ABOUT ZULEIKHA

ARTIST – INNOVATOR

International performer through the art of Storydance and creator of Self-Care works, Zuleikha inspires dynamic creativity and rejuvenation. Innovator and educator, she shares the gift of ‘movement medicine’ through simplicity of movement, expression and feeling, to engage an open heart and to live a life of well being.

“I was always trying to weave harmony through space with my body,” she says. Though her formal education in contemporary and traditional Western and Eastern dance and music gave her the basics, she sought to create a feeling-based artistic dance practice. “What I did was to deconstruct movements, see where they came from feeling. Having studied and practiced with teachers of Chinese, Tibetan, East Indian, Sufi mystical traditions and other lineage systems, I work to explore core movement through the body, heart and spirit, creating new weavings for myself,” she explains. Spending time in indigenous and world communities—from New Mexico, to Afghanistan and beyond—has enabled her to absorb culture, customs and spiritual traditions. What’s inspiring about her life and work is how she formed her own style, a magnificent tapestry of rhythm, dance, music, spirit and philosophy—a free-flowing dance theater that mingles poetry, dramatic gestures, humor and spontaneity.

Performer, Zuleikha is known for her Storydance as well as artistic collaborations. She is co-creator of the Rumi Concert with poet and translator of Rumi, Coleman Barks and world musicians.

As a practitioner and teacher of movement awareness practices, she is renowned for creating TAKE A MINUTE® – Transformative Self-Care Exercises; RTHEP© – Relaxation Therapeutic Health Exercise Program© for palliative cancer patients, their families, and caregivers; 5 ENERGY GEMS – Everyday Self-Care; DANCE FOR GOOD – A Science of Moving Freely and BODYLISTENING – Inner Movement Research.

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TAKE A MINUTE®

CATALYZE WORKPLACE WELLNESS

TAKE A MINUTE® (TAM), a revolutionary one-minute Everyday Self-Care exercise program building resilience and promoting wellness.

The 3 R’s of TAKE A MINUTE® are reset, relieve and refresh.

TAM presentations, trainings, and online interactive videos for the workplace are easy-to-do practices, designed for businesses that want to help their employees benefit from stress relief and rejuvenation, to have greater energy, focus, and to promote wellness.

“When Zuleikha comes into a meeting” says Eileen, “and leads just a one-minute [TAKE A MINUTE® exercise] . . . the room starts to shift and people become more engaged and more creative, and there’s an uplifted feeling. It’s amazing.” —Eileen Fisher, Eileen Fisher Inc, New York City

A simple tool kit created by international performer and resiliency trainer, Zuleikha, TAM is a proven professional program for corporate executives, administrators, and staff in the workplace for the times, when energy is waning and rejuvenation is needed quickly and effectively. Customer needs were evaluated in a nation-wide market research study. Survey participants’ (full time workers’) responses to TAM ranged from their surprise at the short time it took to get good results, to how an easy-to -do self-care tool kit for use in the workplace addressed stress relief and burnout. TAM offers a fresh perspective on concentration and resilience, and re-energizes in the moment. For the workplace, learn more about TAKE A MINUTE® take-a-minute.com (new website with survey available soon)

READ how Zuleikha developed TAKE A MINUTE®

THE STORYDANCER PROJECT (TSP)

BRINGING MORE LIFE TO LIFE

TSP inspires positive change in the faces of adversity through transformative movement and self-care practices that restore vitality and cultivate joy. The work of TSP encourages people to return to the body as the common denominator, and to find the heart-to heart human connection across social and cultural divides. Not a cure—a doorway. We hold the vision of rediscovery, a renewed sense of healing and zest for life.

To say Zuleikha is a humanitarian is limiting, since her compassion and commitment to making others feel better pushes her to break sociocultural boundaries and enter spaces and situations that are normally daunting—into the lives and homes of the destitute, abused, and terminally ill.

As the founder and director of TSP, she’s traveled the world to provide her special brand of mind-body practices to those in need: tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka; victims of domestic abuse in New Mexico; sex workers in Calcutta, cancer survivors and slum dwelling women in Delhi. In each setting, she introduces her transformative self-care program to men, women and children.

To learn more about The Storydancer Project thestorydancerproject.org

A MESSAGE FROM ZULEIKHA

“Spend a few minutes while you stretch your body with a thought of gratitude, for good health, thinking about all of those you love, and for life itself. This allows a kind of unknown quality of Grace to enter on the wings of the breath. Some relief can come in. This can change your day~” — ZULEIKHA