Testimonials
I had the pleasure of attending a performance of Banafsheh at the Kripalu Center in 2007 and in watching her 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.
Banafsheh is not only one of the greatest and inspired dancers in the world - and this is an opinion shared by many connoisseurs of dance - but she is also a wonderful teacher very precised and humble and grounded in the way she imbraces all of her pupils and releases their deepest possibilities. I have had the honor of teaching with her a course that linked her form of dance with Rumi's way of divine love both in America and Canada on several occasions and so know the power of her teaching first hand and consider her my teacher of Sacred Dance as well as someone of the deepest integrity.
Banafsheh and I have also just completed a major film that fuses together her visionof dance and our shared vision of Rumi's Way of Passion and I can only say that working with her on this film has been one of the most inspiring experiences of my life, both an initiation and a revelation. It is very rare to find an artist of such grandeur who also has the selflessness to teach with great patience and compassion.
To Banafsheh,
I love how the sacred pulse of The Dance is so alive in you
I love how the small child Banafsheh so courageously refused to betray the gift of The Dance
I love how you awaken The Dance in others
I love how your spirit dances your body so passionately and gracefully and wildly as a sacred rebellion against control and oppression
I love how you inspire and encourage the freedom of the body's movement in the name of a greater and eternal freedom
I love how the great river of sacred wisdom and depth and compassion and love flows so unapologetically through you
I love how I have not stopped nurturing and unleashing my body's movement since you left Charlotte
I love how I now think daily about my posture - shifting to neutral pelvis, standing with soft knees and feet firmly planted, shoulders back, head held regally high - all because I believed you when you said you would be watching me
I love how I smile when I think of you bringing the sacred gift of your movement and teaching to people in all corners of our wounded and glorious world
Your Spiral of Love in Turkey is a masterpiece! You created a genuine program where all the ingredients - music, poetry, movement, dance, meditation, sharing, chanting, whirling - everything is serving the purpose of unveiling the true self of each of us. I feel that every day of the workshop peels off the layers of the “dead skin” of my body and in return brings an increasing sense of Becoming just a “normal” human being with boundless flow of love and energy through this beautiful hollow reed flute within me, this channel of light and majestic wisdom and God’s love. Thank you for being my guide on this lifetime journey of LOVE in Turkey. I can’t imagine any better gift I could have ever given to myself than being here now and with you.
In honor of the dance of Banafsheh’s spirit
I have to believe in my spirit. I have to guard its stride even when it is incomprehensible to the usual and the customary. I have to stand up for the originality that etches my being even when I diverge from old and drawn paths. If I do not defend the tasks bequeathed to my soul, with a courage bordering on foolish valiance, I will be of no real service to anyone. I am the most intimate friend of that which lives in me. How can I know the eternal if I do not inhabit the movement sketched deeply in my oldest memory?
To fight the storms that delineate my inner landscape is an ephemeral drama. I can only submit to these passionate storms. I can only create visions of substance out of the force of their presence. I am the guardian of the passageways to my destiny. The same applies to others. I am the fierce protector of the mystery of their belonging—how inner shorelines and curves and dunes are brought forth to their being through the graceful dance of their spirit. Freedom, like love, is indivisible, and both are sacred, both essential for the inhabitants of heaven and earth.
Chris Saade,
Psychological Life-Coach, Co-director of The Olive Branch Center and Director of the Institute for Life-Leadership and Coaching.
Dancing with Banafsheh
DIVINE MIRROR OF US ALL
Being in the presence of Banafsheh, we feel the essence of love shining out of her, reflecting our own wholeness. We feel her goodness and melt into our own. We become well in spite of any illness. We dissolve into a pool of lovingness. Moving our bodies, we hear Rumi saying: You are designed to hold the cup of divine wine, the cup of love. You hear your own heart saying: melt yourself into the truth of who you are, supreme beauty in the eyes of the Beloved. This melting heals the stiffness, the resistance, the protective shield, the scars that carry wrong voices throughout our lives, belittling who we are meant to be, who we really are.
The meaning of dancing with Banafsheh is to bring us to our true nature. Her dance techniques increasing our fluidity, balance, and flexibility. These are beautiful but would be meaningless if not combined with the Spirit she calls forth. We are invited to allow spirit to descend into our hearts, lighting a candle of peace, a dance of love.
