Dr. Farima Berenji

Dr. Farima Berenji is a dancer, scholar and Sufi teacher who has spent her working life studying and passing on the sacred movement traditions of Iran and the wider Silk Road. She trained in anthropology, archaeology and Iranian dance ethnology in California before completing doctoral work on Iranian mysticism and ritual, and she is an initiated master within the Yarsan, an Iranian mystical order. She founded and directs the Simorgh Dance Collective and also performs widely, including for heads of state and international bodies.

In her teaching, dance is a form of prayer. Her classes and retreats move between breathing practice, Sufi philosophy and poetry, zikr chanting, sama and whirling, drawing on Yarsani, Khorasani, Mevlevi and Central Asian lineages as well as older Zoroastrian and Mithraic sources. Courses such as her series on Attar's Seven Valleys, or her beginners' and advanced whirling classes, run mostly on Zoom with in-person places by arrangement, and recordings and extra material are shared with members on Patreon. She also leads residential retreats in the United States and abroad, gives private sessions, and lectures on Persian sacred arts. Her book Companions of the Sun, from Hohm Press, traces the history and meaning of Iranian sacred dance, music and ritual.