“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 is a distinguished scholar with an MA in Anthropology,and Archaeology, and an additional MA in Iranian Ethnochoreology, both earned at Cal State Hayward. Her academic journey is marked by the achievement of an M. Msc. and a PhD in Metaphysics specializing in Iranian mysticism and rituals. She is also an integrated healing practitioner and an initiated master in the Iranian Sufi and mystic order. She brings a unique blend of academic rigor and spiritual depth to her work, performances, and teachings.

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

Farima is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Simorgh Dance Collective as well as the Assistant Director and Program Coordinator of Eastern Arts. Additionally, she is the founder of Dance of the Soul™ and serves as an Advisory Council Member of Mosaic America, as a member of the International Dance Council (CID-UNESCO), and as a member of the National Folk Organization. Distinctively, Farima Berenji 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, movement, and music.

Statement

As a young person, whenever I would see a dance, I would often wonder about the history behind it and how its performance style and costuming developed. A meaningful dance must begin with an understanding of its multicultural history and as cultural anthropologist and archaeologist I tend to believe in dance as a cultural identifier. Like many other cultural identifiers, such as clothing, language, and music, dance is a means for people to define and differentiate themselves. Yet when we look deep inside at the historical content of each dance and see how movements, styles, even costuming are all connected we come to realize as human beings how we are all connected.

Dance explores the reality of human experiences as seen through cultural variation. It teaches about myths, religion, and the human condition. Many great Persian poets extolled dance in their poems and used it as a symbol of the power of life: Hafiz, Saadi, and Mevlana (Rumi), each represented dance as a spiritual instrument to become one with the higher power. One can even see professional dancers depicted in artwork dating back to 5000 B.C. in the magnificent palaces and temples of Persia or in the ancient temples of Egypt.

Dance is a colorful mosaic of costumes, music, and movement. It is delicate, mystical, beautiful, and full of meaning. There is a language in dance: there is a beginning, middle, and an end. The dancer tells a story, teases the audience with coquettish glances, or displays a variety of expressions: reluctance, joy, sensuality, pride, laughter, even sadness. It is Poetry in Motion of which each movement is a word. Dance is a universal language – a Dialogue among Cultures. Dance creates peace, love, harmony, and understanding among all people. Indeed, dance has created beauty and harmony in my life and I hope that my teaching and performances can create beauty and harmony in the lives of others.