Song of the Soul

An enchanting evening of mystical and sacred dance, music, and poetry of Persia and Turkey with dance performances by Farima Berenji and the Simorgh Dance Collective. Music by Caravan El Noor, Sufí master musician Jim Blum and special guest, world renowned Sufí master musician Latif Bolat from Turkey.

Tickets: $20 advance / $25 at door
Doors open at 7:30pm.

Farima Berenji

“I cannot put the concert from tonight in words. Emotional, full of energy, oneness and beauty. Especially the last two songs and Farima’s powerful and emotional Sufi whirling left me so affected. I am still shaking from the energy. Will never forget this concert. Thank you again and I hope there will be many more.”
—Meral Ozturk – Manchester, England, on Seven Cities of Love

Farima Berenji is an Iranian-born scholar and an award winning, internationally acclaimed performing artist, choreographer, instructor, lecturer, dance ethnologist, and archaeologist specializing in classical, folkloric, and sacred dances of Persia and the Silk Road. Her training spans a lifetime of intensive collaboration and research with master artists, scholars, and spiritual teachers worldwide. She is the founder and artistic director of the Simorgh Dance Collective, a worldwide collaborative devoted to teach dance technique, interpret, illustrate, present, and perform dances of the Silk Road. Farima performs, offers workshops, and lectures worldwide upon request and has appeared in the US, UK, Austria, Czech Republic, Turkey, Mauritius, and Iran.

Latif Bolat

“His walnut hued voice rolls without effort from his body and wafts into the highest reaches of the balcony, causing many in the crowd to lower their heads in supplication.”
—San Francisco Weekly

Latif Bolat, one of the most renowned Turkish musicians now living in North America, is a Turkish musician, vocalist, composer, and scholar of Turkish music and folklore. He has presented concerts and lectures at colleges, universities, performing arts institutions and festivals across the US, Canada, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Philippines, Scotland, Singapore, Indonesia and Turkey. With a vast repertory that includes songs in classical, folk and Sufi mystic music styles, he accompanies his singing on the baglama (long-necked lute), and various other traditional instruments from the Turkish folk music tradition.

Simorgh Dance Collective
The Simorgh Dance Collective is a world community of artists devoted to cross-cultural dialogue and artistic collaboration through traditional, classical, and sacred dance styles of the Silk Road. The Collective currently has member companies and artist affiliations in Alaska, British Columbia, Turkey, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Caravan El Noor
Caravan El Noor (Caravan of Light) creates and performs devotional chants and dances from various spiritual backgrounds. Inspired by the Universal Sufi tradition, in which all paths to the Divine are honored, Caravan El Noor invites audience participation in a call-and-response format that transforms the hearts and mind through sacred mantric phrases and sound. The band includes Jihan “Gigi” Amer as lead vocalist and harmonium player, Robert Hansen as vocalist, guitarist, oud and dotar player, and Andrew Foehner on tabla, djembe, frame drums, and percussion.

Jim Blum
Jim Blum has attended many spiritual workshops and has been a Sufi with the Ruhaniat Sufi order since 1980. He leads Zikr as well as plays many ethnic and western musical instruments for Zikr or Dances of Universal Peace, including guitar, harmonium, clarinet, soprano saxophone, violin, viola, oboe, English and French horn, and others.
Jahmra (Erika Nicholas)

Jahmra participates in events within the Sufi community, including playing, and singing for Dances of Universal Peace in the Bay Area.