BIRTHDATE: May 7, 1952 URS DATE: January 10, 2021
Kabira had been involved with the Dances of Universal Peace since the mid-1970’s.She began dancing in Eugene, Oregon, and then moved to Seattle, Washington, where she lead Dances of Universal Peace. Kabira formed a DUP circle in Seattle collaborating with a number of Seattle area musicians and Dance leaders.
Her original Sufi teacher was Ishaq Jud.
I did not know Khalifa Kabira Kirby in person, only through some of her Dances, which I have led regularly since taking up leadership in 2007. They are among my most loved and most effective.
Here are all of her Dances in the DUP Library:
https://dancesofuniversalpeace.org/leaders/Dances_list.php?qs=Kirby
With gratitude and love,
Shivadam
Dear Friends,
Kabira was my partner for seven years and we traveled the inner and outer worlds together. We met at Lama and had home base in Seattle where were in a loving, caring and dedicated community of Sufis, seekers and lovers of beauty. Kabira was at the center of that community. She was a resource, a reference, a sister and a friend. Her depth of wisdom was shared carefully and with tremendous respect for the traditions she represented.
She taught me many things in moments of my life when I was ripe for learning. Behind the scenes she supported me in the making of my first of many documentaries about sacred dance. “Eat, Dance and Pray Together” would never have been made without her backing. The international peace delegation and pilgrimage to the Middle East in 1993 would never have manifested without her diligence in supporting me with the seemingly never ending correspondance and faxes I had to send in order to secure all the details. On my scouting trip in 1992 with the Earth Stewards she was even sewing clothes for me to wear up until the night before I left.
Those people who were lucky enough to be in our early trainings for the dances understood the level of detail that was being transmitted to them. The trainings were as deep as they were broad and we formed a close knit community, many traveling vast distances to be a part of the loving way Zamyat (Kabira) prepared not only the teaching materials but the delicious menus for our food. There wasn’t a detail left out. I was honored to be her co-teacher and musician.
We conducted many trainings together and helped so many to find their footing on the path of the Dances of Universal Peace.
She was dedicated and in those days worked extremely hard, juggling too many balls and serving her teachers often at the detriment of her own well being.
We will have sessions dedicated to the memory of Zamyat (Kabira) here in Australia where she is both known and loved. People remember her dances, her spirit and again the caring way in which she conducted her retreats here. Amrita Tranter and myself will be gathering memories and sharing them in Mount Barker with our dance community there.
Just before hearing the news of her passing two extraordinary things happened. Pavitra Birman (of Tasmania) and I were sharing stories about her out on Pavitra’s deck. Prema Dasara on Maui was also bringing Kabira to mind. I believe that Kabira’s presence in our consciousness was her way of brushing us with her spirit as she was departing this human life.
Our human hearts were touched and will continue to be touched by Kabira’s life and I bow deeply to her in gratitude.
With my love,
Anahata Iradah
Kabira (Zamyat at that time) and I were housemates in Seattle for a couple of years in the early-mid 1980’s. One of her gifts was choosing extraordinary stuffed animals from a shop in Pioneer Square, and gifting them to the perfect person. I received a penguin (named Penny of course) who has accompanied me on my travels. Penny has attracted quite a little family of stuffed animals (tho we don’t use that term) in my current home in Massachusetts. I always feel that Penny carries a unique blessing wherever she goes.
Blessings on your journey, dearest Kabira Zamyat Kirby.ionsh
I met Kabira at Lama Dance Camp in 1986 and connected with her in a deeply alive conversation on the shuttle bus ride back to the airport in Albuquerque, NW. Little did I know she would become my teacher and mentor in the Dances of Universal Peace or that I would become a part of a privileged circle of leaders and friends to be graced by her presence. Her dedication and discipline, along with her devotion to the transmission of the dances, will forever inspire and inform my relationship to the work of the dances. In that early dance community here in Seattle, we ate, danced, and prayed together in treasured ways.
My heart is saddened by her passing, but I know her spirit has forever imprinted blessing on the dances and on all of us. Her name, Zamyat, spoke to the reflection of heaven above and heaven below. I pray that her sudden leave taking from this plane of existence was like this:
How marvelous was the way
You quit the world
The way you ruffled your feathers
And breaking free of your cage
You took off for the soul’s world
A lovesick nightingale among owls
You caught the scent of roses
And flew to the rose garden.
Jalaluddin Rumi
Kabira Zamyat Kirby was born on May 7, 1952.
She was 68 years old and most definitely a Taurus. I met Kabira (previously known as Zamyat) in Portland, Oregon. She was a core part of the DHO Healing Circle that met at Kathryn Sophia’s home. I attended that circle and became friends with Kabira.
