External Research Associate
sashar[at]sashardance.com
Artist Scholar
Centre for Living Heritage
Research Keywords:
Embodied knowledge; cultural memory; dance ethnography; ritual performance; transdisciplinary pedagogy; Central and Western Asia; Sufi and Shamanic practices
Sashar Zarif is a transdisciplinary artist, educator and researcher whose practice explores the body as a living archive of memory, ritual and transformation. Over the past three decades, he has conducted extensive fieldwork and artistic research across more than 40 countries, engaging with communities throughout Central and Western Asia, Africa, Southeast Asia and beyond. His work operates at the intersection of ethnography, performance and cultural inquiry, bridging oral history, music, dance and storytelling. Zarif’s embodied field methodology centres on long-term engagement and reciprocity, investigating how memory lives through movement, how sound transmits emotion across generations, and how ritual performance facilitates individual and collective transformation. His signature frameworks—Moving Memories, Dance of Mugham, and Living Stories—merge Sufi, Shamanic and Central Asian knowledge systems with contemporary approaches to embodied research and creation.
Zarif is the founder of the Centre for Living Heritage, a platform supporting cross-cultural exchange, education and collaborative research. His work continues to grow through Living Stories—his signature practice—which integrates research, performance and pedagogy into a unified approach to cultural preservation and innovation.
Currently based in Toronto, Zarif collaborates with institutions and universities across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. He is a recipient of numerous national and international awards and was named the 2025 Selma Jeanne Cohen Dance Lecture Awardee by the Fulbright Association. Through his artistic, educational and scholarly contributions, Zarif fosters new ways of thinking about belonging, memory and embodied heritage.