Banafsheh Amiri is an Iranian dance artist, choreographer, and educator. She recently completed her MFA in Dance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with her research focused on enriching 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 ofodologies 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. 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. She continues her pedagogical practice at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she introduced and teaches the university’s first course in Iranian Dance, alongside a course in Cuban-style Salsa. During her MFA studies, she engaged in training in contemporary dance and various world dance forms, including African dance. In addition to her extensive background in Iranian classical, contemporary, and folkloric dances, she has experience in Tango and Flamenco, and is an expert in Cuban-style Salsa. A multi-disciplinary artist, Banafsheh holds a BFA in Painting from Tehran Alzahra University and an MFA in Interior Design from the University of Brighton. She is also a certified yoga instructor with 200 hours of teacher training— practices she integrates into her artistic and pedagogical work.
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