Joya: AiR / Zahira Mous / NED

‘I came to Joya: AiR with the intention to create material for a new performance project. I am working on an absurdist, tragicomedy performance art solo about mental health that utilizes live art, physical movement, and vocals, creating a visceral experience and visible landscape for an intimate audience.

During my residence, I asked myself each day what I wanted to explore within the realm of my prompt. I loved carving out the time for just this project. It was a unique experience. I painted. I danced. I walked (and got lost – follow the dry river, folks). I thought. Many thoughts. I wrote. I spoke. I recorded some thoughts, which turned into poetry.

Within the space of nature and being amongst other creatives, I started to feel grounded again in myself and within my artistry. I thoroughly enjoyed our evening dinners (Donna is a fantastic cook!) as well as our game nights, especially when we played charades with Leanne, Alkie and Lourdes in one team and Zeynep, Berk, and I in the other. Later on, Stella, Giulia, and Jasper joined. We have made wonderful connections and friendships were built. I got to collaborate with Jasper Erkens on his new music video by dancing in it, which was an unexpected highlight.

Thank you, Donna and Simon, for all that you do, for creating a beautiful space to bring such diverse groups of people together. I absolutely adored celebrating my birthday with you. My residence still creates waves within. The creativity continues, the friendships blossom, and life has a more flowery fragrance. And, last but not least, I love FouFou and Frida!

Zahira Mous

Master of Fine Arts in Dance & Graduate Certificate in Women’s & Gender Studies, The University of Oklahoma (US) (2010)
Bachelor of Theatre in Education, Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden (NL) (2007)
Director, dance theater company Project Zahira in Amsterdam
Director, dance education outreach program Changing Lives Through Dance
Founder NGO Healing Arts Foundation
Choreographic works shown and workshops facilitated internationally in the United States, the Netherlands, Brazil, India and Greece

Zahira is a dance maker, performance artist, dance educator, and writer. Additionally, she is a certified Ayurvedic Yoga Massage therapist, aerial yoga teacher, and has completed training in art therapy, meditative therapies such as Mystic Rose and No Mind, Primal, and Path of Love.

Additionally, she creates Energy Art; these are paintings created by meditating on and tuning in with her client’s energy, evolving into artworks that show the person’s aura and energy through colors and shapes.

Beyond my artistic work, she is a writer. She wrote for Dans Magazine (NL) for seven years as a dance critic and dance reporter, having switched over to Theaterkrant in 2020. Currently, she is finishing her memoirs about trauma healing through art and spirituality, which are predicted to be published in 2022.