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TATIANA ZAMIR is an interdisciplinary performance artist, and trauma-informed movement therapist who has been walking a path of evolution, transformation, and deep personal inquiry her whole life. In her somatic healing offerings, she employs her unique movement therapy method developed over a lifetime of training and exploration of the body as a vehicle for our highest destiny. Zamir studied and performed as a dancer and choreographer in the World Arts & Cultures Department at UCLA and developed her natural skills in the healing arts at IPSB Life Energy Institute. From her base in Los Angeles, her work has taken her to Bulgaria, Argentina, Namibia, Senegal, Cuba, Mexico, Zambia, Bali and Brazil. In 2020, she premiered her dance film Dreams of Waking at the LA Dance Shorts Film Festival and won the 2020 Audience Choice Award. Also in 2020, she received the Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Grant from SoCal Grantmakers and in 2024 received The Village Fund grant to support her ongoing justice arts project In My Skin created in 2018. As both a healer and an artist, Tatiana holds a uniquely compassionate space, which catalyzes transformation and aids people around the world to embody their joy and live unapologetic, creatively-fulfilled lives — whether in her Afro-Joy Dance classes, her performance art, or movement therapy-based healing arts workshops and retreats.
To learn more or engage with Tatiana’s work, sign up for her newsletter via TatianaZamir.com and follow her on Instagram: @TatianaZamir.
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From the moment her grandmother placed her in a tutu at age three, creativity and movement became central to Tatiana Zamir’s life. She trained at Lula Washington Dance Theatre and was deeply influenced by the Baha’i Youth Workshop (BYW), a dance theater company that used performance to explore themes of justice, equality, and world peace. From 2000 to 2006, she toured globally, choreographed, and served as one of two head coordinators for BYW’s adult iteration, the One World Dance Company.
While earning her degree at UCLA, Tatiana joined CONTRA-TIEMPO Dance Activist Company and spent her final semester training at L’École des Sables in Senegal. She later performed with the Marshall Dance Company and L’Esprit d’Afrique (2006–2009) and participated in special projects with Viver Brasil (2013–2014).
Her choreographic work merges Afro-Diasporic and contemporary movement with spoken word and creative storytelling, creating space for healing and resilience. In 2012, she choreographed for Nneka’s Restless music video, which aired on MTV’s 106 & Park, and debuted her first sold-out dance theater show, Moonlight Reflections, at the Electric Lodge. In 2018, she produced In My Skin, later presented at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater. Her solo work She Speaks, which examines ancestral memory in the body, premiered at the Dancing Diaspora Festival in 2019. That same year, she collaborated with renowned Colombian visual artist Carolina Caycedo on the film Thank You for Hosting Us, We Are Healing Our Broken Bodies, commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).
Tatiana’s artistic journey evolved alongside her healing practice. In 2007, she became a massage therapist and Reiki practitioner, later working with organizations like Move to End Violence to support social justice activists. In 2015, she began leading movement therapy workshops, including Healing from Racism, Healing Mother Wounds, and Reclaiming the Body & Trusting the Healer Within, which integrate somatic practices for self-care and community healing.
From 2016 to 2019, she worked as a trauma-informed movement therapist and retreat facilitator for the Joyful Heart Foundation, offering Healing Arts Retreats for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse. In 2018, she expanded this work with A Thousand Joys, supporting schools and community-based organizations with stress management and holistic wellness strategies. She has since collaborated as an artist, speaker, and movement facilitator with organizations such as Sage Sistahs, the California Reducing Disparities Project, Birth Center Equity, For Freedoms, and museums including MOCA, CAAM and LACMA.
In 2010, she created Afro-Joy Dance Party, an inclusive dance experience designed to uplift and empower participants through movement. These classes have been offered in educational settings and organizations such as Pepperdine University, ViacomCBS, and various community spaces in South LA, the City of Santa Monica, as well as cultivating a global community online of movers and shakers.
Tatiana’s first dance film, Dreams of Waking, won the 2020 Audience Choice Award at the LA Dance Shorts Film Festival. Shortly after, she was awarded a grant from Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) to expand In My Skin, an ongoing justice arts project, which incorporates film, live performance, and movement therapy workshops for processing grief, trauma, and embodying love and liberation.
One of the community offerings of In My Skin is Black Mothers Thriving, a program addressing systemic inequities in Black maternal and infant health. This initiative, created in collaboration with the Sugar Heal Collective, is supported by The Village Fund grant through the African American Infant and Maternal Mortality Prevention Initiative.
Tatiana also facilitates Heal Her Retreats—somatic-based healing intensives in Bali, Grenada, and Costa Rica—providing spaces for women of color to experience sacred rest, play, and connect deeper with themselves and their communities. From her base in Los Angeles, her work has also taken her to Alaska, Bulgaria, Argentina, Namibia, Zambia, Senegal, Mexico, Cuba, and Brazil.
