“Banafsheh is one of the greatest sacred dancers I

have seen.” Deepak Chopra

For bookings contact: ☎ (310) 499-7100 bookings@banafsheh.orgwww.banafsheh.org

BanafshehInternationally 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. A powerful model for women in the Middle East and the world, Banafsheh empowers women and men to overcome what keeps them from living their full potential. She has performed and taught Master classes in a residency in the Dance Masters Series at the Dance Center of Columbia College in Chicago; BYU in Provo, Utah; and annually at the Tanzhaus, nrw in Dusseldorf since 2005. She has taught Master Classes at UCLA, CalArts, Duke University and CSULB among others. She was the resident Dance Faculty at the Movement Salon in NYC. She currently resides in Los Angeles and holds annual workshops in prominent retreat centers in Turkey, Europe, Canada and in the US in New York, California and Hawaii. She tours the world with her performances and teaching residencies.

“Breath-taking … startlingly beautiful.” SF Bay Guardian

“Part whirling dervish, part flamenco femme fatale, sensuous and audacious, Banafsheh’s dance is a mesmerizing foray into the body as trance mechanism; a DNA strand, supple, fluid and noble, come to life.” Los Angeles Times

ProgramsDance of Oneness® Master Classes & Residencies Format: 3 hrs, 2-day, 3-day, 5-day, 7-day, 30-day

Dance of Oneness® is about developing an organic dance technique based in listening, grounding, centering and freeing the midline of the body for energy to rise and descend without strain. It is a fusion of the art of dance: rigorous technique and self-expression, healing, and spiritual embodiment. Dance of Oneness® teaches the fundamentals of movement drawing from Sufi Ritual and Whirling, flamenco, Persian and Middle Eastern dances, modern release techniques, Tai chi and Chi gong. Mystical teachings and the poetry of Rumi, the Chinese Meridian system, the Chakra system and Western Anatomy are the theoretical groundwork. The benefits are manifold: Banafsheh breaks open flamenco, Middle Eastern dance and modern dance release techniques so dancers can become more present, magnetic, strong and sensual. She teaches the inner dimensions of movement and how dance can be approached as a spiritual practice. This approach not only gives depth and meaning to dance, it makes dancers more mesmerizing and alluring as performers. Banafsheh opens the secrets of Tai Chi and Chi gong to dancers and teaches them ways to conserve and gain energy through movement instead of losing energy.

For master classes and residencies, Banafsheh can work with recorded music or with her long-time multi-instrumentalist musical partner Tony Khalife on guitar, drums and vocals. A master class or residency combined with her performance or screening of her film, In the Fire of Grace are among Banafsheh’s favorite and most effective offerings!

Performances

Banafsheh performs in a wide variety of venues ranging from theaters to churches, temples and outdoor stages. She performs solos with the option of recorded music or 2 - 4 musicians and an orator. Her program ranges from 15 min - 90 min.

En/tranceBanafsheh explores the theme of trance as entering into union with the Divine. Based on the ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes, she interprets the 4 stages of the ceremony through dance and spoken word.

Eshq – Love’s Wild FireBanafsheh offers a full-evening program of dance and live poetry evening with scholar and mystic Andrew Harvey. The essence of the Sufi path of love and of Rumi’s vision is ”Eshq,” the Persian word for ”love”— the wild passion of love that burns in every cell for the Beloved Creator. Banafsheh and Andrew take the audience on a holy and explosive journey into Eshq through a marriage of Banafsheh’s ecstatic dance with Rumi’s most poignant texts and Andrew’s inspired teachings.

Outreach

Q&A sessions: Post-performance and post-film screening. Lecture/Demonstrations and stand alone lectures: Topics include Rumi, Sufism, Sufi Dance & Music, Persian Dance, Women in the Middle East, Women in Sufism. 1hr-open community guided dance session followed by free-style dance jam: Post-performance.

Current ResidenciesListening to the Body (3 hours - 3 days)

Exploring techniques that bring dancers in touch with allowing their movement to issue from listening to their body rather than telling it what to do. With this listening, dancers reflect on why they dance, connect to their sensuality and passion, and their own unique identity, using the arsenal of technique they have acquired over time from a new place inside. The emphasis is on clarity of form, developing stillness, use of breath, tempo, articulation, fluidity, strength, efficiency and conscious moving.

Sacred Dance of Whirling (2 - 7 days)

Step by step, dancers will learn the sacred dance of Whirling or Sama which means ‘to listen,’ complete with the meaning, philosophy and symbolism of this form which puts us directly in touch with the creative flow. They will find inspiration from the poetry of Rumi, which he composed and recited in unbroken rhyme and meter when he was whirling. Special attention is given to the significance of this ancient practice for contemporary dancers.

