ABOUT ZULEIKHA

ARTIST – INNOVATOR

“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 do is to deconstruct movements to see the feelings they come from.”

Trained in music, movement and mysticism by Master teachers of eastern and western lineages, international Storydancer and educator, Zuleikha is an ambassador for Unity in artistic expression. 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.

As a practitioner and teacher of movement awareness practices, she is renowned for creating TAKE A MINUTE® – Transformative Self-Care Exercises; TAKE A MINUTE® For Palliative Care – 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.

PHOTO: ©MindfulLivingPhotography.com

TAKE A MINUTE® FOR ALL

A RESILIENCY RESET

TAKE A MINUTE® (TAM) is a revolutionary one-minute Everyday Self-Care exercise program building resilience and promoting wellness. The 3 R’s of TAM are reset, relieve and refresh. TAM is the foundation of all Zuleikha’s teaching and self-care work.

Any time you feel drained, bent over, or worried, you can re-set, relieve and refresh with the TAM Transformative Self Care Exercises. By gently reaching through your whole body, your joints get connected. Then with very small effort, the energy that arises goes through your circulatory system. A feeling of rejuvenation and relaxation can happen at the same time. This little effort clears the mind and refreshes the system. A fresh start. And guess what? You can do this for yourself over and over again, throughout the day. —Zuleikha

Zuleikha created TAKE A MINUTE® Transformative Self-Care Exercises as a vehicle of rejuvenation for all people in all walks of life. Through her workshops, seminars classes, conferences, presentations and her non-profit humanitarian work, she helps people to find their own connection to vitality.

I am very happy that Zuleikha has created the exercises. They consist of healing methods as well as spiritual methods to realize one’s own psycho-physical situation. —Lama Doboom Tulku, author and former director of Tibet House, India

PHOTO: ©MindfulLivingPhotography.com
VIDEO: Zuleikha with Eileen Fisher at Wisdom 2.0

To learn more about 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

ART AS SERVICE (TSP)

SERVICE TO THE WORLD

Zuleikha offers a presentation about Art as Service through Artist-in-Residence programs, presentations for conferences, public, private and corporate seminars.

“Zuleikha, Thank you for sharing your genius with the dancers. The work you are doing is so important. Dance as Service is the Goal. Deep appreciation and gratitude.” —Alonzo King, Director Alonzo King LINES Ballet, San Francisco, CA

“It is so easy for us to be removed from our world. I am surprised that this program has such incredible scope. Also we can easily forget how everything that we do is connected, movement, dance, art, humanity, earth.” —BFA student LINES Ballet, San Francisco