... yet there is also beauty and goodness present in each moment.
Learning how to hold the joy and pain of life in a wide-open heart is a revolutionary act of love.
In this module, you’ll:
- Learn how holding the joy and pain of life in a wide-open heart is a revolutionary act of love
- Open to the wholeness of life by increasing your capacity to hold pain and joy in your heart
- Explore the Sufi Path as a feminine path of living love
- Experience your heart as the gateway to the quantum field of infinite consciousness
- Dance to let your body “become an instrument playing a love song,” as Rumi says
- Learn how to maintain an open heart by remaining grounded and centered — and create balance between giving and receiving love
- Deepen your breathing and activate healing in your heart center/chest, shoulders, arms, wrists, and hands
Module 5: Make Peace With Death Through Whirling to Access Inner Peace & Your Infinite Dimension
Fear is what blocks our transformation and our growth — and physical death is the primary source of our fears.
In this class, you’ll explore how the way you view death determines how you live your life... and through the sacred, meditative dance of Sama (whirling), face your fears, uncover your relationship with death, and touch the infinite place within you that never changes.
Transmuting your fears surrounding death and integrating death as a natural aspect of life is a revolutionary act that will change your life.
Banafsheh will share the secrets of Sama for spiritual evolution that not only brings your heart, mind, and body into coherence, but also gives you the capacity to access stillness, peace, and stability amidst chaos and turbulence — for through Sama, you experience within you that which never changes or diminishes. In fact, Rumi became Rumi through the powerful dance of Sama !
Understanding death is not only important for your spiritual growth and evolution, it literally shapes how you live. Believing that life ends when your physical body dies or that your soul is eternal and life is everlasting has vastly different implications.
In this module, you’ll:
- Gain a deeper understanding of how your view of death is shaping how you live your life
- Create unity, harmony, and body-heart-mind coherence throughSama as you face your fears, uncover your relationship with death — and touch the place within you that never changes
- 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, a dying, and a rebirth
- Surrender your mind and become empty to receive guidance
- Learn how to access stillness and stability in the midst of chaos and turbulence
- Activate healing in your neck and throat
Module 6: Reclaim Trust in Yourself, Life & the Unseen to Embody a Deeper Sense of What’s Possible for Your Life & Our World
Given the state of our world, and the level of deception that’s embedded within our most “trusted” institutions and people in positions of power...
... simply trusting ourselves and knowing that we have all we need inside of us, as well as trusting life, the unseen, and that a larger divine plan is unfolding is a revolutionary act.
We’re taught early on to rely upon “experts” instead of trusting our own knowing — and to be suspicious of others.
In this class, you’ll develop the capacity to trust through Banafsheh’s wisdom teachings and the Wholy Circles and Spheres Sequence.
You’ll also explore how being in your body with conscious love is the key to manifesting the world you long to live in...
... where the sacredness and sanctity of life and freedom of all beings are honored — as within so without.
In this module, you’ll:
- Reclaim trust as a revolutionary act that can open your life and our world to an expanded sense of possibility
- Develop the capacity to trust through wisdom teachings and the Wholy Circles and Spheres Sequence
- Learn how to move beyond your conditioning to trust your own knowing
- Receive guidance on how to trust that a larger plan is unfolding — which you are a vital part of — and guidance on knowing when to take action in an aligned way in service to love
- Learn how to build stamina and cultivate wholeness through the Wholy Circles and Spheres Sequence
- Activate healing in your head and face
Module 7: Free Yourself From the Shackles of Separation to Empower Your Wholeness Within Oneness & Be of Service to Love in Our World
For millennia, a power-driven mindset has done everything it can to separate us from our true selves, the Earth, each other, and our divine place in the Oneness of All That Is.
You’ll debunk this story during the final class, where you’ll explore your individuality and newfound wholeness through dance — a divine path for bringing love into our world and the greater... and the ultimate revolutionary act.
Banafsheh will share how when you experience yourself as one with the One, you’re no longer at the mercy of your fears, competitiveness, insecurity, and loneliness — all of which stem from a sense of separation.
As you explore how to live with authenticity, your consciousness expands to hold the whole as well, nourishing your vitality and expression as a soul or energy in physical form.
Your dance then becomes a powerful way to embody and manifest your dreams, the dreams of the collective, and the dreams of the Earth — as you influence and shape consciousness through living love.
