Open Studio of the Tanzpol Mentoring Program 2025 

Where: Wiesenburg Berlin, Wiesenstraße 55, 13357 Berlin

When: November 7th, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. with Shivā Amiri and Malina Suliman.
            November 8th, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. with Baran Hashemi, Fahima Mirzaie, Atifa Gardi and Hadia Akrami. 

Mediators: Sara Nabil, Zolfar Hassib
Mentors: Sandra Noeth, Ali Moini, Hooman Sharifi
Project Management: Johanna Kasperowitsch, Ashkan Afsharian
Technical Direction: Jos McKain

Admission free! 

Please register via  (Capacity for audience is limited to 50 people max.)

In November tanzpol will host two evenings of artistic sharing and exchanging at Wiesenburg Berlin. The artists of the tanzpol Mentoring Program 2025 will give insights into their ongoing artistic research. In addition, there will be the opportunity of spending time together for personal exchange as well as shared food and drinks.

The tanzpol mentoring program, which took place in Berlin between May and November 2025, was aimed specifically at artists from Afghanistan working in the fields of dance, choreography, performance, and theater. It offered participants the opportunity to engage in intensive exchange and to further develop their own artistic practice over a period of four weeks. The process was accompanied by three mentors. 

In her performance Taming the Whirlwind, Fahima Mirzaie embodies the storm itself, a whirling tornado of energy and emotion. Through Sema dance – inspired by Dervish turning – she transforms chaos into healing, spinning turmoil into a path of resilience, and invites the audience to journey with her.

Malina Suliman develops in “You Can Speak” Freely a performance based on the transcript of an interview with Dutch immigration authorities. Reimagined in an operatic form, the piece critiques colonial language and institutional violence.

Baran Hashemi, together with Atifa Gardi and Hadia Akrami, is developing the dance theater performance Daughters of the Moon. The piece combines traditional and contemporary dance, movement, and theatrical language with personal narratives from migrant and Afghan women’s perspectives.

In Composting, Shivā Amiri traces loss through extended f/l/i/g/h/t. In a placeless place—where monsters grieve & wounds cry out—fragments of memory are gathered & processed, becoming a personal archive of dance, sound & images. The performance explores Attan as a movement of remembering & emerging Futures.

Information on Accessibility

On both evenings, there will be alternative seating options available, for example for people with chronic pain. A relaxed area with beanbags and a good view of the stage will be set up. Please note that Wiesenburg Berlin is not fully accessible: there are no wheelchair-accessible restrooms, and the path to the studio includes some physical barriers.
Everyone who feels more comfortable in a relaxed atmosphere is warmly welcome to get to know the venue some minutes before other people enter it, move around freely during the event, and make noise if needed. You are also free to leave and re-enter the event at any time. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a separate quiet room. The same goes for people with children: you are warmly welcome to attend, though we cannot offer childcare.
We know that our current set-up only meets some access needs, but we are committed to reducing barriers as much as we can. If you have any questions, suggestions, or particular needs, please don’t hesitate to reach out in advance. We will do our best to find a good solution together.

Baran Hashemi has been passionately engaged in theater since her youth – first in Herat, Afghanistan, and later in Germany. For many years she has performed on stage, participated in international theater projects, and today works as part of the leadership team of the self-organized theater group AWA in Berlin. There, the collective develops artistic projects with young people and people with refugee experience, bringing together personal stories, empowerment, and social issues.

© Ramin Parvin

Fahima Mirzaie, Afghanistan’s first female whirling dervish and Sema dancer, holds a bachelor’s in business. She founded Shohood, a cultural organization in Kabul, to preserve Afghanistan’s spiritual heritage. After moving to France four years ago, she has participated in artistic residencies and performances across Europe. Her work uses dance to bridge cultures, foster healing, and convey unity through Sema.

© Ramin Parvin

Malina Suliman was born in Afghanistan and has lived in exile for over a decade. She holds an MA from the Dutch Art Institute and an MA in Dance and Choreography at Stockholm University of the Arts. She was a fellow at the Van Abbemuseum through the Artist Protection Fund (2017–2019). Her artistic practice investigates urban spaces as dynamic sites of mobility, displacement, and diasporic flows. It interrogates constructed cultural narratives and explores the complexities of fragmented identities in exile, creating a space for dialogue across borders and languages. As a woman born in Afghanistan and living in the diaspora, she views social roles as performative and is particularly interested in how identity is shaped by systems of exclusion and power.

© Ramin Parvin

Shivā Amiri (uh/they) was born in Kabul and is currently based in Germany. As a performer, choreographer, curator, and empowerment trainer, Amiri works across disciplines and media. Shaped by experiences in border spaces and studies in political science in Hamburg and Bordeaux, their practice centers on de-/coloniality, displacement, non-binary practices and empowerment. Amiri explores how contemporary art at the intersections of race, class, gender, and ableism can disrupt colonial narratives. In addition, Amiri is the curatorial director of the Implantieren Festival 2026 and sits on the board of ID_Frankfurt e.V., where they advance intersectional approaches in dance & performance. Since 2015, they have been engaged with the AfghanRefugeeMovement, advocating against deportations.

© Ramin Parvin

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The tanzpol mentoring program is funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Community and with funds from the funding program “Weltoffenes Berlin 2025”. With the kind support of the Institut francais and the French Ministry of Culture as well as the Goethe-Institute in Exile, Impure Company and Wiesenburg Berlin.