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Workshop: Sufi Whirling: The Dance of Becoming
March 15 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Learn the foundations of Sufi whirling through a feminine approach, guided by sacred dancer and spiritual embodiment teacher Banafsheh Sayyad and the live rhythms of the women’s LA Daf Ensemble. This practice offers not only a sacred form, but guidance for how to remain centered, receptive, and responsive in times of uncertainty and turmoil.
Modern science and ancient mysticism alike reveal that life begins in the spin—from atoms to the cosmos. Through whirling, you learn to attune to this universal force, cultivating the capacity needed to meet life’s challenges without losing your center, awakening a deep sense of balance and belonging within the greater dance of creation.
Banafsheh Sayyad, MFA, Choreography and MA, Chinese Medicine, is a master sacred dancer, choreographer, and visionary teacher of spiritual embodiment whose life’s work is devoted to helping people activate greater health, awareness, and resilience through conscious movement.
Internationally acclaimed for her pioneering fusion of spirituality and sensuality, she is the founder of Dance of Oneness®, a Divine Feminine lineage of healing and transformation uniting Sufi whirling, Persian dance, flamenco, mysticism, and Taoist wisdom.
Her forthcoming book, Dance of Oneness (St. Martin’s Essentials, March 2026), invites readers to rediscover the body as a portal to presence, vitality, and joy. Drawing from her own awakening through dance that transmuted the pain of exile from Iran, Banafsheh weaves Rumi’s poetry, feminine mysticism, and embodied healing into a radiant call to live as a channel of love and light. Born in Iran to legendary filmmaker Parviz Sayyad, she defied cultural taboos to create a feminine expression of Sufi whirling, transforming dance into a pathway of liberation, divine communion, and activism.
Through her non-profit Dance of Oneness and her transformative teachings at centers such as Esalen, Kripalu, Omega, and Hollyhock, Banafsheh has inspired thousands across the world to awaken, embody love, and dance the divine into being.