Instagram story viewer> @shereensaifme> Posts

Shereen Saif

@shereensaifme

240

posts

2.4K

followers

2222

following

Multi-disciplinary Artist & Writer
📍Dubai 📍Bangalore 📍London
@goldsmithsuol Performance Maker
@shfuae SEAF Cohort 8
@masalauae Power Player 2019

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

There is an old story about a town where logic was completely outlawed. No one knew left from right, and no one cared. Visitors called them cursed. They pitied them. But if you stayed there long enough, you realized something strange. They didn’t have wars. They didn’t have greed. They just had... peace. It makes you wonder. Is ignorance a curse? Or is our obsession with intellect the real trap? Be careful who you call a fool. You might just be looking in a mirror!

#philosophy #stories #art #theatre #humannature

Video credit: @begumerdogan___ by @shereensaifme

90

14

13 days ago

What if criticism was not a verdict but a starting point?

In her essay for Write | Art | Connect, Shereen Saif traces a different kind of critical practice, one that begins not with judgment but with what is left after a performance ends.

Moving between Shanta Rao’s contested debut at the Music Academy in 1942, Susan Sontag’s challenge to interpretation, and her own encounter with Bryony Kimmings’ Bog Witch, Saif asks what happens when a performance continues to live in the writer’s imagination long after the curtain falls.

The answer for her is Polymorpher, a collaborative work that grew directly out of that encounter.
Criticism, she suggests, can give a work an afterlife.

Read the full essay via the link in bio. by @shereensaifme

109

6

22 days ago

A sneak peek from the preview of Polymorpher.

Opening night is tonight!
Join us at Studio 3, @goldsmithsuol from 25–27 June as part of the Skin in the Game Festival.

🎟️ Link in bio for tickets.

—

Written & performed by: Shereen Saif, Reema Assaf & Suyoung Chun

Music: @yodashe
Photography: @begumerdogan___

—

#Polymorpher #SkinInTheGame #PerformanceArt #LivePerformance #PerformanceMaker #Goldsmiths #LondonArts #FestivalSeason
@gsmiths_performancemaking by @shereensaifme

114

6

a month ago

Excited to premiere Polymorpher, a new performance co-created with @reemaassaf_ and @tokiya7.5 at the Skin in the Game Festival at @goldsmithsuol from 25–27 June.

Weaving together ritual, shadow theatre, storytelling and dance, Polymorpher explores femininity as a continual process of becoming.

…

🎟️Head to the link in my bio to book your tickets.

…

🎵 Music: @yodashe
📸 Photography: @begumerdogan___ and @tokiya7.5

#Polymorpher #Performance #SkinintheGame #PerformanceMaker #Goldsmiths
@gsmiths_performancemaking by @shereensaifme

129

11

a month ago

What a night!

Looking back on sharing my dance-storytelling work at Hoxton Hall (@hoxtonhall) as part of Roots In Motion, an evening of sharing curated by Esme Benjamin (@esme.benjamin) and Viviana Rocha (@viviana.creates)

It was special to retell the story of Mahabali, a tale deeply rooted in Kerala, the land of my birth.

A just king, exiled to the netherworld by the gods for daring to claim the three worlds. The story is often told as a triumph of divine order over hubris. But I find myself drawn to a different question: who gets to write history, and who gets remembered as a villain?

Over time, Mahabali has been softened. A king who challenged the heavens has become a cheerful round-bellied figure, returning once a year to visit his subjects. A radical memory transformed into a harmless mascot. The edges sanded down. The discomfort erased.

Yet beneath the festive imagery, another story lingers: one of power and the quiet violence of being displaced from what is rightfully yours.

