Miriam Peretz weaves movement and ritual together to create safe, communal spaces for healing and empowered embodiment. She is a life-long dancer who has immersed herself in the study of dance forms and sacred movement practices from around the world, focusing on Central Asian dance, and the mystical practices of Sufi whirling and ritual.

Miriam sees dance as a uniquely powerful means of expressing deep emotion and spiritual yearning, and therefore the perfect embodiment of prayer.
Miriam is the creator of Nava Dance, and Integral Dance, both modalities for holistic dance practice that weave traditional dance forms with somatic inquiry, embodied intention, and breath awareness. Miriam offers workshops and retreats worldwide.

In Being Gathering, she will give two workshops of dance. One of them, Turning Towards the Heart, will include group prayer, breathwork, movement rituals, Sufi ritual and whirling practices, sacred circle dances, singing and chanting. The intention is to allow these experiences to help us expand our heart’s capacity and to enter the place of unity with all creation.

The other one, with the name Integral Dance, is a synthesis of core movement principles, heart centric gesture and deep somatic awareness. On the dance floor we experience gratitude, humility, moving like water, and embracing both subtlety and intensity with our movement expressions. 

Dance sequences are inspired by the movement of circles, spirals and cycles that we find within the physical, energetic, and universal body. Inspiration also drawn from Gaga movement language, martial arts practices, and from many traditional world dance forms. The theme of this session, the “Art of Gesture & Generosity,” will explore ways to embody and express generosity through the movements of our hands and our bodies.