Life & Work with Banafsheh Sayyad of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Banafsheh Sayyad.

Banafsheh, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m from Iran and currently live in the mountains of Topanga, California, the ancestral land of the native Tongva people whom I salute. I am a spiritual embodiment teacher, author, dancer, choreographer, activist, and founder of Dance of Oneness®— a Divine Feminine lineage for healing, spiritual embodiment and transformation. I am also an acupuncturist and herbalist with an MFA in Dance and a Masters in Chinese Medicine.

When I was a little girl in Iran, I would dance and turn in my room, feeling the waves of euphoria and bliss wash over me. I didn’t know it then, but I was entering the same ecstatic current that has moved the great Sufi mystics for centuries. That turning was my first taste of what it means to become a channel for the Divine, where body and soul unite in one sacred motion.

Years later, when I was forced to leave my homeland, I carried both beauty and pain in my body — the beauty of an ancient culture rooted in spirit and poetry, and the pain of oppression, displacement, and loss. My path became one of weaving these threads together through movement — reclaiming the body as sacred ground, the heart as a gateway to the wisdom of love, and life itself as a prayer in motion.

At the heart of this path have been the transmissions of the Divine Feminine — the living current of unconditional love, compassion, and fierce grace. She has been my most intimate guide, leading me to embody her loving wisdom, to let her dance through me and through others, and to share her presence as a living transmission with the world.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not been a smooth road for me—though the challenges became some of my greatest initiations.
I’ve always loved to dance, but turning that love into disciplined training—and then choosing it as a path—met real resistance, both from my family and from the larger culture I came from.

I come from a lineage of performing artists. My father, Parviz Sayyad, is an iconic Iranian actor, filmmaker, writer, and theater director whose work has helped shape modern Iranian cinema and theater—yet I wasn’t trained in dance growing up. I trained myself.

In Iran, where Islam has dominated public life for centuries—and more overtly and strictly since the 1979 Revolution—dance is generally viewed as sinful or shameful, and that perspective shaped much of the opposition I faced. These forces don’t only exist externally; they can seep into a person’s psyche. This struggle made me intimately familiar with the energy of opposition—social restriction, disapproval, and the ways I internalized them as self-doubt. Yet I refused to let any of it overpower me or keep me from following my passion.

Persisting through that resistance forged resilience, clarity, and courage—and it gave me deep empathy for anyone who feels disempowered in pursuing what they love. I understand how hard it is to keep choosing your own truth when the world is telling you not to, and that understanding is woven into everything I teach.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I teach and perform the dance and spiritual embodiment modality I created called Dance of Oneness®, which is also the foundation of my book, Dance of Oneness: Embody Love and Luminosity to Transform Your Life. Dance of Oneness® is a holistic path rooted in Divine Feminine wisdom that weaves three interrelated streams: dance and movement technique, wisdom teachings, and healing. Movement grounds us in the body and awakens presence, vitality, and freedom. The wisdom stream connects us to the great spiritual lineages rooted in the Divine Feminine, and mystics, especially Rumi, whose words are living transmissions of divine love. And the healing stream draws from Chinese Medicine, energy practices, and somatic awareness, restoring balance and harmony in body, heart, mind and soul.

I have performed and taught internationally for many years at centers like Esalen Institute, Kripalu Center, and Omega Institute, guiding people to come home to the body as a source of joy, wisdom, and transformation.

Defying cultural taboos around dance, I created a feminine iteration of Sufi whirling and forged a path of self-sovereignty that honors the body as a sacred expression of the soul.

I have reimagined Sufi dance—traditionally male-led in many contexts—through a contemporary spirit that is at once sensuous, audacious, and reverent, bringing the Divine Feminine into the center of the practice. What sets me apart is my synthesis of sacred movement, ancient wisdom lineages, and soul-led engagement with the pressing issues of our time. This approach has profoundly influenced dancers and choreographers internationally, awakening a new understanding of movement as a vehicle for divine expression and positive social change. It has also helped shift how many Iranians view dance—elevating it from something taboo or marginal to a respected art form and a powerful language of cultural and spiritual expression.

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
What helps me live my best in life is spending time in nature, gathering with people I love, reading a variety of books, minimizing my time on social media, and listening to inspirational talks. In terms of resources, I return to mystical poetry and wisdom teachings—especially Rumi—and I love talks that deepen embodiment, creativity, and inner freedom. I also meditate and have a daily sacred dance and movement practice that supports focus and nervous-system regulation, rather than relying on apps.

Pricing:

• $19.99 Book

Contact Info:

• Website: https://danceofoneness.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/banafshehdance/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BanafshehSayyad/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/banafshehdance/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dancemystical

Image Credits
HNR Photography