Zahra Shahab

Entering from a visual arts background, Zahra Shahab began her practice in dance at the University of Calgary, receiving a Bachelor of Arts with distinction in 2014 along with a minor in Visual Studies. She relocated to Vancouver in 2015 to study with Modus Operandi Contemporary Dance Training Program and at Emily Carr University. She has presented choreography at the Alberta Dance Festival, University of Calgary Dance, Bloom (Mascall Dance), New Works Performance, Dance in Vancouver, Toronto Dance Theatre’s Emerging Voices, Shooting Gallery Performance, and The Dance Centre’s 12 minutes max. She has presented experimental films at the Calgary Underground Film Festival and the Festival of Recorded movement where she was recently commissioned to produce a short film for their 2019 season. With a childhood in Islam, a youth in Christianity, an early adulthood cracked open by feminism/queer theories and cradled by Sufi curiosity, Zahra investigates spirituality, identity, and death through her practice. She is interested in the continual fluid process of generating identity alongside the freedom to dismantle it the moment it begins to crystallize.