Wisdom of the Body - Experiential Anatomy and Physiology for Dancers (2 - 7 days)

We are blessed to have all the wonder of the universe right here in our bodies – operating mostly without our conscious awareness. What happens, though, when we DO bring our conscious awareness to our breath, our movement, our organs and our energy? How much more effective and connected can we become as dancers? Dancers will tune into the wisdom of their body and dance to

radiate more life force, joy and vitality. Through Banafsheh’s unique experiential anatomy and physiology program, they will take a dance journey into

the inner functioning and structures of their body that will enhance their dancing and give them a wealth of choreographic ideas.

Contemporary Persian and Middle Eastern Dances (3 hours - 7 days)

Dancers will learn Banafsheh’s original fusion of contemporary release techniques with Persian and Middle Eastern dances. By

learning to balance directed movement with listening to the body and allowing movement to emerge, the form cultivates a sensual, fluid

strength. Choreography (2 - 30 days)

Banafsheh is available for choreography commissions as well as teaching from her existing repertoire.

Sufi Dance Dance as a sacred practice is a meditation in movement that is peaceful, liberating and passionate, integrating all aspects of ourselves, both the spiritual and the sensual. It’s a way to embody ourselves fully in the NOW, transforming what keeps us small, broken and limited to greatness, wholeness and vastness on a level that both surpasses the mind and informs it simultaneously. It is a letting go of the unnecessary that bares us down to our essence, a shedding of the veils that keep us from experiencing what it really means to be alive. And what it really means to be alive, says the Dalai Lama, is to “embody the transcendent” - living the infinite in the finite day-to-day life - in all aspects of life.

The sacred Sufi dance of Sama or whirling as practiced by the Whirling Dervishes is a journey to embody the transcendent. Sama, which literally means to listen, is a meditation in letting the chaos of the voices in our head quiet down so we can listen to the voice of the Beloved in our heart. The ceremony of the Sama consists of seven sections, replete with great meaning and deep symbolism. The fifth section, is the actual whirling portion of the ceremony, maps out a complete spiritual path in four parts known as salutes, or Salams. The first salute is the complete recognition of the whirler or Samazan of the existence of the Creator - the testimony that YES the universe has divine origin and not only have I been simply created but created in the image of the Creator. The second salute expresses the Samazan’s recognition of the Creator within all that is created, namely seeing the holiness in all people and all of nature leading to a sense of reverence for all. The third salute is the annihilation of the self in the Beloved Creator. It is union, synonymous with the highest station in Buddhism known as Nirvana. Interestingly, the more one sees the holiness in others and in nature and feels reverent towards the created, the deeper annihilation and the truer the union with the Beloved.

The beauty of the path as outlined by the Sama is that it doesn’t end with union, but goes further. The fourth salute expresses service. True embodiment of the transcendent is to serve the Beloved in the world, to help others reach their highest potential. With the right palm reaching up in an outstretched arm, the Samazan receives the light of grace descending down to her heart which then she gives to the world through love reaching out from the facing down palm of her left outstretched arm…receiving and giving love.

Traditionally Sufi dance has been primarily a male dominant expression. Banafsheh is one of t he few women who has innovated the tradition and performs and teaches Sufi dance. Her innovation is not only that she is a woman dancing the form, but that she has also innovated the vocabulary of the form. She is welcomed in Turkey as a leading master of the form whereas in her own native count ry o f I ran , women’s dancing in public is banned all together.

In the Fire of Grace(Can be screened as an Evening Event)

Dancing Rumi’s Journey of the SoulA DVD of Dance and Passion

Banafsheh Sayyad and Andrew Harvey

In IN THE FIRE OF GRACE, Banafsheh interprets five stages of the soul’s archetypal journey to union with the Beloved in movement that marries as Rumi’s mystical vision does, the serene peace with the fierce gorgeous passion of the divine. She is accompanied by Andrew Harvey as the voice of Rumi, summoning her deeper into the flames of death and rebirth.

Andrew Harvey is the renowned mystical scholar, Rumi translator, poet, spiritual teacher, writer of over 30 books and architect of Sacred Activism. Harvey’s Rumi is a thunderous, poignant Shakespeare of the soul, catching one unaware and making retreat impossible. The dances are illumined by discussions exploring the urgency of Rumi’s message to our turbulent world and the devastating, glorious paradoxes of the mystical journey.

