Banafsheh Amiri

Biography: 

Banafsheh Amiri is an Iranian dancer, choreographer, instructor, and dance educator. She is an MFA candidate in Dance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with her research focused on Iranian dance and choreography.

Over the past eighteen years, she has been dedicated to creating methodologies for developing Iranian dance, choreographically and pedagogically. Banafsheh’s lifelong Practice and investigation of Iranian dance has been impacted by her discovery of the complexity of Iranian traditional music. Having been trained since 2013, she became a vocalist in Radifhaye-Avazi (Iranian Traditional Modal Songs), dedicated to enriching the vocabulary of Iranian dance.

Her work includes flowy movements that convey cultural and spiritual themes, as well as the grace, femininity, and natural elements associated with Iranian art. To promote the new Iranian dance methodology, Banafsheh founded the Miniature Dance Academy and established the Miniature Dance Group in 2012, which educated and performed for women in Tehran, Iran until 2022. In addition to an extensive experience in Iranian classical, contemporary, and folkloric dances, she is an expert in Cuban-style Salsa.

A multi-disciplinary artist, Banafsheh holds a BA in fine art from the Tehran Alzahra University in 2006 and an MFA in Interior Design from the University of Brighton in 2009.