Zorba the Buddha
OFFERING
An Evening of Dance & Story from the Heart with Zuleikha
January 24th, 2014, Delhi, India
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ZULEIKHA Seminar at Zorba the Buddha
BODY LISTENING
The Yoga of Devotional Movement Arts
Saturday, February 14, 2014, Delhi, India
For Information: zorbathebuddha.org
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AURORA CONCERT – VIDEO ONLINE
Aurora Concert Video Excerpts
Acclaimed master of the electric violin, TRACY SILVERMAN, and renowned Storydancer, ZULEIKHA, join forces in a spellbinding performance of improvisational music, story, dance and humor.
TRACY SILVERMAN was named one of 100 distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School, and is the world’s first concert electric violinist. Formerly first violinist with the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet, Silverman is on the faculty at Belmont University and Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, and is a devoted teacher of youths of all ages and levels, in developing alternative string styles, from classical to jazz to improvisation.
ZULEIKHA is an award-winning international performer, educator and humanitarian who uplifts audiences with her humorous, soul-stirring performances and has collaborated with numerous award-winning, world musicians and poets, including Coleman Barks, poet and interpreter of Rumi, world percussionist, Glen Velez, maverick cellist, David Darling, and avant-garde composer/pianist, Terry Riley. Founder and executive director of the non-profit organization, The Storydancer Project, Zuleikha has created unique tools for greater health called Take a Minute™ Core Wellness Exercise and Body Listening Movement Arts, which are being used worldwide to help people improve wellness and create empowered responses to chronic stress and trauma.
BODYLISTENING
BodyListening05-26-15 from Swan Lake Publishing on Vimeo.
BODYLISTENING: A Movement Awareness Practice (MAP) for Everyone
• Body Listening is a body-friendly way to explore free movement.
• The process begins on the floor, exploring your relationship with gravity, attuning to a quiet deep awareness while being held by the continuity and safety of the floor.
• Moving from the body’s felt-sense, habitual patterns unwind and new pathways open.
• The session progresses to standing and moving while maintaining connection with your inner awareness.
• In the last phase of Body Listening, full body movements through space are explored, in relationship to other people.
• Body Listening doesn’t require special training or equipment.
• It doesn’t ask you to abandon the body you have for someone else’s idea of one.
• Body Listening invites you to inhabit the body you are, and discover what unfolds from that awareness.
• It can be done by everyone, regardless of level of health or movement experience.
OUR WORK
WHAT WE DO
TSP’S CORE WELLNESS MODEL
HOW WE CAME ABOUT
SOLO PERFORMANCE
THE DANCER IS IN THE DANCE
“Zuleikha…The comedy, grief, longing, silliness, and joy of being human come through her beautiful, very intelligent, very funny presentations. She has been apprenticed to many traditions, almost all of them, but her combining is unique.” — Coleman Barks, poet and translator of Rumi
Inspirational performing artist and storydancer, Zuleikha, a whirlwind of spirit, rhythm, and dance, transports her audiences with stories of nature, world lore and life itself.
Unique and provocative, Zuleikha’s soul-stirring one-woman performances combine creative expression with embodiment of story, dance, rhythm, mimicry and humor. The stories, animals and feelings she dances bring delight as she mirrors the journey of the soul. In the mesmerizing flow of living traditions and the humor and sparkle of the ancients, Zuleikha reveals the soul of our common humanity.
RUMI CONCERT
RESERVE YOUR COMPLIMENTARY (FREE) TICKET FOR THE RUMI CONCERT AT THE WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL MARCH 15, 2018. Not to be missed!
Read More »BACKGROUND
Read More »International storydancer, performer, educator and humanitarian. Zuleikha grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, a center for cultural interchange and artistic innovation. She studied Western classical music, and devoted years to the exploration of so-called “natural movement” and avant-garde dance with choreographer Anna Halprin. Interested in how different cultures find expression in movement, Zuleikha also studied the foundations of Chinese martial arts, esoteric therapeutic movement, and Japanese and Balinese dance. She attended the Ali Akbar College of Music, which was the first classical Indian music college in the West, and later studied with the Afghan musician Ustad Hashim Chishti, who was an exponentmand master of the myriad expressions of North Indian classical music, including melody (raga), rhythm and dance.
As Zuleikha’s practice of various art forms and sacred traditions deepened, she became aware of profound commonalities. She realized that “underlying all of these creative expressions are ancient technologies containing wisdom on how the body, mind and spirit come together through movement.” In performance, Zuleikha started to work with a synthesis of dance, storytelling, poetry, music and humor. She developed movement techniques of body, mind and spirit awareness that have become integral to her presentations. For example, she performs her own style of whirling through focusing on “the roots of inner space.” Zuleikha’s “whirling” is considered by many to be one of the highlights of the Rumi Concert, an inspirational collaboration among Zuleikha, Coleman Barks, the well-known poet and interpreter of Rumi, and world class musicians. Presented to audiences throughout the world, the Rumi Concert exemplifies the connection between artistic expression and the inner experience of the Divine.
(Excerpt from article about Zuleikha, “The Dancer is in the Dance,” by Susan Skeele for SUFI, Issue 85, Summer 2013
PERFORMER
International performer, wellness educator, and teacher in the art of movement and story, Zuleikha inspires dynamic creativity and rejuvenation through movement. Zuleikha’s training comes from years of intensive study with master teachers of healing and movement in both Eastern and Western traditions, including American avant-garde dance, Indian Kathak, classical music of Afghanistan, Balinese and Japanese dance, and therapeutic health exercise from the Taoist traditions of China.
Zuleikha uplifts audiences with her funny, soul stirring solo performances weaving together stories and myths of world cultures in praise of Life. Her collaborative work with world musicians and poets has featured such luminaries as poet and renowned translator of Rumi, Coleman Barks, the poet Robert Bly, avante-garde composer performer Terry Riley,world percussionists Glen Velez, cellist David Darling, vocalist/instrumentalist Jai Uttal, the late African drum master Baba Olatungi, electric violinist Tracy Silverman, and other wonderful artists. Zuleikha uplifts theater audiences, schools and conferences with her solo performances and collaborations with musicians and artists throughout the US and abroad.
Edinburgh Guide describes Zuleikha as “a singular figure on the horizon of sacred theater and dance, a mistress of countless faces, who moves effortlessly through space.”
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