photography by Aya Okawa
June 15- 16: Aminas Caravan- Zurich, Switzerland
June 17-20: BEING Festival- Portugal
June 21-24: Nava Dance- “Circles, Spirals & Cycles”- Portugal
June 27- July 4: Sacred Dance of the Heart- Yalova, Turkey
July 11 - 17: Earth, Sand & Sea- Crete, Greece
Conscious movement & Somatic Arts
Integral Dance is a holistic dance practice that embraces the whole person—body, heart, mind, and spirit. Each session is a journey that begins with embodied ritual, weaving intention and heart-centered gesture into movement. From there, we ground in core essentials: healthy alignment, core strength, spinal fluidity, focused breath, and deep somatic awareness.
On the dance floor, we cultivate gratitude and humility, moving like water and exploring both subtlety and intensity. The practice emphasizes continuous movement to access deeper layers of physicality, creativity, and emotional release. Dance sequences flow seamlessly into guided improvisation and freestyle, inviting each dancer to discover new pathways of expression and consciousness.
Inspired by world dance traditions, contemporary dance, and the natural cycles of circles and spirals, Integral Dance offers a dynamic balance of structure and freedom. Open to all levels and abilities, with modifications always welcomed, this practice is an invitation to awaken vitality, release stagnant energy, and embody wholeness.
Warrior Women Winter Solstice
““Miriam brings innovation to the art of movement through exploring the traditional, classical, folkloric to the spiritual and post modern styles of dance. Known for her exquisite and passionate musicality, Miriam is affectionately described as a master dancer.””
photography by Alex Ribowski
Miriam Peretz is an internationally celebrated dancer devoted to creating transformational experiences for her students and audiences worldwide. Miriam’s signature style draws heavily on Central Asian dance, devotional whirling practices, and sacred dance rituals from around the world. Her movement quality and aesthetics also incorporate her years of martial arts training, contemporary dance, Flamenco, and many other world dance forms.
Miriam weaves movement and ritual together to create safe, communal spaces for healing and empowered embodiment. She was named prophetically by her mother, who saw in her infant daughter the potential to become a powerful spiritual leader like her biblical namesake, Miriam who led the Israelites through the Red Sea with drum and dance.
Miriam sees dance as a uniquely powerful means of expressing deep emotion and spiritual yearning, and therefore the perfect embodiment of prayer.
““Miriam’s dance classes transcend technique and choreography; they compel the dancer to become a poet, a conduit of creative intention, a vessel for music. I always leave class with ruminations on transcendence, with heightened presence, and with the sensation that I participated in something beautiful.” ”
photography by Cameron Nagashima -Ananda Images
photography by Laura Soriano
Nava Dance Collective is an international community of dancers devoted to cross-cultural dialogue and artistic collaboration through traditional, sacred, and ethno-contemporary dance forms. Under the direction of Miriam Peretz, dancers from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds collaborate in the creation of meaningful projects and performances.
Creating community among dancers is at the heart of the Nava collective. Beyond the importance of cultural preservation and technical precision is the basic need for people to come together and feel supported by a larger sense of community. Historically this has always been an important aspect of traditional dance forms. However, often times this is forgotten, and the dance floor becomes a place of competition, ego, and intimidation. The collective shares the belief that the dance space, our Dance Sanctuary, wherever it may be, should be a place for healing and transformation. It is the duty of all dancers to create this safe space for themselves and others.
Nava is a beautiful example of a word shared by the Hebrew, Farsi, and Turkish languages. In Farsi and Turkish Nava means sound or tune. It is also the name of one the main Dastgah (musical modes) in the Persian and Turkish Classical music traditions. In the Hebrew language, Nava means pleasant, graceful, beautiful and is a common girls’ name. Also, in Hindi, Nava means young or new.
Nava seeks to include dancers who are interested in strengthening their technical dance skills and using dance as a holistic practice for self–transformation, character refinement, and incorporating more gratitude and open-heartedness into their lives.
Read a beautiful article on Nava Dance Collective written by Heather Desaulniers for Dancers Group,
"Building Sisterhood Through Movement." http://dancersgroup.org/2017/03/building-sisterhood-nava/
Weaving classical, contemporary and devotional interpretations of Persian dance, with live music and poetry, Nava invites the audience on a journey towards the heart. Garden of Roses, an ode to motherhood, a call for women to remember their strength in sister- hood and their divine embodiment, is dedicated to the beautiful and strong women of Iran.
Throughout the history of Iran the rose symbolizes love, and perfect beauty. In the mystical poetry traditions of Sufism, the rose is often a metaphor for the heart. As the rose opens its petals to the light of the sun the beloved opens her heart to the love of the divine. In the Garden of Roses, the dancers offer their hearts to the audience through expressions of Persian Classical, Mystical, and Contemporary dance. The piece is richly embedded with ritualized movement inspired by Sufi practice, elegant sweeping dances reminiscent of the Paris (or angelic beings as seen in the miniature artwork of Central Asia,) contemporary interpretations of traditional Persian dance themes and devotional prayer dances for peace and unity.
The Bustan Project first premiered in Israel in 2014, produced by Iris Delshad and the Choreographers Alliance of Israel. Since then the piece has been presented in theaters in Spain, Italy, and California.
Nava Dance Collective hosts an annual benefit concert for International Women’s day in support of MADRE. MADRE is an international women’s human rights organization that partners with community-based women's groups facing war and disaster, and their aftermath. Together they meet urgent needs and build women’s capacity to create positive social change. www.madre.org.
Each year Nava is joined by a diverse group of artists including musicians, dancers and spoken word artists who come together in celebration of the strength and powerful voices of women and mothers throughout the world.
Presented by Miriam Peretz
Dear Community,
I am deeply grateful to connect with you through the transformative virtue of humility. Humility is at the core of my spiritual practice, and I believe at the heart of all spiritual practice. After gratitude it is the next step on our journey through the seven gates of the soul trait series.
When we embrace humility we flow like a river, fluid and constant, never getting stuck in life’s many obstacles and surprises. When we are humble we are able to connect more deeply and authentically to ourselves and to one another through knowing our divine gifts, as well as recognizing and lovingly accepting our imperfections.
Please receive the gift of Humility by downloading the free ebook pdf link below! We will continue next month with generosity. The teachings of the Seven Soul Traits are woven into the annual Warrior Women Winter Solstice immersion which is coming up in just two weeks in Berkeley, California. Learn more about this offering and register HERE. For questions please feel free to reach out HERE.
with love, Miriam