This kind of dance is ageless, speaks to souls laden with life’s burdens. The dance calls us to move out of suffering into the light of oneness. Oneness with the great spirit of life that expands and stretches us beyond limited perceptions of ourselves and our worlds. Calls us to break out of our limits, to touch and be touched by the warm heart of the One who beckons us. We are invited to lay down our protests, disappointments, fears, doubts, and worries, and sink into the all encompassing arms of the magnificent Designer who asks us to go beyond, into the Beyond: with our feet rooted in the earth and our heads touching the heavens.
Banafsheh’s gentle guidance, and the soothing music of Tony Khalife creates for us a dance of meaning, as we come to know ourselves united with all of Life, the Beloved in our souls. This is not an ordinary dance class, a class of body posturing or techniques without connection to inner meaning. This dancing reunites us to peace and harmony, lifts us from our attachments to life’s challenges. We receive this peace while deeply walking the earth. With reverence, we make our time on earth, an offering of love.
A class for anyone, of any age, no experience required. To be in the presence of Banafsheh, of Love, is to know we are united to that which we seek, and this is all we ever need. We know this from our heart, not from ideas. The feminine essence blossoming in Banafsheh is transmitted to us, and is the source of a new vision for our planet: ruling with our hearts instead of our heads, with the intention to heal our planet, ourselves, and each other. We are grounded yet ecstatic, flying into the heart of the All. We grow wings. We are set free.
I loved Banafsheh’s teaching and class so much. She embodies Sufi dance and teachings with a radiance and passion that saturated the depths of my body and heart. I would come to ANY workshop she offers. It was a rare opportunity and pleasure to be guided by such an embodied teacher. Her warmth, experience and passion are very inspiring. It was one of the most alive and vibrant workshops if not the best I’ve ever been to. She is so loving and tender – a true joy to be in her presence.
You are the ultimate artist, the one who says yes to creating your own way and sees too the value of establishing true technique to support that way.. i have admired you for that for years now, and am heartened to see it recognized and even put into print! I am so happy that you are creating the genre for your heritage, that you are bringing your elegance and your fierceness, your total self, your history with your father, your culture, that you are weaving the sufi, the gypsy, the healing arts and the very unique YOU into inspirational art. Again I say BRAVO DANCER!
It is a privilege to watch you dance. You are a beautiful dancer. Watching you move is to watch an ecstatic. What is so extraordinary about ‘Banafsheh Dance’? Your hands are so graceful and beautiful to watch. Your body merges with the music and with spirit and you move with a divine integrity. You are like water: flowing and strong. I cannot get the images of you turning out of my mind's eye. I want to tell you again how beautiful your dancing is. I loved your dancing. You are really extraordinary, your whole being becomes transformed into fluid strengths and poems. Congratulations on achieving such a high level of mastery.
When Banafsheh Sayyad & ZARBANG came to Northern Virginia last May, my dance teacher Laurel Victoria Gray told me about the show and I went to see it. Here is a brief, informal review I wrote then and just found it again... Banafsheh Sayyad is a real Sufi priestess from Iran. She is bringing to life the actual presence and power of ancient priestesses through her incredible spiritually overwhelming dance. I just came from a performance by her, and all I could say was "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God!!!" She and the percussionists created a space that took herself and the audience into intense ecstasy. She whirled with abandon in a freeform dance in which she really let herself go and used the mystical power of rhythm and dance to charge the space with unbelievable, unimaginable ecstatic trance.
I can't find the words to describe it, except to say you know those times when you suddenly realize that what you've gotten yourself into is extremely more intense than you could have anticipated? She took us there tonight. The sacred dance she has recreated and mastered caused that almost unbearable ecstasy to rise up within me and burst forth into another world. The only times I have felt this way before was on powerful psychedelics. Now I know the experience can be created purely through rhythm and dance, and the power of wild women.
As I saw Banafsheh dancing, I understood she is beyond being an "artist." She is truly a priestess, and her dance removed historical time altogether, the thousands of years in which the patriarchy tried to stamp out women's sacred dance, women's role as powerful priestesses of the numinous. All that was banished as she reconnected us with the power of the ancient priestesses and made it live again. It's coming back! It felt somehow out of place to applaud afterward, as though it were just another artistic performance. It wasn't. It was ageless, pure spiritual trance. It was real, immediate, mind blowing.