—

Photography: Leon Doggy Dog (@leondoggydogg.jpg)

#RootsInMotion #HoxtonHall #Storytelling #Dance by @shereensaifme

121

14

2 months ago

MEET THE ARTISTS 🔥⁠
⁠
My Land is My Land by Shereen Saif ⁠
@shereensaifme⁠
⁠
A king, a kingdom, a benign takeover. ⁠
Indian classical dance meets contemporary storytelling to retell the ancient myth of Mahabali, a just king from Kerala (the land of my birth) exiled to the netherworld as the gods seize his land.⁠
⁠
Join us for an evening curated by Viviana Rocha & Esme Benjamin of:⁠
✨️Scratch works ⁠
✨️Live performances ⁠
✨️Plus an explosive Flamenco x K.R.U.M.P. afterparty⁠
⁠
📆 Sun 3 May 2026, 5pm⁠
📍 Hoxton Hall, 130 Hoxton St, London, N1 6SH⁠
⁠💷 Tickets from £5 (plus £2.50 booking fee)⁠
⁠
🔗 www.hoxtonhall.com⁠
⁠
Shereen Saif is an Indian-born, UAE-bred writer and multi-disciplinary artist with a practice that spans dance, theatre, storytelling, voice acting and conceptual art. ⁠
⁠
Her movement vocabulary is shaped by her training in the Indian classical traditions of Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kathak while her craft as an actor draws from her training in India at Natanakairali and Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Art Research.⁠
⁠
Deeply interested in the interplay between disciplines, her practice in the realm of conceptual art combines movement, performance, music, video art and technology.⁠ Founding member of Star Too – Dubai’s first experimental theatre project, Shereen is currently pursuing an MA in Performance Making at Goldsmiths. ⁠
⁠ by @shereensaifme

118

16

3 months ago

#MythMaking by @shereensaifme

44

1

7 months ago

New! Mrichchakatikam (The Little Clay Cart) is known globally, but it had never been performed in Koodiyattam until this year. Shereen Saif reflects on G. Venu’s adaptation of the classic play, which radically condensed the original and took creative liberties with plot, casting, and tradition. ⁠
⁠
Click the link in bio to read the full essay 🔗⁠
⁠
Photo courtesy of Natanakairali Archives. by @shereensaifme

90

4

7 months ago

One from the archives.

INTERactive (2016)
A performance created in response to Judy Rifka’s Retrospective Exhibition at Jean-Paul Najar Foundation, Alserkal Avenue

—

Video: Judy Rifka (@judyrifka)
Music: Daniel Dibble
Choreographic score and Dance: Shereen Saif, Shruthi Rameshan, Vrinda Bhandula

A collaboration facilitated by Dr. Woodman Taylor

#InterActive #PerformanceMaking by @shereensaifme

69

4

8 months ago

A midsummer story walk in the ancient site of the Appian Park, on the longest day of the year!

It was magical doing an improvised bi-lingual telling of the story of Pururavas and Urvashi with Lorenzo Caviglia (@lorenzo_sirio)

—

Photography: Veronica Baleani (@nikabale)

#Storytelling #Storywalk #Midsummer #RomeDiaries
@compagnia_raccontamiunastoria by @shereensaifme

102

2

a year ago

Moments from my lecture performance “Once upon a Ta-Ka-Dhi-Mi” at the Federation for European Storytelling (FEST) conference, in partnership with Raccontamiunastoria (@compagnia_raccontamiunastoria)

This year’s edition in Rome themed “Europe and the World” was a wonderful opportunity to connect with storytellers from all over and share insights on storytelling in Indian classical dance.

It was also special to share excerpts from select Mohiniyattam pieces choreographed by my guru Dr Neena Prasad (@drneenaprasad) ✨

—

Photography: Veronica Baleani (@nikabale)

#Storytelling #FEST2025 #IndianClassicalDance #Mohiniyattam #RomeDiaries
@sougandhika_mohiniyattam by @shereensaifme

189

15

a year ago

I recently performed a pared down version of A Woman’s Mind at Raccontamiunastoria’s International storytelling festival in Rome.

It was an intimate setting in a secret garden at the Basilica di San Sebastiano (via Appia Antica) with the sun lighting up the stage and birds pitching in with their music.

Thanks to Festival Director and dear friend Paola Balbi (@paolabalbistoryteller) for inviting me to be a part of the wonderfully curated programme and masterfully weaving in and out of my telling with her creative translation in Italian.
A special shout out to Rossella (@rossellacelati ) for sensibly accompanying on the darbouka, just at the right times.

—

Photography: Veronica Baleani (@nikabale)
@compagnia_raccontamiunastoria

#Storytelling #AWomansMind #romediaries by @shereensaifme

160

13

a year ago