“Banafsheh is one of the greatest sacred dancers I have seen.” Deepak Chopra For bookings contact: ☎ (310) 499-7100
[email protected] www.banafsheh.org Banafsheh Internationally acclaimed Persian dance artist and educator, Banafsheh has been performing and teaching throughout North America, Europe, Turkey and Australia for a decade. In addition to contemporary Middle Eastern dance technique, Banafsheh teaches self-empowerment through dance, the inner dimensions of movement and experiential anatomy. Recognized for her fusion of high-level dance technique with spirituality, Banafsheh’s electrifying and wholly original dance style embodies the sensuous ecstasy of Persian Dance with the austere rigor of Sufi whirling – and includes elements of Flamenco, Tai Chi, and the Gurdjieff sacred Movements. Rumi lives through Banafsheh! Her movement is comprised in part by the Persian alphabet she has translated into gestures, which when put together she dances out poetic stanzas mostly from Rumi. With an MFA in Dance from UCLA and MA in Chinese Medicine, Banafsheh combines her dance expertise with the Taoist view of the internal functioning of the body, the Chakra system, Western Anatomy and Sufism to uncover movement that is at once healing, self-illuminating and connected to Spirit. The certification program she has founded, called Dance of Oneness® is about conscious embodiment. Known for her original movement vocabulary as well as high artistic and educational standards, Banafsheh comes from a long lineage of pioneering performing artists. Her father, the legendary Iranian filmmaker and actor, Parviz Sayyad is the most famous Iranian of his time. Banafsheh is one of the few bearers of authentic Persian dance in the world which is banned in her native country of Iran, and an innovator of Sufi dance previously only performed by men.