Un-caged goddess with your hands raised towards the sky,
You dance like a brolga,
Floating white as time, spinning on a whisper of divine unspoken radiance,
a thousand brilliant horses gallop like ghosts out from your heart,
hair black as lightning wild about your billowed skirt,
You whirl and swing and whirl and whirl
your axis rooted to the earth
You are the soles of Rumi’s sandals,
and yet I see you, yes, I see you,
wafting up to heaven with the lightness of an angel dove.
Dedication to the effortless fall,
the one that springs from gentle friendship with gravity.
Persistence in relentless listening,
the whisper touch of breath on inner skin.
Fierce loyalty to unspecific kinships,
strangers met with courageous smiles.
Passion shared in murmurs,
vitality crackling in the bones of each generous hand.
Opening to ground,
this vital dance takes place in stillness,
harvest of fertile planting.
Poem for Banafsheh
Intense
Passionate
Grounded
Full spirit
Full channeling
Full presence
Grace
Style
Beauty and power
Sister of the Dance
Dance of oneness
Dance
Parade
Walk
Proper posture…I am always watching you
Who are you?
What are you channeling?
Who are you???
What voices do you listen to?
What are you about?
Be like a shoot of bamboo
Allow the divine to fill you
We are 99% empty space
Align your Chakras, Align and allow the divine presence to move through you
Be a sister of dance, Be a brother to the dance
Whirl, gyrate, Shake
Our bodies need at least one good dusting each day
Be one with others dancing in a circle
Feel the oneness
Feel the power
Feel the beauty
Be the grace
Be the divine king and queen that you are
Dance with passion
Dance with unbridled energy
Grounded in who you are
Feel the relationship with the earth
With the moon
With the planets whirling
Whirl
Show others this dance of oneness
Be a brother, be a sister of oneness
Be true to you
Thank you for coming to Charlotte. Your workshop was like a breath of fresh air! Thank you for sharing your spirit and your dance. Thank you for piercing my eyes with yours and allowing me to see your soul.
Your energy filled the room with hope and trust and even before I thought I "might", you had me dancing, spinning and whirling. My life has been changed and my memory blessed. There are too many thinking/intellectual spiritual workshops and not enough DANCE!!!
www.dottiemoore.com
You have integrated God into our human dance and it is a step in evolution. I thank God and you for it.
What was new and very unexpected at least for myself, was your dance. Really it is out of this world, and no word or compliment can describe it. I love music and dancing and in my previous life, I was also fascinated by Sufism. I’ve taken some Yoga and Martial Arts before. I always thought, Sufism is great in spirituality, it’s a great food for mind and soul, but unfortunately opposite of the Hindu or far east philosophy which address the soul, mind as well as body, Sufism, never get to the physical part, like Yoga and Martial Art. Do you know what I mean? But I guess, I found the missing link! Your dance, which I saw last night, is very representative of what one can call Sufi dance or “Raghs-e Sama”. When I checked out your web site, I realized I was not very off! Keep up the excellent work. I hope to see your performance again!
I've had the immense pleasure of experiencing Banafsheh's beauty of movement and spirit twice now at Hollyhock on Cortes Island, BC. Her performance the final evening of her program this year with Andrew Harvey was nothing short of ecstatic revelry. Even with challenges from the music system she never missed a step. Her fluidity and professionalism sank into our very cells and every person in the room stood in enthusiastic response to her virtuosity, our applause a thank you to Banafsheh for her unbridled passion-filled dance.
What a true pleasure and joy it is to know her and experience her work. Brava! Brava!
Thank you for your beauty, power and love. What a wonderful reminder to celebrate, trust, believe in ourselves (true selves) and nourish our Self and our power. WE ARE DIVINE when we truly live our royalty and share from there. I see that I need to embrace my power to support my heart opening - so it feels safe to open and I can truly live from there, live for Love, from Love, in Love and give love ... connecting through the SPIRAL OF LOVE. Such amazing experiences! Can't wait to share time with you again and be in your beautiful presence!
