Performances
Banafsheh Sayyad, NAMAH and ZARBANG have
performed extensively in North America, Europe
and Australia. The artists can be presented in
the following configurations:
- Banafsheh's solo dance with recorded music
- Banafsheh’s solo dance with 2-4 musicians
and 1 orator
- 3 NAMAH dancers with 2-4 musicians
and 1 orator
- 5 dancers with 4 musicians
The following is a description of an upcoming configurations:
ZARBANG &
Banafsheh with NAMAH
Mirror
Here comes a program in full prime- an evening of wild and
whirling dance, world-class drumming, music, and
evocative poetry, featuring world premieres as
well as repertory pieces. This is a
well-established collection of masters, seasoned
from years together on the world circuit, and
all at the top of their game. Mirror
revolves around a week-long residency
organized by the prestigious Dance Center at
Columbia College in Chicago for the Sufi dance
innovator Banafsheh Sayyad, who will give
three performances there, in addition to master
classes and workshops. Mirror
features Banafsheh’s internationally recognized
dance company NAMAH, and her long time
collaborating percussion ensemble, the world
renowned ZARBANG, and together they sweep
the audience into a remarkable journey inward,
into the Mystery of being alive and living with
Heart.
The
Columbia College Dance Center’s 2007 lineup of
dance companies included Merce Cunningham Dance
Company, Susan Marshall and Company, Margaret
Jenkins Dance Company, Armitage Gone! Dance, and
Urban Bush Women/Campanie JANT-BI.
Mirror reflects our common human heritage- that of our full glory
and majesty being veiled in the self-absorbed
egoism, which wreaks havoc in our world. The
premise here is, our human-veil keeps us from
seeing and being our true Divine Nature, thus we
tend to reflect only selfishness, fear, and
apathy. The event examples the action and
courage needed to lift our veil, to reveal
instead our own shining goodness, that we may
now trust and take part in the larger Sacred
Dance with full faith in its reflecting the
Greater Good.
The timing of this could hardly be more appropriate; as the
peaceful peoples of
Iran and the US are now the players caught up in
the oily net, the international moneychangers
once again sniff the floor for any excuse
possible to effect more conflict. Mirror
is a platform for discovery, for life lived
through love- and a groundbreaking evolution in
gender balance, and no harm is intended
throughout this entire event. Here for the first
time the male-dominated tradition of Sufism is
being transmitted through the feminine,
celebrating sensuality and the Sacred Connection
with wild abandon yet mindful, embracing
movement and music. The spoken word is drawn
from the teachings of Rumi as well as
Banafsheh’s own writings. The evening’s music, a
hypnotic wall of sound, is composed and arranged
by ZARBANG featuring
Behnam Samani, the acclaimed Tombak, Daf
and Udu player; Pejman Hadadi, the
two-time recipient of the prestigious Durfee
Master Musician Fellowship and hailed the
“finest Iranian percussionist in the West”; the
versatile Reza Samani playing Iranian
Ney (flute), Ney-Anban and Zorna in addition to
percussion; and Santur player Javid Afsari,
recipient of “The Norwegian Broadcasting
Symphony Orchestra’s Prize” in 2007 and The Oslo
Municipality’s Artist of the Year in
2008.
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Classes / Workshops
Banafsheh has been teaching
at universities, colleges and private studios
around North America, Europe and Turkey since the year
2000.
In all classes, she uses her original
warm-up and body toning routine based in yoga,
tai chi and qi gong that promote the classical
motto: A sound mind in a sound body
To set up workshops or courses with Banafsheh in
your city or to schedule private instruction,
contact (310) 499-7100 or
info@banafshehsayyad.com
Courses Taught by Banafsheh Sayyad
DANCE OF ONENESS:
Banafsheh’s
Dance of Oneness
workshops are rigorous and disciplined, active
ground for healing and self-discovery. Students
learn technique but also the inner dimensions of
Movement - releasing oneself to feel free and
exuberant, and the integrity to proceed without
fear. Persian, Flamenco, Yoga, Tai Chi, Tribal,
Sufi- a fusion of influences defines
Dance of Oneness
as a way to unify oneself, commune with others
and the greater Existence, through dance and
movement. It is the learning by steps, but
growing by leaps.
Dance of Oneness
workshops
are designed to develop the intuitive technique
to be grounded yet light, delicate yet strong,
empty yet utterly present, navigating between
felt presence and the unknown, calling the
divine Light to a fluid, responsive body. The
focus is on inviting the unobstructed flow of
Light/Chi to temper our being, through a
dialogue with Grace, through sensing our
Chakras, and through the discipline necessary to
develop correct alignment and a fluid spine,
graceful arms and hands, expressive feet and
legs, to achieve whole body free-flowing
undulations, lithe and free in our wholeness, a
Dancer of Oneness.
