Check out this edition of The MidEast Connect. Ballet Afsaneh & myself were profiled in their NON PROFIT SPOTLIGHT profile. Click on the link below:

www.theculturalconnect.com/current.php

The MidEast Connect is a new, weekly e-magazine and website dedicated to young, driven and forward-thinking Middle Eastern professionals. Each week it profiles the talents of young individuals, companies and non-profit
organizations as well as provides headline news segmented by countries in the Middle East.

I encourage you all to check out the profile and subscribe (for free) to the e-magazine.

Thanks
Aliah

Tajik dance is a performing art form which has remained through time connected to social activities. Still today in Tajikistan, a nation deeply connected to Iran, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan through shared histories, cultures and languages, dance accompanies life cycle events such as births, weddings, funerals and holidays. Dance practices in Tajikistan have also retained a deep and vital link with spirituality, especially in the more remote mountain regions where many movements make reference to the forces of nature and the geometry of the cosmos and in Badakshan, dance still accompanies the minstrel poetry of Rumi, Hafiz, Attar and many others.

Aliah Najmabadi's career and academic focus is the preservation of the performing arts of Central Asia, Iran and respective Diaspora communities. She successfully combines her accomplishments as a dance practitioner with her academic focus on ethnology and cultural anthropology. She holds a BA degree from UCLA Iranian Studies and the World Art & Cultures programs and recently graduated with an MA in Performance from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. Aliah has been an active member of Afsaneh Art & Culture Society since 1998, as a principal dancer with Ballet Afsaneh, and serving as assistant director from 2005-2006. In 2005 Aliah completed a dance residency with Padida Dance Theater in Dushanbe, Tajikistan under the mentorship of Sharofat Rashidova. Through her graduate studies research & dance training in Tajikistan, Aliah eventually took on the role of program coordinator for TDI fieldwork in Badakhshan during 2006 and 2007. Aliah has been instrumental in the continued progress of the Tajik Dance Initiative activities through 2008 and is currently working on the development of a Performance Arts Resource Center in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

In addition to her NGO work in Central Asia, Aliah is an active performance artist, she has performed and taught dance workshops in America, England, Spain, France, Turkey, India and Tajikistan.

Please contact Aliah for performances and/or workshops at: aliaharts@gmail.com

عالیه نجم آبادی مصمم و متعهد به حفظ و گسترش هنرهای نمایشی در ایران و آسیای مرکزی است. عالیه از سال 1998 رقصنده اصلی باله افسانه در موسسه رقص سان فرانسیسکو بوده و اخیرا نیز دستیار مدیر و یکی از طراحان رقص در این موسسه بوده است. در سال 2005 عالیه در تئاتر پدیده در دوشنبه در تاجیکستان فعالیت داشته و اخیرا از یک تحقیق میدانی در کوههای پامیر در آن کشور بازگشته است. این پژوهش توسط موسسه ابتکار تئاتر دوشنبه حمایت شده است. عالیه دارای درجه لیسانس در رشته مطالعات ایرانی از دانشگاه یو.سی.ال.ای است و در حال حاضر در حال تحصیل در دوره فوق لیسانس در هنرهای نمایشی در مدرسه مطالعات شرقی و آفریقایی دانشگاه لندن (سوآز) می باشد. او که به تازگی در بریتانیا اقامت گزیده از هرگونه یادگیری و همراهی با هنرمندان اهل ایران و آسیای مرکزی مستقر در لندن استقبال می کند. برای ارتباط با عالیه می توان با آدرس ایمیل وی تماس برقرار کرد: aliaharts@gmail.com