“Dance is poetry, it describes a feeling, a story, and every story describes the ecstatic relationship to beauty, love and divinity. The subtle movements of the fingers, the facial expression, and the mystic turning characterized in Persian dance are a communication between body and soul. As an audience you must follow the story, you must fall into dance the way a reader falls into a book.” ~Farima Berenji

Biography

Farima Berenji – Ph.D.
Founder and Artistic Director, Worldwide Simorgh Dance Collective
Assistant Director and Program Coordinator, Eastern Arts
International Performing Artist – Dance Ethnologist
Instructor – Choreographer – Persian/Sufi Dance Master
Anthropologist – Archaeologist
Member of the International Dance Council CID, UNESCO

Dr. Farima Berenji is a distinguished scholar with an MA in Anthropology, Archaeology, and an additional MA in Iranian Ethnochoreology, earned at Cal State Hayward. She has an M.Msc. and a PhD in Metaphysics specializing in Iranian mysticism. She is an integrated healing practitioner and master (initiated) in the Iranian Sufi mystic order. She brings a unique blend of academic rigor and spiritual depth to her work, performances, and teachings.

As an award-winning, internationally acclaimed performing artist and choreographer, Farima has been recognized as one of the foremost global scholars in ancient and mystical Iranian ethnochoreology. She is honored as the first Iranian woman to direct an Iranian dance company, showcasing performances for notable figures such as President Obama, President Biden, the EU, the UN, and other international dignitaries and ambassadors.

Farima is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Simorgh Dance Collective, the founder of Dance of the Soul™, and the Assistant Director and Program Coordinator of Eastern Arts. She serves as an Advisory Council Member of Mosaic America, as a member of the International Dance Council (CID-UNESCO), and is a member of the National Folk Organization. Distinctively, Farima is recognized as the first Iranian-American woman TEDx lecturer and performer in the field of performance art and spirituality.

As an artist, scholar, and spiritual guide, Farima’s contributions span the globe, encompassing research, lectures, performances, and education. Her mission is to inspire the cultivation of dynamic creativity and rejuvenation through the transformative power of dance, music, and spirtuality.