Banafsheh's dance of Oneness series is a powerful immersion into the center of our spiritual being. Through her chosen avenue within the medium of dance, she draws on her spiritual cultural forms, bringing together levels of earth and heaven within herself as a pure and fluid vehicle, expanding possibilities through Presence and embodied Awareness. From the form of her personal inheritance of Persian dance as well as other traditional dances like Flamenco, she opens inner space, becoming a Container of Love in a new and evolving expansion of boundaries and awareness, evident in her powerful movements and her soft surrendered curves.
In these days when our spiritual traditions are hitting up against globalism, everything is in question and change. Banfsheh's dance embodies this new awareness and supports its growth. Audience and students alike receive her vibrations, passing on a new torch of fire and light through resonances deeply felt on our hearts through her pure aesthetics. Her total mind-body Awareness, the opening of energy fields, is an absolute prerequisite to sustain the "turn" of the Whirling Dance, connected to particular energy fields moving in unity without ourselves when the dance becomes Worship. What she brings supports our connection the the Divine Oneness as well as our Humanity, allowing us to serve as a bridge between divine energies and the world in a most natural and beautiful way.
Thank you so much! Feet on the ground ... centered in my core ... I'm working on it. But I also I want to tell you something I've experienced on September 1. On this day I met some of my colleagues because of a farewell party! Despite the fact that I had a different hairstyle some of them said "you look great! What have you done? Tell us your secret!" I was thinking for a moment ... the secret is ... RELAAAAX with your voice, your words, Sufi sayings, all these experiences which are stored in my mind/body! I've been trying to keep in touch with my soul - sometimes easy, sometimes not that easy - but yesterday it worked again -
What I want to say is that I'm so thankful for this wonderful time together with you and the group! When I'm trying the movements, I miss you very much! But I can still hear your soft voice, "feel your soul". It's a precious seed that is growing in myself - that you have planted and helped to grow in my myself. Your sayings that really occupy me at the moment are: "Observe don't judge!" This is so difficult for me. I want to implement it in my daily life - but it's so hard sometimes.
I'm embracing you ... listening to you
love and thanks,
Eva
Breathtaking in gracious postures,
she dances to invoke light,
blistering heat
traversing an illusion of gentleness,
hard muscles softened by decades of dedication.
She dances to invoke the many faces of love,
wide smiles and deep torments,
birthing fresh acknowledgment with each patterned step.
She dances to engage the watchers,
witnessing the spark
as it travels through her body.
Wind from whirling arms blows softly on their own tinder.
Banafsheh is Rumi incarnate!
Thank you so much for an exquisitely beautiful, powerful and profound dancing experience this past weekend. It was such an honour, a privilege and a delight to be with and to dance with you. Your gentle, clear encouragement, your fluid, responsive teaching style and the sheer presence of your inspiring essence are peacefully intoxicating. My life and my body.mind.spirit have been indelibly altered and I will continue to cherish the feelings and movements we generated, individually and as a group! Thank you so much for your grace, your generosity and your deep loving kindness. The wisdom and beauty of your dance and your teaching are still “turning” within me! What gifts you have given us.
I thought that once in Istanbul, all the magic of our time together would come to an end, or at least that it was not going to be as intense. But, on the contrary, the feeling of joy, beauty and well-being I felt during the time I spent in the workshop, did not diminish at all and I felt as if something new was growing in my heart. The heart was starting to coexist with the mind.
Now that I'm back in Spain, I realize that there is no way back and that, as you say, if I keep my feet on the ground, centered in my core and living from my open heart, there is nothing I should be scared of.
You taught me something really valuable and I want to thank you for being such a good teacher and inspiring person! Thank you for your integrity, for your kindness, for your knowledge and for the beauty you create everywhere. You are really special to me.
You were flowing like a beautiful river of light.
Banafsheh’s strength, grace and intimate love simply moves a person’s soul into new union with the Divine beyond any traditional understanding.
I wanted to tell you how much I loved watching your work, it is truly breathtaking.
I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to your serenity/power in dance and movement the next time you are in Vancouver. I am sure that I continue to speak for others in saying that we have been deeply affected and had our spiritual practices enriched.
There are many things shifting and opening in me, which I do not understand but do welcome - moving to the edges of invisibility and stillness. I am so grateful to you for the gracious space you create for making possible the most profound level of transformation possible - that which moves through our bodies.