Music by ZARBANG, Davoud Azad, Dr. L. Subramaniam, Pejman Hadadi and Babak SharifiSpecial Feature: Interview with Andrew Harvey and Banafsheh Sayyad

Subtitles: Persian and Spanish

Length: Feature - 55 minutes, Interview - 30 minutes

“As an embodied mystic of the divine feminine, Banafsheh’s presentations are not performances but transmissions which transform your vision of dance forever. Dancer and dance become one initiatory flame of grace.” Andrew Harvey

Critical Acclaim"If the television show, "Are You Hot?" had a fraction of the heat that choreographer-dancer Banafsheh generated at Japan America Theater, the show would have been a hit. Talk about sensual: Iranian-born, locally based Banafsheh, a purveyor of trance dancing and unabashed hair tossing, presented "En/trance", two hours of exotic music and dance that fused ancient forms with postmodern punch. Banafsheh continuously brought down the packed house with theatrical flair. The flowing chiffon and velvet harem-like costumes - including veils that would make Salome jealous - helped amp up the startlingly beautiful whirling dervish moves." Los Angeles Times

“… ZARBANG built a richly coloured surface for the many-faced dance of Banafsheh who has the ability to combine different traditional roots to create one expression of dance. Her uniquely fluid and supple hands and arm movements fit perfectly to the crystal clear and transparent sounds of the Santur.” Badische Zeitung, Germany

“A group of performers who challenge stereotypes about Iranian identity, ZARBANG and Banafsheh’s work is entertaining and revolutionary, both.”Hadani Ditmars, Vancouver Sun

“Prayer #7, a breathtaking trance dance would be right at home in a modern dance concert. The dancers spiraled in tandem and around one another, expanding

and contracting space. Though never touching, the dancers stayed in touch - with one another and some force that

propelled them. Banafsheh's solo, Axis of Love impressed because of her pure and transparent

response to the music as performed by the fabulous ZARBANG.”

SF Bay Guardian

“The perfect way to open ritual aspects of Persian dance to a wider audience while preserving the sense of participating in something sacred.”LA Weekly

“Banafsheh has mastered the lore of traditional Persian, flamenco & tai chi movement.”Los Angeles Times

“Banafsheh, a font of exquisite per-petual motion, is a temple frieze come to life, a one-woman whir-ling dervish, trance spinning to a glorious percussive track by Pejman Hadadi as she beckons us into her exotic world.”Los Angeles Times

Critical Acclaim“In her bravura improvisational solo Search Banafsheh gloried in her hard-won technical prowess: initially swirling a translucent veil in complex patterns as she whirled, then lashing her hair rhythmically, next striking deeply sculpted flamenco poses accented with bursts of authoritative footwork and finishing with bold, mercurial undulations sustained by a spectacular command of balance.” Los Angeles Times

“Banafsheh’s trance dance was mind-blowing. She whirled as if possessed.”Los Angeles Times

“Beneath the Veil’s polished production design successfully celebrates the very culture whose excesses it skewers, thanks to the choreography by Banafsheh.”LA Weekly

“Director Jon Lawrence Rivera creates an electric ambience in Beneath the Veil, including sublime design elements and splendid dance sequences to a drumbeat, choreographed and performed by Banafsheh.”Los Angeles Backstage West, Critic’s Pick

“The highlight of the night was Banafsheh … amazing to watch … she moved fluidly enough to be part of the music, depicting the ultimate Persian woman … moving perfectly in circles for three minutes without a flaw. Like the whirling dervishes of Sufism she spun in a trance to reach the point of perfect meditation.” Red Magazine, Salt Lake City

“The fascinating dance and sounds of Persia, the modern-day Iran, transformed the concert hall to a landscape for the senses. The dancer and choreographer, Banafsheh translated the musical intensity and intricate nuances of ZARBANG with the language of the body. Her fluid movements in constant dynamism, at time floating, then whirling at high speed, opened our sights to new dimensions. With complete mastery of her body, she exuded power down to the tips of her fingers.”Badische Zeitung, Germany

Testimonials Banafsheh reveals the secrets of the dancer. I have learned more from her about how to move in a few months than I have learned all my life being a student of ballet from 4 years of age to studying at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance.Raphaelle Kessedjian, Student at the Movement Salon, NYC

Banafsheh it has been a long time since I have been wowed by a teacher, your authenticity born of your deep life journey has inspired me deeply.Mirror gift to the return home Holy gratitude I sing to you Dancing TroubadourYou areHope for the planetI am humbled, inspired and blessed by your Soul ArtCarrie Herbert, Cambodia, Body of Light, Turkey

