Sunday May 4th Zoom
with Dunya
Sunday May 4th
11am – 12:30pm ET US with Tea Talk following
Donation Sliding Scale $10 – $150
Time Zone Converter
https://dateful.com/time-zone-converter
It is with delight that I envision moving with you! Come share that special deepening in a wordless sea of music, carried by awareness of breathing, moving through our crust of harried worries into an enormity of Being that heals and inspires us. If you are a seasoned practitioner, I can’t wait to see you again soon. If you are new to Dancemeditation, welcome ~ I look forward to your company. —Dunya McPherson
Session Guidelines
Meeting Prologue & Login: I’ll open our meeting room a half hour before we start. Log in any time during the Prologue period, making sure you have enough time to check your connection and get settled. Your mic will be muted to support a peaceful ambience as we prepare for our meditation. It is a lovely time to connect with others. An additional option, since music is playing, you may like to use this prologue time to “do your own body.”
Session Format: I will guide the initial concentrating practices for us to sink within. We typically follow this with time to unfold and explore on our own. There may be interpersonal group Lead & Follow, then unfolding into individual intuitive movement flow. Always we take time to Rest.
Tea Chat Conclusion: You are welcome to stay for a concluding conversation period of 30′ where we share our nonverbal session experiences. We ‘witness’ one another here. And we relax together, floating back up to the surface of our consciousness.
Process Support
Gallery View: I suggest using Gallery View throughout. Once we begin, I will spotlight myself for the instruction period so you can see me clearly. I may return us periodically to Gallery View during the session so we know we are side-by-side virtually as we move. Though we do most of our movement with closed eyes, a glimpse at others can be comforting.
Our Time Together: Create an undisturbed, comfortable, spiritual ambience for yourself with reliable WiFi. Please turn off your phone. You’ll need to be close enough to your computer to see and hear me. I hope you’ll choose to keep your video on so that we may see each other. This means your background – house, closet, walls, doors, windows – will be visible to others. Be mindful of your privacy. You might want to have your journal & pen nearby, as well as a veil if you have one.
“Dancemeditation is like exploring a dark but safe cave where I discover gems of indescribable beauty.” —Chava
“During tonight’s session, I noticed how much I lean into your presence and anchor, Dunya, to find the courage to be alone with myself, to venture into my inner world. If it weren’t for your commitment to this work, I would have missed out on knowing the depths of myself and feeling the intimacy of being present. I would have skimmed the surface of so many moments, afraid of the void, the pain, the vastness of everything. I feel I can trust the authenticity of your movements and your expressive soul. Because I know you are there, I dare to be here.” – G. M., psychotherapist
“Thank you for returning me to myself. I’ve felt lost. My veil skimmed the carpet as if I were an octopus floating, being carried, wanting to touch and play. I lost the space between movement and breath. They got lost together. The space filled with healing nectar. “ – DLA
“The work transcends the therapeutic— it’s profoundly finding the self as part of the spiritual path.” – P.
“I was tickled…by ‘it all,’ the infinite in everything…Especially me & my experience.” – J.
“These Dancemeditation sessions have meant so much to me. I am deeply grateful to you for making them possible for us all to be together while going down deep. It is hard to describe what I have been experiencing. The work helps me access my heart body. Nurturing myself, feeling the softness of my animal self.” – S.
“I am in love with the journey…I’m learning something very deep, something words would never cover…” – K. K.
“The continuous flow took me deep within. I experienced myself from the inside out. Time stopped. It seemed like we had just begun when you said it was time to ‘rest.’ I actually checked my watch because I couldn’t fathom that so much time had passed.” — K.
Dunya Dianne McPherson is a pioneer in the field of embodied mysticism and the founder of Dancemeditation™. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Juilliard and a Masters in Writing from Leslie University. She trained for two decades with Sufi Master Adnan Sarhan and did significant study in Middle Eastern Dance with Elena Lentini and Anahid Sofian, and in yoga with Shri Dharma Mittra.
A critically acclaimed dancer and choreographer, Dunya Dianne McPherson has been described by Jennifer Dunning in the New York Times as “…a modern day Isadora Duncan…approaching Ruth St. Denis…a vibrant performer…an unusual and talented choreographer.” Carman Moore in the Village Voice called her, “…killer creative choreographer…”, and Elizabeth Zimmer in Dance Magazine, has said “…she evoked something essentially female, essentially powerful…the pure, solid dancing has never seemed so welcome…”
She was awarded a prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Choreography Fellowship, as well as commissions which include Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, Dance Uptown, Barnard College, Victoria College of the Arts, Santa Fe Performing Arts Center, and she is the recipient of numerous grants including the CETA Artists Grant.
She has been a faculty member at Barnard College, NYU, and Montclair State University, and the Chair of the Modern Dance Department at Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia. Artist-in-Residencies include Swarthmore, Hunter, Oberlin, Amherst, University of Texas, and Princeton University.
She has been a featured presenter at major healing arts centers including: Kripalu, The Contemplative Studies Institute at OSU, the Netherlands Mystik Festival, and for the late Claudio Naranjo’s Institutes in Mexico, South America, and Europe. She was a Featured Presenter at the global 2020 Embodiment Conference.
Dunya’s first book Skin of Glass: Finding Spirit in the Flesh, a memoir of her journey of dance and mysticism, is admired and beloved. She is a contributing author to several books on healing and spirituality. Her new guidebook and practice companion is Sojourn the Inner Heaven: Movement Meditations for Awakening