I served little violets on our salad tonight and thought of you Banafsheh. Actually I feel your beautiful presense frequently. As you promised you seem to follow behind with the reminder to ground down to the earth. When that happens I move with more stability, my shoulders go down and back and a smile rises up to my face. Wow what a gift.
Hope you had a good journey back from Hollyhock. I got a few more days there and now in the glory of Montana harvest- beans,peas,corn,broccoli have all made their way into the freezer for winter. In 10 days I get to celebrate 20 years together with my true love, so blessed.
When will your film come out? Looking forward to seeing it.
Thank you so much . I Love You.
I very much enjoyed the class yesterday. “I was inspired by your integration of Sufi and Eastern philosophy, especially the idea of walking joyfully with present-moment awareness, and the ideas of being fully ourselves and allowing our souls to expand. All ideas that I have been more in touch with recently, so it's been a nice convergence. And your precise and passionate teaching made it rather easy to understand the movements. In short, I loved it!
Banafsheh is great. Her workshop was very rejuvenating, alive and fulfilling, wonderful, fun and special.
Maybe the strongest sensation I had from your workshop, apart from others, was when we did body-waves going back, feeling the "great ball behind" and you suggested to imagine "the invisible" supporting our back...then I got it. I saw the door. I really could dance with my deceased, I used their force to move. I believed on my ancestors. I was feeling my roots. (Fifteen days before the workshop, I lost my related cousin on a car crash and he was also dancing with life through the waves from my physical body. Not a special sensation, just love.)
...Very precise work Banafsheh, Bravo. You induce people to be just connectors, cleaning themselves through the dance. Allowing to feel what's really happening out of their skin. And also inside. What I love the most is that you have chosen the very best things you have learned from every discipline to act as a powerful cocktail for a human being.
I felt very joyous and delighted to be privileged to partake in Banafsheh’s workshop. We need more happy moving classes here. Please welcome her again
Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you very much for the wonderful experience I gained during your dance workshop in Madrid. It was both interesting and inspiring watching and learning from you. What has been even more exciting is that as soon as I arrived in the UK an opportunity arose where I have been able to take the techniques you gave us and use them as tools to create a small solo dance routine.
Thank you so much for your beautiful performance in Salt Lake City. I was once again inspired by your moving dance. We are grateful to you for presenting such uplifting, tasteful dance in a world where many performers offer only temporal or pseudo sensual dance in the name of ‘Middle Eastern tradition’.
I would like to thank you for your beautiful mystical Persian dance which flew us to the mystical realm of Rumi so we would feel the impossible with all of our being
Your style of your dance is unique and so rare.
My experience in Banafsheh’s workshop has been truly liberating, exciting and getting me ready to move into a different level of my life. Banafsheh has an amazing serenity and beauty that emanates from her - very present with the energy of the room and every participant. Creative, fun, great variety, excellent choice of music and body awareness.
The workshop was amazing! Banafsheh is a master teacher of movement meditation, ritual and dance. I am so grateful to have had her workshop as the center of my experience at Esalen
I loved your show at the Huntington Beach Theater!!!
You and the NAMAH girls were simply terrific!!!!!!!
Banafsheh’s workshop was amazing. She is excellent. Her knowledge, talent and leadership is magnificent. She has so much compassion for everyone and the input and insight she gave everyone is amazing. The is the best workshop I have ever taken!
My experience in Banafsheh’s workshop was the opening of my body, to feel the grace in my body. I felt present and IN my body. The turning or whirling was an amazing experience – moving meditation – you become a vortex, a channel and the energy just passes through you and shines through you. I cannot say enough about this group leader – the grace – her presence is mesmerizing and contagious
I just got home from seeing your performance and just couldn't wait to congratulate you on such a great performance and a great program. I am, as every other person having seen your program, so proud to have been in the audience and I am especially proud to know you.
Your program was the best concert I have ever seen!
Dear Banafsheh, this is my second time that I am seeing your performance. It was magnificent. Your performance, while so feminist, is artistic and beautiful. I have no words to explain how much I enjoyed it. When you were dancing with that beautiful red dress, I could not help but to shed tears. I am proud of you. It was so moving to see you dance with your father. It was meaningful. Thank You.