About 

“My practice is rooted in the Indian ethos. It seeks the sacred in the mundane and the mundane in the sacred. Gesture, symbolism and ritual are integral to my work. I describe myself as a traditional contemporist: rooted in the past, while continually questioning and reimagining the present.”

Shereen Saif is a writer and multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans theatre, dance, oral storytelling, conceptual art and site-responsive work. Based between Bangalore, Dubai and London, she works across movement, performance, technology and narrative.

Her practice is deeply informed by Indian performance traditions. She trained in Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kathak under Kalamandalam Sujatha, Dr. Neena Prasad and Dr. Pali Chandra, and has spent more than a decade studying Mohiniyattam with Dr. Neena Prasad. She is a Graded Mohiniyattam Artist of Doordarshan Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram. Her theatre practice has developed through ongoing training and research in Indian traditional theatre and actor-training methods with Guru G. Venu at Natanakairali, alongside training in Western theatre practices.

Storytelling is another important thread in her work. Trained at Kathalaya’s International Academy of Storytelling and mentored by master storytellers Paola Balbi and Michael Harvey, she creates performance experiences in which storytelling, movement and theatre meet. Her solo work A Woman’s Mind, supported by the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation and Wales Arts International, continues to tour internationally. Voice is also part of her practice, and she works commercially as a voice artist in the UAE and India.

Her work often begins with a question, a story, a place or a physical gesture, and moves between theatre, installation, film, audio and participatory practice. Recent projects include Polymorpher, an immersive performance exploring transformation, ritual and collective embodiment; Wandering Women of Soho, a site-responsive audio walk; and Foraging the Mina, a research project exploring place, memory and the overlooked ecologies of the city.

Alongside her artistic practice, Shereen writes about performance, dance and contemporary art. Her writing has appeared in The Times of India, Narthaki, India Art Review, HowlRound and Serendipity Arts Foundation’s Write | Art | Connect. She has written Navarasa Sadhana, a book exploring G. Venu’s actor-training methodology rooted in Indian traditional theatre.

Alongside her artistic and writing practice, Shereen works as a PR and communications consultant exclusively in the architecture and design sector. Her background in architecture, marketing and communications informs her writing and work with design practices and brands.

She is an alumna of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship and NYU Abu Dhabi’s Numoo artist development programme. She is currently completing an MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths, University of London.