She became a housemate of a close friend and lived in SE Portland in 2004-2006 or so.
I was new to the Dances of Universal Peace and Kabira had been involved with the Dances for decades. She had hosted a meeting for a small group of local Dance Leaders to talk about forming new Dance Circles during that time. Our original Tuesday DUP Circle was changing and we wanted to continue having Dance Meetings in Portland.
I did not dance with Kabira as she was no longer involved at that level. She and I pursued other spiritual interests together. Kabira had a generous spirit and invested herself in the communities she was a part of. She knitted beautiful hand made socks for those in need. Kabira had just mentioned wanting to begin sewing fabric bags for residents of a Native American reservation she provided her socks and gloves to.
We shared holiday meals together in the recent years. She bought a scrumptious peach pie from a local bakery to celebrate Pi Day one March with my housemates and another friend.
I feel blessed to have seen Kabira the day before she died. She stopped by the weaving and dye studio of our mutual friend that Saturday afternoon. Kabira began telling us both about her first experiences with the Dances in Eugene, Oregon, in the mid 1970’s. She related the details of her moving to Seattle and her involvement in creating a shared Dance Circle with a number of other leaders and musicians. Kabira seemed very content that day and was happy to share those pieces of her life with us.
I knew Kabira to be humble in all parts of her life, to have a wonderful laugh and to share herself completely with others. May her spirit be free of those physical limitations that tie one to this life. Thank you, Kabira Zamyat, for your love and generosity.
Kabira moved into my house 5 months ago. It quickly became apparent that she was a very intelligent woman with an interest in helping others: via her knitting group for the homeless, small donations to causes she supported, her close relationship to our other housemate who’s room was next to hers. And what a wonderful cook! We shared Thanksgiving, Christmas, a few movie nights. In this time of isolation and Covid, I appreciated having such a friendly, warm housemate and since she passed, I miss her being a part of my home. We housemates have donated her yarn to knitting groups who knit for the homeless, food to a food pantry, and all her household items given to people who needed them. I’m not a Sufi but have danced and join in New Year’s Eve gatherings in Portland, OR. Good to hear that Kabira had a strong spiritual group of friends. Namaste.
I met Zamyat/Kabira in the late 70s when my partner Zubeida/Sitara brought me to the dances. Soon I became a musician and then co-leader on the Seattle team. Later Zamyat became my mentor in the dances and we brought her over to Australia twice to lead retreats. She was an exacting but generous mentor and a good friend, who acted as godmother to our son Galen and was present at his birth (in a snowstorm!). The theme of the second retreat in Oz was ‘love and more love’ which to me sums up much of her approach to life. Love did not always treat her well in personal relationships, which caused her considerable suffering, as it does to many of us. We lost touch in later years, but I always thought of her with warmth and gratitude. I hope she is now dancing in bliss among the stars. Tat tvam asi.
Kabira Zamyat was such a precious friend to me in the 1980’s. Her generosity and humor buoyed my spirits through many dark days, and her inner devotion was a light to her friends and to people in the Dance and Sufi communities. We learned the art and craft of Dance leading together, in the early 1980’s. She unstintingly poured forth love to her friends. She hosted a fabulous bridal shower for me when I got married; she officiated at an Elemental Blessing ritual during our wedding and she assisted at our son’s birth. It was wonderful to see her in Australia, and I am deeply sorry we lost touch as our lives diverged. Dear Kabira, I will never forget you.
Kabira (then Zamyat) and I met first in Eugene in the late 1970s. We were mureeds together there at the Smiling Forehead Sufi Center, where she became a mureed of my friend Sheikh Ishaq Jud. When I moved to Seattle in the early 1980s I was asked by Ishaq and Pir Moinnedin to start a dance meeting here.
At first the group was very small. When Kabira moved to Seattle in 1982 two things happened. First she approached me saying she wanted to lead some dances. This was a bit out of the ordinary at the time, as most centers has just one leader. After talking to Ishaq I agreed this would be a good thing and she and I started a collaboration. Then we moved our location to the Hatha Yoga in the University District and the circle started to grow.
Shortly after that Sitara Mitten Lewis (then known as Zubeida) approached us and we became a trio. At the time this was still unusual but our collaboration became a template for what became the Seattle Dance Team.
I got married and got a new job in 1984 and reluctantly left the dance circle for a while as I had to work evenings. Kabira and Sitara continued, and Kabira helped shape the Seattle Dance Team which until Covid continued to meet weekly for well over 30 years. Kabira was also instrumental in helping form the DUP Network, worked in the office there and did a lot during those early formative years of the Dances.