I have experienced an internal Revolution and I can dance freely once again. Banafsheh guided me to regain the fluidity of my spine, and from there-- a new love language was brought forth from within me. A love language of movement! I am now aware of the entire world as my canvas. I can dance-up the spaces around me with sacred, circular geometric designs... and the whole while -feeling wild love- create sacred spaces for any unnecessary pain to be fully recognized and released, allowing my true feelings of love for life to ring out.Kathryn Fleming, US, Dancing the Divine, Omega

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. 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.Joan Englander, US, Southern CA workshops

I had lost my passion for the dance when I experienced a trauma in my life, but because of you, It has been restored. You are my favorite dancer of all times, as I can see that you are One with the Dancer of the Universe. Jasmine Bonk, Los Angeles, Dance Your Passion, Esalen

Testimonials To Banafsheh,I love how the sacred pulse of The Dance is so alive in you I love how the small child who so courageously refused to betray the gift of Dance I love how you awaken The Dance in othersI 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 freedomI 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 - 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 Barry Sherman, Charlotte, Intro. to Dance of Oneness, North Carolina Ballet

Your movements have been imprinted on my soul and in the fibers of my muscles. I am forever changed by this trip. I have had a taste, caught a glimpse - how could I forget it? I have so many tools for accessing my inner sanctuary - THANK YOU!!! Thank you for the most beautiful time of my life. I am taking with me a deeper and DEEPER sense that I am a beautiful human being and woman. This has been an affirmation that I am no longer wounded / addicted / etc. etc. I am READY. I am the woman I want to be!! Basically, I am experiencing a love affair with me.Behin Behroozi, Spiral of Love, Turkey

Your Spiral of Love in Turkey is a masterpiece! You created a genuine program where all the ingredients: poetry, 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. Irina Azarova, Spiral of Love, Gokcedere, Turkey

July / August 2011

JULY/AUGUST 2011!!"#$%"! !&

AY U R V E D A A N D H E A LT H

FEATURES

28 The Graceful Indian Martial Art of KalarippayattuFor Yukiko Amaya, the lunging, stick fighting, and complex sequencingin this ancient Indian martial art has helped her find a profound stateof presence that is at the crux of this spiritual practice.

24 The Highest PassIn this feature-length cinematic adventure, Adam Schomer takes a trip with spiritual teacher Anand Mehrotra, a film crew, and a group of avid bikers along the world's highest roads in the Himalayan Mountains.

32 Michael FrantiThis year Michael Franti is touring with a new album, continuing the ongoing commitments to his Yoga practice, and appearing at Wanderlust.

Community10 Get Up and Go12 Open Doors14 Seen and Heard16 Seva in Action

Teacher Profile20 Ally Hamilton

Sitting Down With22 Yuval Ron

Ayurveda36 Boosting Your

Immune System

Yoga Therapy38 Music and Yoga

Español56 Local Ofrece Alternativa A La Atención Sanitaria Vita Local Foundation Offers Alternative to Vital Healthcare

Food & Home40 Farmers' Corner, Cool As a Cucumber42 Cooling Spa Waters

In Every Issue46 Meditation48 Media50 What's on My Nightstand62 Astrology64 Yantra

JULY/AUGUST 2011

ON THE COVER:Photograph by: Matt CallahanFrom the book: Spa Water by Pam Wenzel

Don't Miss Lady Yoga's Adventures on pg 54

16

14

32

layoga_july2011_text.indd 3 5/07/11 9:36 AM!"! !#$%&'$!JULY/AUGUST 2011

Master of mystical Persian dance, when Banafsheh teaches or performs, she moves with an attitude of liq-uid gold pouring over silk velvet. Banafsheh embodies what it means to dance with abandon, what it means to fully live the ecstatic poetry of Rumi, of luminous moon-light on radiant silver clouds. Watching her dance is to glimpse something both otherworldly as well as fully grounded in the momentous meaning of the present.

For Banafsheh, dance is a connection with the divine, with the infinite, and is an expression of oneness with the universe through this artistic language. To create the soundtrack for her practice, she often collaborates with skilled sacred musicians, including the heartfelt Tony Khalife.

Banafsheh and her friend and colleague, Andrew Harvey, the mystic who frequently writes and speaks on sacred activism, the poetic words of Rumi, and the path of the sacred, together created a DVD called In the Fire and Grace. She spoke to LA YOGA while still unpacking from her recent trip to Turkey, where she led the retreat: Dance of Oneness, Upward Spiral of Love.

Felicia Marie Tomasko: When you dance, what do you call upon for inspiration?

