Banafsheh Sayya – Liberate Your Body With Sufi & Expressive Dance

Who is the Sacred Feminine? And how is she revealing herself within your soul, body, and life?

The oldest and most enduring image of the Sacred Feminine is the Great Mother. Humanity has imagined her as the immensity of cosmic space, the Earth, and nature.

As the invisible dimension of the soul, the Great Mother inspires and instills within us a sense that the Universe is an organic, alive, and sacred whole…

… one in which humanity, the Earth, and all life on Earth participate as her children.

During the opening week of class, you’ll explore deeper insights into the true nature and purpose of the Sacred Feminine — and where she intersects with your physiology and chakras.

You’ll also journey deeper on the Sufi path — the path of living love — and learn about Chinese meridians to help maintain inner balance…

… and establish the foundational principles of Dance of Oneness for correct posture and mind-body-soul alignment.

As you map your journey into oneness, you’ll:

• Begin your journey to experience the Sacred Feminine by exploring where she reveals herself within your soul, body, and life
• Explore the hidden aspects of the Sufi path as the Sacred Feminine path of embodied love
• Experience the posture and alignment needed to operate at your fullest potential
• Learn about the pathway of Qi throughout the meridians of your body
• Activate deep awareness of your body’s sacredness — and begin to experience your body as both a miracle and a vessel for miracles

The mysterious Black Madonna is both the Cosmic Mother and the Earth Mother. Your connection with the Earth as Gaia is key to receiving sustenance for your mind, body, heart, and soul — and for your dance.

This week, you’ll learn how to call upon the Black Madonna’s fierce yet tender essence and innate vibrance to ground yourself in the present moment, establishing deeper presence and overall health in your body.

You’ll focus on form and technique — experiencing the Earth as the foundation of all of your movement… learning how to execute dance and daily life movements freely and safely… and understanding how economy of movement can help you live life with more capacity.

You’ll also discover how the Sacred Feminine works with the Yin meridians, or pathways of energy, in your legs and hips — and how allowing the Sacred Feminine to emerge within you and your life can help you live as one with the Earth.

As you explore the Sacred Feminine through your root chakra, you’ll:

• Balance your root chakra with inspiration from the Black Madonna — and deepen your bond with the Earth as the root and foundation for all of your movement
• Attune yourself to the pathway of energy in the Yin meridians of your legs and hips
• Revitalize yourself and deepen your connection with the Earth through tribal Middle Eastern dance
• Learn specific movements to heal ailments in your legs, knees, ankles, and feet
• Gain tools for getting out of your head and directing your awareness into the rest of your body — to feel whole and live with more capacity
• Activate the healing powers of the kidney point on the soles of your feet

Open yourself to the sheer radiance of eros, and reclaim your sexuality and your body as sacred with the goddess Inanna.

The Sumerian goddess of love, eros, and fertility, Inanna is considered the Queen of Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld.

This week, you’ll be initiated into a dance to balance the polar energies of yin and yang — the feminine and masculine inside yourself.

You’ll learn about the key role your yin and yang kidneys play in the overall health and vibrancy of your body from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and explore an important meridian point to activate power and vitality.

This week, you’ll:

• Harness the radiance of eros with the goddess Inanna to activate and open your sacral chakra — and learn to balance the energies of yin and yang through the expanded Infinity Dance practice
• Learn about goddess Inanna and embody her confident sensuality to integrate the light and dark within you
• Feel the bliss of being in your body and release the limiting emotions of shame and guilt
• Activate the Mingmen (Gate of Life) meridian point to cultivate power and vitality, build energy, and increase libido

Freely and ecstatically express your sensuality as natural and holy with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, eros, and beauty.

Aphrodite represents the flood of corporeal energy and is at the same time heavenly, thus opening up the celestial, spiritual realm.

This week, you’ll discover why true sensuality is an expression of how you love yourself in the moment — feeling natural and at ease with what is.

You’ll learn about the anatomy and physiology of your hips…

… and call upon Aphrodite through dance to overcome the survival emotions of fear, anxiety, suffering, hostility, anger, judgment, shame, and guilt — liberating your body and your energy.

As you begin to feel free within your body and release the chains of the past, you’ll create more energy in your field to create the future you truly want.

