The more the Moment comes in its fullness and certainty, the more it destroys what isn’t real.
Sufi Meditations with Dunya
Slow Movement & Deep Heart Dance
“These Sufi practices, from the Shattari lineage in which the movement is the meditation, have helped me find an intimate and comforting experience of my body, my dance, and my Self.” — Dunya
Without words, with beautiful music, with eyes open or closed, in the continual flow of breath awareness, we move through the crust of harried surface worries and into our huge spiritual intelligence. These practices regenerate and heal. They help ground us. They help interrupt the cacophony of the world and the unhelpful patterns of personality to reconnect us with who, where, and what we really are which can include experiences of clarity, peace, and joy.
What We Will Do
I will guide a period of relaxing, wordless instruction to focus our attention, then lead us into simple, rich moving meditations to sink down a couple of notches inside the self, touching Self. There will be a spacious period for participants to immerse in their own intuitive movement which digests and integrates meditative efforts.
We may move and dance sitting, standing, or lying down. Please bring a thick mat/blanket and cushion to be comfortable.
Who Am I
I bring time as a Juilliard trained professional NYC dancer and NEA choreographer followed by two decades of immersive training with an Iraqi Sufi Master that catalyzed spiritual understanding. I’ve been an academic educator as well as Sufi Master. For many years I’ve traveled around the world teaching.
I’ve known Aurel a long time. It’s an honor to be her teacher and share the value of a deep search in the dance that lies closest to the heart of who we each are in our deepest self.
I hope you will join me and give yourself this sweet opportunity
Please bring:
– a mat or blanket
– a veil if you have one (3 yard length of lightweight fabric)
– journal & pen
“I am in love with the journey…I’m learning something very deep, something words would never cover…” – 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
“This morning I found gravity or gravity found me…I was feeling the plasma of life force. The waves. My head started to draw circles and I found a whole new world to move in.” — D.A
"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.
“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.