Banafsheh: I call upon the Beloved, which in essence is all-that-is, so everything inspires me to dance. I dance to become empty, exorcising myself of emotional buildups, so that the Divine music can play through me. Rumi lik-ens the human body to the ney or the reed flute. He says, “We have two mouths like the ney, one mouth is hidden in the lips of the Beloved.”

FMT: How do you connect with music when you dance?

B: I become the music. Sometimes, I feel I am one of the instruments in the orchestra, other times I am the whole orchestra.

FMT: How do you connect with music as a performer and as a teacher?

B: As a performer, I echo the music and feel moved by it, especially when I improvise with musicians where we create in the now as a group channel for Divine music. As a teacher, the music is sometimes the source of choreography and other times I begin with a choreog-raphy I want to teach, then I choose the piece of music based on the sequence. In my classes I use music to open people’s hearts, wanting for them to connect deeply with themselves, with the dance, and with others.

FMT: What was the impetus for creating the DVD: In the Grace of Fire?

B: I have been performing and touring since 1999 and have an extensive archive of concert footage, which I have never released to the public despite the great urging from my audiences. Shortly after I began teaching and performing with my dear friend and colleague, Andrew Harvey, he urged me to create a DVD of our work to-gether. From this kind of presentation, I could see a real value emerging. I see my work and offering as an invita-tion to all, especially women, to break through resistance and express themselves fully, as has been my own journey as a Middle Eastern woman finding herself in dance – one of the most tabooed public activities in the region.

spotlight

BanafshehBY FELICIA M. TOMASKO

layoga_july2011_text.indd 52 5/07/11 9:38 AM

ReviewReview of Banafsheh’s live performance Into the Vast in Madrid, Spain on March 15, 2013, featured in Spain’s leading newspaper, El Pais

Voyage of Separation of Soul from BodyThe dance performance Into the Vast invokes the hypnotic essence of Persian dance

By MIGUEL PÉREZ MARTÍN 3/16/13  

Presence, trance, surrendering to hypnotic tribal music, were all elements of the intricate performance created by Persian dancer Banafsheh, the Persian percussionists of ZARBANG and Greek musician Matthaios Tsahourides for the closing night of the Festival of Sacred Arts at Teatros del Canal in Madrid. Into the Vast is much more than an hour and a half of entertainment. It is a voyage rich with feeling that surpasses all common sense to demonstrate the separation of soul from body, just as Turkish Dervishes do when they whirl to enter into trance.

Blue Dress: The Invocation of the Divine. Banafsheh dances softly to the rhythm of the water drum, her arms moving in hypnotic slow motion up towards the sky. Each movement is intensely meaningful as if calculated to the smallest millimeter, as a voice claims in Persian and then in English, the poetry of Jalāl-e-Din Rumi: ‘I cried, oh my hypnotised heart, where are you going? Silence, said the Emperor. She comes towards us’. Sayyad, accompanied by the lament of the Greek Pontic Lyra of Tsahourides, realizes her inner voyage to abandon her body. After her gradual departure, the musician enter into improvisation gradually building towards a climax.

Black Dress: Abandoning the Body. Banafsheh dresses in dark and frill to dance to the rhythm of the Flamenco Cajón, without abandoning the gracefully subtle movements of Persian dance. At this time, she asks herself: ‘When will I acknowledge my own divinity?’ This is not a replica of traditional Persian dances; it is an innovative fusing of the tribal, the ancestral, and the modern. The years of devotion to contemporary Persian dance are apparent in her movements and gestures which have earned her great recognition in North America, Europe and Australia. In the background, the musicians start to join in the trance and surrender as the dancer whirls with her long mane floating in the air. The music transports us to the plains and the deserts, to the wind that blows between the sand dunes, and the Pontic Lyra carries hints form Baroque Masters and Balkan songs.

White Dress: The Joy and the Glory. The music accelerates and Banafsheh, in white, and a red veil in her hands, is out of her body. The instruments travel through different genres of music: from dervish mysticism to tribal rhythms, from savage to Bulería. Banafsheh dances with heartfelt bewilder - as she has also studied Flamenco - to arrive at an earthy dance with legs in wide stance, and from there, onward to her endless whirling. She loses her face between her voluptuous manes and hits her chest as she dances without stopping. The audience has now been driven crazy and do not resist to move their heads, shake, and break into a clapping rhythm while the music accelerates and the trance is converted into a shared climax throughout the concert hall. All the way from the balcony to the orchestra, the audience follows the rhythms with their feet, rotating their heads in circles and whistling. The music comes to a robust stop and the lights go up: the soul, that had escaped from the body, now returns. The bliss of the voyage converts into unstoppable applause.