As you embrace your holy sensuality, you’ll:

• Activate your life force and let it set your whole body ablaze — energizing and elevating you through the Shake to Ignite Joy Dance practice
• Embody the sensual grace and beauty of Aphrodite
• Reclaim your sexuality as sacred — and dance ecstatically to experience sensuality as your natural and holy birthright
• Feel and embody your own beauty with radiance
• Learn how to heal ailments that involve your hips, pelvis, and lower back through movement

You’ll learn how to dance to empower yourself and take up residence in your body with sovereignty from the empowered Egyptian goddess Sekhmet — the Lioness who guides us to believe in ourselves.

You’ll develop the ability to hold and shine your light in any circumstance as you own your ferocity and balance it with compassion.

Banafsheh will guide you through movements — inspired by Sekhmet and the fiery Flamenco — that activate self-authority and strength, awakening the solar energy of the lion within you.

Flamenco gives us the strength to stand with confidence in all that we are, teaching us the posture of resilience and preparing us to face life’s challenges with the inner strength and power of dignity.

As you allow the Sacred Feminine fire of Sekhmet to fill your body, you’ll know with certainty that nothing in the outside world can limit the human spirit, especially when the spirit is alive with love.

As you explore the core of your power, you’ll:

• Allow the energy of the lion to fan the flame of your solar plexus chakra — and activate self-authority, sovereignty, and confidence through the fiery and empowering movements of Flamenco
• Learn how to embody Sekhmet’s powerful lioness attributes
• Build stamina and cultivate wholeness through the Circles and Spheres Dance practice
• Activate self-reliance, resilience, and self-esteem — and develop steadfastness to become unstoppable
• Learn key meridian points that support optimal digestive function

Just how do your chakras work together in a harmonious and unified way to support you on the Sufi path to embody love through the Sacred Feminine?

Consider the first three chakras, which are the physical chakras of your body:

The more rooted and connected you are with the Earth, the more you are able to connect with your eros and free up your life force to ignite the full potential of your whole body and being…

The more you embody your eros in a healthy and unashamed way, the more empowered and confident you feel…

And the more you accept, like, and love yourself… the more you are able to honor your roots, all people, and living beings.

The domains of influence in these chakras form an important constellation in dance and movement…

… providing groundedness, vitality, and balance between feminine and masculine energies, and deepening your experience and capacity for sensuality, centeredness, relaxation, ease, stamina, endurance, discipline, resilience, and power.

For most people, chakras one through three, along with the throat chakra, tend to be closed and require the most focus and energy to activate and open.

In this module, you’ll revisit knowledge gleaned from the Sacred Feminine and the embodied dance practices shared by Banafsheh within previous modules to further integrate the insights and inspiration held within the root, sacral, and solar plexus chakras.

This week, you’ll:

• Deepen your understanding of the interrelatedness of your physical chakras
• Integrate the insights and inspiration held within the root, sacral, and solar plexus chakras
• Revisit the gifts and wisdom of your first 3 chakras — gleaning higher insights from the Sacred Feminine and the embodied dance practices shared by Banafsheh within previous modules
• Review and deepen dance and movement sequences from the previous modules

Let the rose of your heart blossom into love, compassion, and courage with inspiration from Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene (teacher to the Apostles) both of whom model unconditional love and compassion.

This week, you’ll experience your heart as the gateway to the quantum field of love…

… exploring and opening the pathways of the heart and pericardium meridians through movement.

You’ll also learn about the anatomy and physiology of the lungs as the wings of the heart, how to balance unconditional love and forgiveness with courage, and how to embody the energy of your heart as you deepen and expand your experience of the Waves of Love Dance practice.

As you experience the sacred physiology of your heart, you’ll:

• Discover your heart as the gateway to the quantum field of infinite consciousness
• Call upon and embody the courageous and loving energy of Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene
• Learn from the wisdom of your lungs, which works in concert with your heart — and open and balance your heart chakra through an expanded Waves of Love Dance practice
• Explore key heart and pericardium meridian points that reduce tension and help treat insomnia
• Alleviate pain in the upper back and shoulders, open chest constriction, and resolve breathing issues through movement

Activate your center of creativity and will… and cultivate ease in expressing your truth with Rabia, one of the only women mystics in the Sufi path who lived in the 8th century.

This week, allow Rabia to inspire you to surrender to the Beloved and courageously express your truth by being anchored in the heart.

