Miriam Peretz is an internationally celebrated performing artist, ritualist, and movement educator whose work is dedicated to creating transformational experiences for her students around the world. Over the past 20 years, she has offered dance intensives and trainings in locations such as the Bay Area, Hawaii, Europe, the Middle East, and South America, cultivating a global community of dancers.
Rooted in a deep spiritual lineage, Miriam’s journey into the sacred arts began in her family of origin, where she was exposed to a variety of mystical traditions, including Kabbalah and Sufism. A disciple of the beloved Sufi Sheikh Ibrahim Baba Farajaje, former provost of Starr King School of the Ministry, Miriam’s own spiritual path was profoundly shaped by her initiation into the Mevlevi Order of Sufism as a whirling dervish.
Drawing on the Divine Feminine wisdom of embodied spirituality, Miriam integrates Indigenous dance traditions from around the world into her teachings. Her work spans a wide range of cultures and practices, incorporating elements from North African, Middle Eastern, and Central Asian dance forms. As a contemporary pioneer of sacred dance, Miriam has inspired teachers and practitioners globally to use movement and ritual as tools for creating inclusive community spaces for facilitating embodied, non-denominational prayer.
Miriam holds an MFA from Mills College of California, where she studied contemporary dance, pedagogy, and a range of somatic practices. Her thesis, Dance Art Sanctuary: A Holistic Approach to Dance Practice & Pedagogy, included a collaborative study with renowned dance therapist Dr. Ilene Serlin. In this work, Miriam explored the intersection of Indigenous sacred dance practices and contemporary therapeutic dance applications, bridging the spiritual and the healing aspects of movement.
Miriam’s studies have included travel throughout the Middle East and Central Asia, where she immersed herself in ancient forms of dance and ritual many of which are rooted in shamanic wisdom traditions. During this time, she also studied percussion and music theory at The Center for Middle Eastern Classical Music in Jerusalem, deepening her understanding of the relationship between music, movement, and ritual.
Miriam is the founder of the Nava Dance Collective, an international community of dancers based in the Bay Area. Through this collective, she teaches weekly classes and nurtures a vibrant community of students. Miriam’s choreographic work has also extended to numerous interfaith collaboration projects and theater productions, both locally and internationally, where she has used dance as a means to bridge cultural and spiritual divides, creating spaces for authentic connection through ritual and movement.