JULY/AUGUST 2011!!"#$%"! !&

AY U R V E D A A N D H E A LT H

FEATURES

28 The Graceful Indian Martial Art of KalarippayattuFor Yukiko Amaya, the lunging, stick fighting, and complex sequencingin this ancient Indian martial art has helped her find a profound stateof presence that is at the crux of this spiritual practice.

24 The Highest PassIn this feature-length cinematic adventure, Adam Schomer takes a trip with spiritual teacher Anand Mehrotra, a film crew, and a group of avid bikers along the world's highest roads in the Himalayan Mountains.

32 Michael FrantiThis year Michael Franti is touring with a new album, continuing the ongoing commitments to his Yoga practice, and appearing at Wanderlust.

Community10 Get Up and Go12 Open Doors14 Seen and Heard16 Seva in Action

Teacher Profile20 Ally Hamilton

Sitting Down With22 Yuval Ron

Ayurveda36 Boosting Your

Immune System

Yoga Therapy38 Music and Yoga

Español56 Local Ofrece Alternativa A La Atención Sanitaria Vita Local Foundation Offers Alternative to Vital Healthcare

Food & Home40 Farmers' Corner, Cool As a Cucumber42 Cooling Spa Waters

In Every Issue46 Meditation48 Media50 What's on My Nightstand62 Astrology64 Yantra

JULY/AUGUST 2011

ON THE COVER:Photograph by: Matt CallahanFrom the book: Spa Water by Pam Wenzel

Don't Miss Lady Yoga's Adventures on pg 54

16

14

32

layoga_july2011_text.indd 3 5/07/11 9:36 AM

Page 2

JULY/AUGUST 2011!!"#$%"! !&'!!

FMT: What makes In the Grace of Fire dif-ferent from your live performances?

B: There is no live audience: It’s literally me and the Divine. Having not had much experience with dancing purely for record-ing, I approached the filming experience like a dance with the Divine. I performed the dances from beginning to end without stopping and repeated them a number of times.

FMT: What has been the response to the DVD thus far?

B: The response I have received is much more than I had hoped. People feel inspired by the invitation to embody the Transcen-dent fully: in both peace and passion as outlined in the five stages of the path in the DVD. People tell me that seeing this helps them to live knowing that everything that happens in our lives is an act of Grace, or in other words, to live love.

FMT: Speak about your collaboration with both Rumi and Andrew Harvey.

B: The poet Rumi has always been my spiri-

tual guide and teacher. He brought An-drew and I together at Kripalu in 2007, when we began teaching and perform-ing the five stages of the spiritual path as set forth by Rumi – The Call, Falling in Love, The Dark Night, Union, and Living as the Lover. Collaborating with Andrew has been an amazing journey as he so passionately and utterly has given all of himself to our offering, supporting me so completely along the way and encourag-ing me to take flight.

FMT: How does your study of Chinese Medicine and healing connect with your work in music and dance?

B: I approach dance and music as a way to heal, to become whole. Chinese medi-cine teaches us about the management of our energy, the meridians being like our energy flow channels and focal points. My teaching is in part based on merid-ian energy flow, and I have also developed movements for each of the seven bodily chakras. I dance with the intention of be-ing open to that vast field of healing, and

by embodying myself fully in each moment – thus being empty to channel light, love, and grace.

FMT: How does Yoga connect to dancing for you?

B: The process of calling on the Beloved, being open to heal and to be divine, be the Oneness through dance – is a kind of Yoga. In this manner, Yoga and dance for me are connected processes in that they both de-velop and prepare the body to be a chan-nel for light and love in the world, and one is essential and integral to the other.

Banafsheh teaches regularly in her current home city of Los Angeles as well as throughout the world.For more information on In the Fire of Grace, Banafsheh’s teaching, performance, and retreat schedule, as well as her certification in Dance of Oneness®, visit: Namah.net

Felicia M. Tomasko is the Editor-in-Chief of LA Yoga.

layoga_july2011_text.indd 53 5/07/11 9:38 AM

ReviewReview of Banafsheh’s live performance Into the Vast in Madrid, Spain on March 15, 2013, featured in Spain’s leading newspaper, El Pais

Voyage of Separation of Soul from BodyThe dance performance Into the Vast invokes the hypnotic essence of Persian dance

By MIGUEL PÉREZ MARTÍN 3/16/13  

Presence, trance, surrendering to hypnotic tribal music, were all elements of the intricate performance created by Persian dancer Banafsheh, the Persian percussionists of ZARBANG and Greek musician Matthaios Tsahourides for the closing night of the Festival of Sacred Arts at Teatros del Canal in Madrid. Into the Vast is much more than an hour and a half of entertainment. It is a voyage rich with feeling that surpasses all common sense to demonstrate the separation of soul from body, just as Turkish Dervishes do when they whirl to enter into trance.

