ABOUT ME
it's impossible to know someone
through a bio but here's something
A GIRL WITH A DREAM...
little ballerina
That's where the dream started. Actually, the first time I felt my passion for dance was when I saw a professional ballet performance on television. I was mesmerized. It was love at first sight. And the ball started rolling when I finally was officially allowed to take ballet classes at age 6 or 7. My ballet teacher, Violet, who's also pictured here, on my right side with the glasses, asked me if I wanted to go to the next level. For one year I entered additional Saturday classes in a talent group to prepare me for a big audition for a youth ballet academy one year later. There I was. Going after my dream.
more to come
Zahira Mous (1984) is a Frisian-born choreographer, artistic director, creative coach, writer, performer, and activist whose life’s work bridges embodied healing, the arts, and social justice. With a background in dance theater, somatic facilitation, and feminist community organizing, her mission centers on liberating women through movement, creativity, and truth-telling.
Zahira is the founder of the Healing Arts Foundation, which houses Project Zahira | Dance Theater and Changing Lives Through Dance. Her most recent work, The Rite, confronts the epidemic of intimate partner violence and femicide. She creates socially engaged dance theater works and after-talks to increase awareness and effect change. She is the co-director of Rest / Resist (with Tania S. Shoukhair) - initiatives rooted in decolonized therapeutic and artistic practices.
She has facilitated healing workshops in Palestine, India, Brazil, the U.S., Greece, and the Netherlands. In 2020, Zahira served as a key consultant for the Brazilian docuseries Em Nome de Deus, which exposed the (sexual) violence by João Teixeira de Faria, known as “John of God.” In 2022 (on streaming platforms GloboPlay and AppleTV), she collaborated with Dr. Gabor Maté, Ashira Darwish, and Kath Temple on trauma healing work in Jericho, Palestine.
Zahira holds an MFA in Dance, a Graduate Certificate in Women’s & Gender Studies, and a BA in Theatre in Education. She is certified in NLP, EFT, and trauma-informed inner work drawing from Jungian and Gestalt traditions. With training in meditation, tantra, bodywork, and art therapy modalities, she developed Art in Motion—a healing practice of movement and creativity.