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 performance maker working across theatre, dance, storytelling,
conceptual art and site-responsive practice. Rooted in Indian performance traditions, her
work is driven by curiosity about people, places and the stories that shape us.

Trained in Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kathak, Shereen has studied Mohiniyattam
with Dr. Neena Prasad for more than a decade and is a Graded Mohiniyattam Artist of
Doordarshan Kendra, Thiruvananthapuram. Her theatre practice has developed through
ongoing research and training in Indian traditional theatre with Guru G. Venu at
Natanakairali, alongside Western theatre practices.

Shereen trained in storytelling with Geeta Ramanujam at Kathalaya’s International Academy
of Storytelling and was later mentored by master storytellers Paola Balbi and Michael
Harvey. Her solo work A Woman’s Mind was supported by a production grant from the Abu
Dhabi Cultural Foundation, with Wales Arts International supporting its presentation in
India. The work continues to tour internationally.

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 supported by 421 Arts Campus, exploring place,
memory and the overlooked ecologies of the city.

Shereen writes about performance, with work published by The Times of India, Narthaki,
India Art Review, HowlRound and Serendipity Arts Foundation. She is the author of the
forthcoming book Navarasa Sadhana, exploring G. Venu’s actor-training methodology
rooted in Indian traditional theatre.

Alongside her creative practice, she works as a PR and communications consultant
specialising in the design sector, drawing on her background in architecture and a master’s
degree in business from the University of Strathclyde.

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