Blue Dress: The Invocation of the Divine. Banafsheh dances softly to the rhythm of the water drum, her arms moving in hypnotic slow motion up towards the sky. Each movement is intensely meaningful as if calculated to the smallest millimeter, as a voice claims in Persian and then in English, the poetry of Jalāl-e-Din Rumi: ‘I cried, oh my hypnotised heart, where are you going? Silence, said the Emperor. She comes towards us’. Sayyad, accompanied by the lament of the Greek Pontic Lyra of Tsahourides, realizes her inner voyage to abandon her body. After her gradual departure, the musician enter into improvisation gradually building towards a climax.

Black Dress: Abandoning the Body. Banafsheh dresses in dark and frill to dance to the rhythm of the Flamenco Cajón, without abandoning the gracefully subtle movements of Persian dance. At this time, she asks herself: ‘When will I acknowledge my own divinity?’ This is not a replica of traditional Persian dances; it is an innovative fusing of the tribal, the ancestral, and the modern. The years of devotion to contemporary Persian dance are apparent in her movements and gestures which have earned her great recognition in North America, Europe and Australia. In the background, the musicians start to join in the trance and surrender as the dancer whirls with her long mane floating in the air. The music transports us to the plains and the deserts, to the wind that blows between the sand dunes, and the Pontic Lyra carries hints form Baroque Masters and Balkan songs.

White Dress: The Joy and the Glory. The music accelerates and Banafsheh, in white, and a red veil in her hands, is out of her body. The instruments travel through different genres of

music: from dervish mysticism to tribal rhythms, from savage to Bulería. Banafsheh dances with heartfelt bewilder - as she has also studied Flamenco - to arrive at an earthy dance with legs in wide stance, and from there, onward to her endless whirling. She loses her face between her voluptuous manes and hits her chest as she dances without stopping. The audience has now been driven crazy and do not resist to move their heads, shake, and break into a clapping rhythm while the music accelerates and the trance is converted into a shared climax throughout the concert hall. All the way from the balcony to the orchestra, the audience follows the rhythms with their feet, rotating their heads in circles and whistling. The music comes to a robust stop and the lights go up: the soul, that had escaped from the body, now returns. The bliss of the voyage converts into unstoppable applause.

Selected Workshops/ResidenciesUSA

Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago, IL Old Town School of Folk Music, Chicago, IL Second Nature, Chicago, IL Duke University, Durham, NC North Carolina Ballet, Charlotte, NCKripalu Center, Berkshires, MAMaryland School of Ballet, MAHall of Mirrors, Glen Echo, MA City College of NY, NYC, NYIntegral Yoga, NYC, NYOmega Institute, Rhinebeck, NYMenla Mountain Center for Happiness, Phoenicia, NYMovement Salon, NYC, NYUCLA, Los Angeles, CACalifornia Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CACalifornia State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CAEsalen Institute, Big Sur, CAPacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CAOjai Foundation, Ojai, CAOjai Retreat Center, Ojai, CAOjai Sanctuary, Ojai, CAExhale Center for Sacred Movement, Venice, CADance Arts Academy, West Hollywood, CAPacific Arts Center, Los Angeles, CAWheel of Well-Being, Los Angeles, CASwerve, West Hollywood, CAGolden Bridge Yoga, West Hollywood, CAYoga West, West Hollywood, CARemo Music Center, North Hollywood, CADance Place San Diego, San Diego, CADance & Company, San Diego, CACampbell Community Center, San Jose, CAPresidio Performing Arts Center, SF, CASF Dance Center, SF, CASacred Art of Living & Dying, Bend, Oregon Daytona Beach Community College, Daytona Beach, FL Sea Breeze High School, Daytona Beach, FL