- Contemporary Mystical Persian Dance -
Divine Feminine
- The Mystical in Dance and Mystical
Choreography
- Ecstatic Ritual
- TrancenDance and Drum Ritual
-
Fluidity and Strength: Persian Dance
& Flamenco
-
Self-integration and Stress Relief
-
Classical Persian Dance
- Choreography
-
Creative Dance for children (ages:
3-5)
-
Classical, Contemporary and Folk
Persian Dance (ages: 5-13)
Class Descriptions:
Contemporary Mystical Persian Dance - Divine
Feminine
Guided by Sufi ritual
where movement becomes worship and a way of
finding inner direction from Source, this
workshop weaves together the ethereal beauty of
Persian dance with the physically charged yet
quietly intuitive power of Banafsheh’s active
expression of the form. Students learn short
dance sequences that are at once meditative and
exuberant.
Body Prayers:
Phase 1: The
Mystical in Dance
This unique journey takes
students through the seven primary elements that
constitute the mystical in dance. Drawing
primarily from contemporary Persian dance,
Flamenco and
Sufi ritual, students explore the
elements which correspond to each Chakra: Grounding, Alignment,
Circles, Waves, Shaking, Reverential Bowing and
Spirals.
Phase 2: Mystical
Choreography
Students
learn to combine
elements to create a complete dance piece. They
will also learn a piece of choreography in
this style and learn how to directly access the
unending source within to improvise and
choreograph using the elements.
Ecstatic
Ritual
This workshop
demystifies turning, offering access to
Sufi whirling meditation in a few simple steps.
This method allows people of all experience
levels to turn for a sustained period with ease.
Thus one enters into Sema, or pure
listening, and is led into movement. An age-old
practice employed by the legendary Sufi masters
Rumi and Shams, Sema dissolves our sense of
separateness, where one turns to become
nothing and everything. Class includes mystical poetry and
philosophy of Rumi, and thorough descriptions in
the practical beauty of Sufism- reverential
bowing, the release of energy blockages, and the
upward flow of Chi through the spine.
TrancenDance & Drum Ritual
The Turning & Sufi
Ritual accompanied by a 2½ hour live percussion
session. Meditative and ecstatic, Sufi and
ancient Persian rhythms deliver a primal dynamic
to the rituals, ending in an extended sema. This
popular gathering is often the follow-up to a
performance by Banafsheh or a complement to
another workshop.
Fluidity and Strength: Persian Dance & Flamenco
Guided by Sufi ritual, this workshop begins with
a thorough warm up in Yoga and Tai Chi. It
weaves together the sensual and ethereal beauty
of Persian dance with the fiery, passionate
power of Flamenco, uncovering the common ground
between these traditions.
Students will learn
the power of “less is more”, creating a sense of
drama with the bare, subtle minimum as well as
exploring movement that challenges their limits.
This highly energetic workshop is technique
based yet internal.
Self-Integration and Stress Relief
Learn Banafsheh’s
simple yet effective movement based in yoga, Tai
Chi, and devotional dance, also techniques for
grounding, for being in the present moment, and
to become more in touch with the body.
Participants will learn the Chakras and the
Chinese Meridian theory of the body’s energy
pathways, as well as selective acupuncture
points for the self-management of stress and to
achieve ongoing vitality. This movement/exercise
program decreases stress hormones like cortisol
and increases the feel-good endorphins, giving
one’s mood a natural boost which increases
energy and productivity. The program focuses the
mind not on the busy life but on the present
moment, as participants are led through quiet,
precise movements that emphasize balance,
elasticity and concentration.
Guided by the ancient motto “A sound mind in a
sound body”, participants will receive
stretching and strengthening exercises,
breathing exercises, a fitness program,
meditation and guided visualization all in one
workshop.
This
workshop has optimum effect when presented over
a weekend period every 2 months.
Classical Persian Dance
A
solo dance in its origin, the dance of early
Persia was primarily performed in royal court,
and inspired by architecture, calligraphy, and
art. The dance form developed as a direct
transparent response to traditional Persian
music, and is characterized by fluidity and
continuous movement, with emphasis on the
expression of the spine, arms, and hands. This
workshop teaches the graceful and ethereal
beauty of classical Persian dance, which of late
has been prohibited for women to perform before
the general public in Iran.
Choreography
Choreography literally means ‘drawing in space’.
Learn the tools and techniques of choreography
with
considerations to space, time, structure, music,
narrative, and movement. Banafsheh has
choreographed many performances in Classical and
Contemporary Persian, Flamenco, and open
formats, earning wide recognition and
international acclaim for her work.
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