You’ll deepen your experience of the ecstatic practices of Sama (whirling) and Zikr (chanting) as two of the main pillars of the Sufi path — and explore variations of the Sama.

You’ll be introduced to Persian dance as a graceful dance of adoration and an invitation to dissolve into ecstasy through sensual yet ethereal movement.

You’ll also develop the ability to balance discernment and surrender… create union between your mind and heart as you liberate your authentic voice… and learn how to create ease in your neck through awareness and movement.

As you explore the gifts of your heart chakra, you’ll:

• Embody the energy, wisdom, and gifts of the Sufi mystic Rabia — and experience total adoration of the Beloved
• Liberate your voice and experience your throat and expression as the bridge between your heart and mind
• Learn to embody grace through Persian dance as a form of ecstasy that’s perfumed with the poetry of the Persian mystics
• Create coherence between your body, heart, and mind through the sacred Sufi dance of Sama and variations of this profound practice
• Surrender and become still enough to hear the intuitive guidance in your heart through a seated meditation following the Sama
• Learn ways to alleviate issues with the neck and throat

Expand your inner vision, imagination, and wisdom this week…

… and cultivate symbolic sight and powerful intuitive abilities with the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Great Mother of life, death, and regeneration.

The wisdom of the sixth chakra tells us that whatever we focus on grows — that the only thing that can grow is what you give energy to. All things are possible when you believe they are.

You’ll explore the Egyptian goddess Isis to let your imagination take flight in union with your heart, and learn how activating the pineal gland can help draw to you that which you most desire.

You’ll also learn to dance with veils and activate coherence and balance between your intellect and intuition.

As you expand your vision and imagination, you’ll:

• Explore and activate the pineal gland as your inner eye or third eye
• Embody the intuitive powers and wisdom of the Egyptian goddess Isis — and learn ways to draw to you that which you most desire
• Dance with veils in the Wings of Love Dance practice
• Learn how to heal and alleviate headaches and eye issues

The crown chakra is our connection to the greater field of consciousness and what motivates us to seek an intimate connection to the greater in everything we do. Our dance is about experiencing this connection.

As you call upon Shekinah, the feminine godhead from the mystical Jewish tradition of the Kabbalah, you’ll activate the crown chakra and union of the Sacred Feminine and Divine Masculine.

You’ll move in spirals of all kinds. Spirals are the most advanced human movement, as the invisible world comes into manifestation through the spiral… with the divine mystery at its innermost level, and physical forms of matter at the outermost.

You’ll also learn about the anatomy and physiology of the spine and brain with an emphasis on the pituitary gland, and you’ll continue to deepen your experience of dancing with veils.

As you explore the Shekinah and the crown chakra, you’ll:

• Learn about the Shekinah and embody her union with the Sacred Masculine
• Activate the teachings of the crown chakra with the Spiral of Life Dance practice
• Deepen your experience of dancing with veils
• Activate a sense of balance and the ability to remain present, grounded, and centered in the midst of turbulence by moving in spirals
• Experience an intimate connection with the Beloved through dance

The soul star, or eighth chakra, is the energetic portal to your higher awareness and soul-level purpose. It’s your connection or gateway to the greater Universe and the Cosmos.

As the seat of your subconscious mind, it also interplays with your dream space as the transpersonal chakra of unity awareness… or consciousness of the greater whole or oneness, of which we are all a part of and can embody in human form.

Accessing such expanded awareness enables you to transcend the limitations of your human perception and remember that you are not alone — because All Is One.

This week, you’ll be inspired by the loving wisdom of Sophia, a Gnostic feminine archetype who represents the soul of the world, to embody your soul and step into your unlimited self.

You’ll explore transfiguration, the union of matter and light, particle, and wave… deepen the practice of Sama and its variations, and begin to receive direct transmissions from Source.

You’ll also deepen your experience of Persian dance as an expression of liquid light.

As you explore the sacred geometry of the body, you’ll:

• Activate the teachings of the soul chakra and develop clarity about your purpose in life
• Embody your soul and be inspired by the loving wisdom of Sophia — the soul of the world
• Explore transfiguration — and the union of matter and light, particle, and wave
• Experience spirit and matter, soul and body as one and feel interconnected to All That Is
• Experience movement as liquid light through Persian dance
• Deepen the practice of Sama — to untangle and release layers, habits, thoughts, and emotions that block the flow of the Divine in you