Go in peace good sister. You will be missed!
My name,when I first met Kabira,was Jephi Sioux. I was given the name DayStar and many people still think of me as that. I have lived in the Kootenays in Canada since 1970, and am still here.
In my world, context is everything, and context includes places, names, and events; so I will use Kabira’s name at the time-Zamyat-when I recall precious moments.
A warm day in Seattle. I think it was Ballard-Zamyat and I were sitting in chairs under a tree in her yard, enjoying the afterglow of a weekend retreat , musing on our lives. Zamyat said, “..as much as I want a life partner, I realize that I have no room in my life for one. All my time and mental, emotional and spiritual energy is booked up-I work full time, five days a week, and spend each weekend with the Dances. This leaves no time for developing a meaningful personal relationship.” We both agreed to put some personal time moving forward to changing this gestalt in our lives.
A retreat on Vashon Island, Zamyat impressing us with the importance of each step accounted for, as welearned to dance Gate, gate, para gate….
In the 1980’s, as Zamyat’s focus narrowed (from my point of view) to helping developing dance leaders become competent mentors, my appreciation of her organizational skills grew. I am a person from another country, and culture. Zamyat made sure I had opportunities to be support staff, either in the kitchen or as a drummer, so I could afford to attend the retreats and develop my skills.
Kabira Kirby continues in me as a connection with our youth, with simpler times, with the beauty way.
I first met Kabira at the NW Sufi camp in 1986. She came to stay with us in Victoria BC to lead a DUP workshop with a small circle I had started. She was content to share a room with my three year old daughter and thrilled to take us for High Tea at the Empress Hotel (on her bucket list). We continued to meet at dance retreats and she became a regular visitor to Canada between 1992 and 1998 to lead dance weekends on Denman Island, Hornby Island and Cortes Island. She was always a gracious guest in my somewhat earthy island home.
In 1992 Kabira invited me to be part of a three year dance leader training she was fascilitating with Anahata Iradah. I asked Kabira to be my dance mentor as required by the dance center. I have always thought of her in that capacity as I experienced her depth of knowledge of religions and her embodiment of all she had learned about breath, voice and movement. She was attuned to her breath and therefore able to channel a myriad of dances. She was a clear and concise teacher and able to give helpful feedback while encouraging people to become their potential. She saw in me much more than I saw at that time and in that way was very instrumental in my unfolding as a dance leader and as a therapist. I am forever thankful for that.
Kabira was also a friend and I felt safe to disclose my troubles to her knowing she was non-judgemental. I had many long distance phone calls to her before and after she moved to North Carolina. Sadly my last contact was in 2004 at the NW Sufi camp. I will always remember her rich laugh and sense of humour, her lovely smile and the light shining from her eyes.
Ya Salaam Kabira! You are walking in Beauty.
I met Zamyat as I was first getting started with dance leading and wanting to get involved more with the Dances. We met by phone in 1995 when I was seeking clarity on a Dance she created. I was affected by her voice presence and when I met her in person in 1997, it affirmed she was strong, confident, clear, positive, available, dedicated. She believed the Dances would change the world.
I wanted to emulate those qualities.
She was my go-to person in many aspects of the Dances and its professional organization, from dance leading to writing grants to teaching me the who, what, where, when, history of the Dances. She assisted in my learning and growth on a personal, one with one basis. Phone calls with her were focused. Email messages were clear and focused.
She always had the time for me.
We communicated regularly until about 2007, when she stepped away from her roles in the organization. She never spoke a negative word to me about anyone but used positive verbal and active skills positively to overcome challenges with people and situations.
From my eyes, she dedicated herself and assisted with the early foundation of the Dances of Universal Peace as an organized entity, accessible to everyone.
I send you my love, dear sister, Zamyat Kabira. Thank you for your presence in my life.
Grace D Marie
A particular tribute I’d like to mention, along with the great outpouring of love and appreciation for this remarkable being…
In the mid-90s, I don’t remember much conversation in our Sufi/Dance community about gender identity and sexual orientation. One of the few community leaders who was vocal and open about her sexuality was Zamyat Kabira Kirby who I honor as a Rainbow Champion.
Not long after she’d moved to North Carolina, she mentioned that she had recently organized and planned a retreat for gay and lesbian participants (to use the languaging of the time) along with her good friend and long-time mentee, the late Jamshed Ken Storer, another Rainbow Champion.
Unfortunately, only one person registered so the event did not take place, It was an idea whose time had not yet come for us, but it planted seeds of strong vision that grew deep roots and are now bearing sweet fruit to nourish us all.
Ya Shakur, Hazrat Kabira!