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Aliah Najmabadi,
Assistant Director/Principal Dancer
Ballet Afsaneh & Afsaneh Art & Culture SocietySome would argue that words are the strongest form of expression. Others would say a picture can represent a thousand words. Aliah Najmabadi, 27, Assistant Director and Pricipal Dancer and others of Ballet Afsaneh and Afsaneh Art and Culture Society, a professional non-profit performing arts company, however chooses to express themselves and preserve their Persian and Central Asian culture through dance, music and poetry. Najmabadi shares with how the blending of these art forms and the successful outreach to surrounding communities has helped ensure a non-religious and apolitical voice on highlighting the beauty of the Middle Eastern culture. Learn more about Ballet Afsaneh, their incredible work and how they make an age-old tradition a modern-day tool for expression.
Non-Profit
Ballet Afsaneh & Afsaneh Art and Culture Society
Founded
1986 founded by Sharlyn Sawyer
Website
www.dancesilkroad.org
Name
Aliah Najmabadi, Assistant Director/Principal Dancer, 27
Hometown
Monterey, California
Current residence
Berkeley, California
Education
B.A. World Arts & Cultures & B.A. Iranian Studies,
University California Los Angeles 2004,
M.A. Social Anthropology University of London School of Oriental & African
Studies (In progress: 2007)
Ethnicity
Iranian-American
About the Non-profit
Ballet Afsaneh, a professional nonprofit performing arts company based in the
San Francisco Bay Area of California performs the dance, music and poetry of
the historic Silk Road regions of Central Asia along with contemporary work
based on classical themes. Helping to ensure the continuance of Persian and
other Central Asian traditional cultural arts as they take root in the diverse
and dynamic setting of the Bay Area. Since 1986 the company has performed at
major theaters, museums, universities and festivals throughout the U.S.
Most notable milestones / achievements
Ballet Afsaneh Art and Culture Society grew out of the dance company Ballet
Afsaneh to meet the need of the San Francisco
Bay Area community to sponsor outreach and education programs classes in the
Bay Area for children and adults in traditional dance, music, language and
visual arts of Central Asia and Iran. These programs nurture young students and
artists. All AACS programs are non-religious and apolitical. Programs in music
and language arts are offered in collaboration with the Nejad World Music
Center and the Alborz Academy of Art & Culture.
What's the niche?
With the world’s attention focused on Central Asia, recent years have seen
this company, our artwork and the communities whom we represent catapulted to
the frontlines of media attention. It is a particularly poignant time in
history to be creating art that seeks to open hearts, celebrating the
diversity, humanity and cultural achievements of the Iranian-, Turkish- and
Afghan-American communities.
What's in store for the future
This summer we will be establishing an artist's livilhood development
program based in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan, the Tajik Dance Initiative.
In this program we will not only be conducting ethnographic research of the
perfoming arts traditions of the Gorno-Badakshan region, but will be connecting
young Tajik humanities students with their foreign counterparts to do research
as a team in this project. The TDI is dedicated to a non-extractive research
methodology and is being put into place to help the artists of these living
traditons continue their life's work. I will in Tajikistan this summer for two
months as a part of this program as a humanties student representing the USA.
Who l would you like to be contacted by?
We are interested in collaborating with artists, scholars and foundations
with the shared interest
of the preservation and development of the performing arts of Central Asia and
Iran.
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Guiding principle in life
"Let the beauty we love be what we do." Rumi
Mentor
Sharlyn Sawyer, Director of Ballet Afsaneh, is my mentor in life,
teacher in dance and aunt in support of my choice to dedicate my life to the
arts.
What motivated you to get started?
In the interest of self identity I began to explore my own cultural
heritage, dance is the language that I used to explore this.
What keeps you motivated?
Working with other artists keeps me alive, without this exchange these arts
might as well be on be on display in a museum.
Like best about what you do
The dancing of course!
Like least about what you do
Searching for available dance studio space !
At age 10, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Imagine that, I wanted to be a ballerina...
Biggest pastime outside of work
Dancing- I am quite predictable really
Three greatest passions
Laughing, Loving and Dancing
Favorite book
Ports of Call by Amin Maalouf
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