Life Journey (the short-long version): An experimental contemporary dancer – inspired, trained, performed, and grown in the underground scene of Tehran.
Due to the strict official restrictions, dance could never be my main profession back home. So my younger me passed working across many fields. From architecture to startups, from international business to advertising, and from cultural to diplomatic institutions.
(If that part interests you, I recommend you to check my LinkedIn for the full version)
At age 26, while I was trying to figure out what I truly wanted with my life, I found my way through a very hidden maze into underground dance community in Tehran! And that…that connection lit something up in me. I knew then: I want to spend the rest of my life dancing, creating, and sharing through dance.
Of course, the irony was that I couldn’t do it openly. So I danced in private, underground, as a side job, as refuge, as joy, as resistance, while earning a living through other work.
At age 34, after the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, I finally made the decision to leave my country and follow a long-held dream elsewhere. Still, I had to be realistic: entering the international dance world at 34, with no academic background, was going to pay the bills? Hell NO!
So I tried to chose wisely. I decided to study something that could combine my previous professional experience in marketing, communication, organizing, and managing together with my deepest passion.
Voilà! That’s how I ended up here!
Although dance still isn’t my primary source of income, it finally has more space to breathe here. To grow, and to be seen openly. And with both feet ON the ground and not UNDER, I can finally call myself a contemporary dancer and choreographer.