IWD- Dance Performance 2024

Samia Karimi was born in the heart of Asia, also known as Afghanistan, and has lived most of her life close to the ocean in California. Samia’s fascination with dance was inspired by her love for the music that infused her childhood - popular Afghan music of the 1970s-80s as well as the golden years of Bollywood and the famous Googoosh of Iran. Although dance is not encouraged as a profession in her culture, for the past 18 years Samia has trained, performed, and choreographed in the dance forms of the SWANA region with various dance companies as well as an independent dance artist. All while raising a beautiful teenager as single mother and expanding her professional life in both the corporate and non-profit space. Samia has taught dance to all types of movers from age 3 and up. Samia is currently expanding opportunities to continue research in Afghan dance, to collaborate with other artists and to continue teaching Afghan dance to new students. Samia invites everyone, of all ages and backgrounds to embrace dance as a reclaiming of one’s body, as a language of devotion and joy, and as the ultimate expression of freedom.