Along with her personal initiatives, Tatiana has also been engaging in an intuitive, improvisational performance practice with collaborating artists Sammay Peñaflor Dizon and award-winning choreographer Marina Magalhães on Body As a Crossroads, which has performed at DiverseWorks (Houston, 2022), Scripps College (Claremont, 2023), and Casa de Cultura SoMovimento (Salvador, Brazil, 2024).
To learn more or engage with Tatiana’s work, subscribe to her newsletter via TatianaZamir.com and follow her on Instagram: @TatianaZamir.
From the moment her grandmother placed her in a tutu at age three, creativity and movement became central to Tatiana Zamir’s life. She trained at Lula Washington Dance Theatre and was deeply influenced by the Baha’i Youth Workshop (BYW), a dance theater company that used performance to explore themes of justice, equality, and world peace. From 2000 to 2006, she toured globally, choreographed, and served as one of two head coordinators for BYW’s adult iteration, the One World Dance Company.
While earning her degree at UCLA, Tatiana joined CONTRA-TIEMPO Dance Activist Company and spent her final semester training at L’École des Sables in Senegal. She later performed with the Marshall Dance Company and L’Esprit d’Afrique (2006–2009) and participated in special projects with Viver Brasil (2013–2014).
Her choreographic work merges Afro-Diasporic and contemporary movement with spoken word and creative storytelling, creating space for healing and resilience. In 2012, she choreographed for Nneka’s Restless music video, which aired on MTV’s 106 & Park, and debuted her first sold-out dance theater show, Moonlight Reflections, at the Electric Lodge. In 2018, she produced In My Skin, later presented at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater. Her solo work She Speaks, which examines ancestral memory in the body, premiered at the Dancing Diaspora Festival in 2019. That same year, she collaborated with renowned Colombian visual artist Carolina Caycedo on the film Thank You for Hosting Us, We Are Healing Our Broken Bodies, commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).
Tatiana’s artistic journey evolved alongside her healing practice. In 2007, she became a massage therapist and Reiki practitioner, later working with organizations like Move to End Violence to support social justice activists. In 2015, she began leading movement therapy workshops, including Healing from Racism, Healing Mother Wounds, and Reclaiming the Body & Trusting the Healer Within, which integrate somatic practices for self-care and community healing.
From 2016 to 2019, she worked as a trauma-informed movement therapist and retreat facilitator for the Joyful Heart Foundation, offering Healing Arts Retreats for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse. In 2018, she expanded this work with A Thousand Joys, supporting schools and community-based organizations with stress management and holistic wellness strategies. She has since collaborated as an artist, speaker, and movement facilitator with organizations such as Sage Sistahs, the California Reducing Disparities Project, Birth Center Equity, For Freedoms, and museums including MOCA, CAAM and LACMA.
In 2010, she created Afro-Joy Dance Party, an inclusive dance experience designed to uplift and empower participants through movement. These classes have been offered in educational settings and organizations such as Pepperdine University, ViacomCBS, and various community spaces in South LA, the City of Santa Monica, as well as cultivating a global community online of movers and shakers.
Tatiana’s first dance film, Dreams of Waking, won the 2020 Audience Choice Award at the LA Dance Shorts Film Festival. Shortly after, she was awarded a grant from Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) to expand In My Skin, an ongoing justice arts project, which incorporates film, live performance, and movement therapy workshops for processing grief, trauma, and embodying love and liberation.
One of the community offerings of In My Skin is Black Mothers Thriving, a program addressing systemic inequities in Black maternal and infant health. This initiative, created in collaboration with the Sugar Heal Collective, is supported by The Village Fund grant through the African American Infant and Maternal Mortality Prevention Initiative.
Tatiana also facilitates Heal Her Retreats—somatic-based healing intensives in Bali, Grenada, and Costa Rica—providing spaces for women of color to experience sacred rest, play, and connect deeper with themselves and their communities. From her base in Los Angeles, her work has also taken her to Alaska, Bulgaria, Argentina, Namibia, Zambia, Senegal, Mexico, Cuba, and Brazil.
Along with her personal initiatives, Tatiana has also been engaging in an intuitive, improvisational performance practice with collaborating artists Sammay Peñaflor Dizon and award-winning choreographer Marina Magalhães on Body As a Crossroads, which has performed at DiverseWorks (Houston, 2022), Scripps College (Claremont, 2023), and Casa de Cultura SoMovimento (Salvador, Brazil, 2024).
To learn more or engage with Tatiana’s work, subscribe to her newsletter via TatianaZamir.com and follow her on Instagram: @TatianaZamir.