In this module, you’ll:
- Explore Oneness as the ultimate revolutionary act in a world that has fostered separation for millennia
- Free yourself from fear, competitiveness, insecurity, and loneliness — all of which stem from a sense of separation
- Learn how Oneness nourishes your vitality and expression — and how your wholeness, in turn, nourishes the Oneness
- Experience dance as a divine mechanism for personal and collective freedom — as you bring your newfound wholeness and authenticity into the greater
- Discover the sacred and the unfathomable in the still depths of your being beyond concepts, dogmas, conditioned activity, and all preferences
- Review, deepen, and integrate the dance and movement sequences from the previous classes
The Sacred Dance for Freedom Bonus Collection/h2>
In addition to Banafsheh’s transformative 7-module online course, you’ll receive this special bonus collection to complement the course and take your understanding and practice to an even deeper level.
Experience the ONE Sensation – Oneness Yoga & Stretching Routine
A Yoga & Meditation Video Journey by 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 your body and into oneness. In this 30-minute video, you’ll experience how when you go inside your sensation deep enough, you realize there’s only one sensation — the sensation of everyone and of the Earth and the elements.
Experience Dance as Prayer With Gaia & the Black Madonna (valued at $250)
An 8-hour Sacred Dance Journey With Banafsheh Sayyad
During this immersive sacred dance course, which can be streamed directly from Banafsheh’s website, you’ll balance your root chakra and release any deeply rooted familial or cultural traumas from your body. Banafsheh will guide you through eight 1-hour dance practices that will ground you lovingly in the earth and help you become present in your body, instilling a sense of peace and belonging beyond your biological and cultural roots. Ultimately, you’ll embody the mystery of the Black Madonna with Middle Eastern tribal dances, stretching, and yoga — and experience dance as prayer through the beauty and divine power of Gaia and the Black Madonna.
What Graduates of Banafsheh’s Courses Are Saying...
“Banafsheh’s teachings opened my heart.”
Banafsheh’s teachings opened my heart. The dancing opened my spirit! I loved this class.
— Jamie, Arkansas
“My connection to the Divine soars when I dance with Banafsheh...”
Banafsheh has blessed my life first in Chartres, then with Dance of Oneness, and now through The Shift Network. Her teachings are a glorious gift by offering us prayer with the body and dance. My connection to the Divine soars when I dance with Banafsheh even though at 75 my body is not as fluid as it once was. I love her teachings and being with her.
— Diane, Seattle, Washington
“Besides enjoying all the beautiful depth of the class, the class ended up being an amazing aid to me in recovering from hip replacement surgery...”
Besides enjoying all the beautiful depth of the class, the class ended up being an amazing aid to me in recovering from hip replacement surgery that I had right before the class began. I was able to do that in a safe and very fluid way that has enabled me at courses end to be fully functional and more tuned into my body than ever.
— Rabbi Jeff Foust, Newton, Massachusetts
“Banafsheh is a magical healer and dances like an angel.”
I experienced a profound transformation in my ability to accept my body, my sensuality. I’m in recovery from anorexia, and I’ve struggled most of my life to feel present in my body, since I’ve been so disconnected. Throughout this course, I felt myself become more and more grounded and embodied. The freedom and joy is immeasurable. Banafsheh is a magical healer and dances like an angel.
— Dr. Jo, Minneapolis, Minnesota
“It was a very powerful course.”
I loved the way this course tied together the archetypes of different goddesses/women and expressed them in dance/movement. It was a very powerful course. I also truly appreciated Banafsheh’s weaving Eastern meridian/acupressure wisdom into the course.
— Mixel, Rancho Mirage, California
Here’s What You’ll Receive
Seven 90-Minute Class Sessions With Banafsheh Sayyad
Experience a unique opportunity to learn from sacred dancer Banafsheh Sayyad — from the comfort of your own home. Each class session includes a streaming video option and will guide you to live a sovereign, love-based life by activating the divine revolutionary acts of your body.
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.
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 Sacred Dance for Freedom Bonus Collection
- Experience the ONE Sensation – Oneness Yoga & Stretching Routine
A Yoga and Meditation Video Journey by Banafsheh Sayyad - Experience Dance as Prayer With Gaia & the Black Madonna (valued at $250)
An 8-hour Sacred Dance Journey With Banafsheh Sayyad
An Unprecedented Opportunity to Join the Online Training, Sacred Dance for Freedom
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 and choreographer whose powerful insights and pioneering work are helping us heal and awaken ourselves and our world.
If you’re serious about freeing yourself and your best health, dreams, and desires 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 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 Sacred Dance for Freedom — 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...
“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 the 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 the 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 at LA Yoga magazine
About Banafsheh Sayyad
Banafsheh Sayyad is a Persian master sacred dancer, choreographer, acupuncturist, transformational teacher, activist, and the 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 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 empower students to feel a true sense of belonging in their bodies. Students 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 a spiritual path and a science of embodiment. It is a fusion of three dimensions, including 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
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!
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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.