Selected Workshops/ResidenciesInternational Hollyhock, Cortes Island, BC Dance Centre, Vancouver, BCUnlimited Yoga, Vancouver, BC Tanzhaus, Dusseldorf, GermanyCologne Dance Center, Cologne, Germany Orient Academy, Frankfurt, GermanyTango Studio, Frankfurt, GermanyYa Wali Sufi Center, Munich, GermanyDelcanto Cultural Center, Freiburg, Germany Odeon Theater, Vienna, Austria House of Peace, Vienna, Austria Flamenco Center, Stockholm, Sweden Marikas Dance Studio, Stockholm, Sweden Danslokal vid Odenplan, Stockholm, Sweden Mutlu Baba Center, Yalova, TurkeySeyyar Mekan Atolye, Istanbul, TurkeyChitik Dance Collective, Istanbul, TurkeyJames & Alex Dance Studios, Dubai Center for Contemporary Dance, Barcelona, SpainLa Salamandra, Barcelona, Spain Amor De Dios Studio, Madrid, Spain Escuela Mayor de Danza, Madrid, Spain Centro de La Danza, Marta de la Vega, Madrid, Spain Espacio Movimiento, Madrid, Spain La Pyramides, Madrid, Spain Aula 11, Madrid, Spain Gimnasio Columnas, Madrid, Spain Escuela Oriental de Christiane Azem, Madrid, Spain Centro Persepolis, Madrid, Spain Casa Persa, Madrid, Spain Artesanando, Vitoria, Spain Centre Civic de Pedret, Girona, Spain Pireneos Sur Festival, The Pyrenees, Spain Elpida’s Dance Studio, Amsterdam, Holland Scuola di danza del Ventre Marina Nour, Milan, Italy

Selected Performances USAUCLA Dance Department, Los Angeles, CA Redcat Theater, Disney Hall, Los Angeles, CALA County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CALos Angeles Theater Center, Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda Theater, Hollywood, CASaban Theater, Los Angeles, CAAratani Theater, Los Angeles, CAPacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA Torrance Cultural Center, Torrance, CAHuntington Beach Library Theater, HB, CAMuseum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CANeuroscience Institute, San Diego, CAPalace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CASan Mateo College, San Mateo, CACalifornia State University Fresno, CAThe Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago, IL University of Chicago, Chicago IL Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MACambridge Multicultural Arts Center, Boston, MAUniversity at Albany, Albany, NYTilles Center for the Performing Arts, NYFashion Institute of Technology, NYAlwan Center for the Arts, NYThe Abode, New Lebanon, NYBrigham Young University, Utah University of Memphis, Memphis, TN Madonna University, Detroit, MICentro Austriano, Tampa, FL Conant Center, Atlanta, GAPost Theater, Atlanta, GADuke University, Durham, NC Eisemann Center, Dallas, TXGlen Echo Dance Complex, Glen Echo, MD Hollywood Performing Arts Center, Miami, FL Knights Center, University of Miami, Miami, FL Museum of History & Industry, Seattle, WAOld Dominican University, Norfolk, VAWest Charleston Performing Arts Center, LV, NV

Special Appearances

ABC Home with Deepak Chopra, New York CityEsalen Institute, Big Sur, CA Kripalu Center with Coleman Barks, Lennox, MAOmega Institute, Rhinebeck, NY

Selected Performances International

Chan Center, UBC, Vancouver, Canada Capilano College Theater, Vancouver, Canada Centennial Theater, Vancouver, BC, Canada Kaymeek Centre, Vancouver, Canada Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada Toronto Performing Arts Center, Toronto, Canada Jane Mallet Theater, Toronto, Canada John Bassett Theater, Toronto, Canada Salle Marie-Gerin Lajoie, Montreal, Canada Concordia University, Montreal, Canada University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada Orpheus Theater SAIT, Calgari, Canada Milner Library Theater, Edmonton, Canada Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, England University of London, England Tanzhaus, nrw, Dusseldorf, GermanyAlte Feuerwache, Cologne, GermanyGallus Theater, Frankfurt, GermanyE-Werk, Freiburg, GermanyKultur Verein, Karlsruhe, GermanyGasteig, Munich, GermanyMusik Halle, Hamburg, GermanyAudiriax, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, GermanyOdeon Theater, Vienna, Austria Tropentheater, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsDelft Aula TU, Delft, NetherlandsSalle Centrale Madeleine, Geneva, Switzerland Musikhalle, Zurich, Switzerland Beaux Arts, Brussels, BelgiumMercat de Les Flors, Barcelona, Spain Paruquea del Retiro, Madrid, Spain Puertas de Castilla, Murcia, Spain Teatros Canal, Madrid, Spain Templo Debod, Madrid, Spain Centro Culturale Candiani, Venice, ItalyCaerana di San Marco, Treviso, ItalyTeatro San Fedele, Milan, ItalyCosmopolite, Oslo, NorwayKulturkirken Jakob, Oslo, NorwaySodra Theater, Stockholm, Sweden Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden Lordag, Gothenburg, Sweden Dorothy Winstone Theater, Auckland, New Zealand Karralyka Centre, Melbourne, Australia University of Technical Science, Sydney, Australia

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