ABOUT ARTIA

Artia is a renowned performer and teacher based in Australia, making waves in the global dance community with his distinctive salsa style. Not only does he tour the world sharing his passion, but he has also founded several professional dance teams in Australia: the Shine Brothers, The Salsa Unit, and the DBS team.

​

His earlier initiatives include the founding of the Shine Brothers, a male-focused Latin dance ensemble, and The Salsa Unit, which united top-tier talent from Melbourne. Today, Artia's focus is on the DBS Team, a handpicked assembly of Sydney's finest dancers, which exemplifies the epitome of dance professionalism in the region. Additionally, as the founder of Alma Dance Company in Sydney, Artia continues to merge innovative choreography with unparalleled talent, reinforcing his stature as a leading figure in the dance community both in Australia and internationally.

 

Artia is trained in ballet, lyrical, hip-hop, and jazz. However, his life is about salsa and Latin Dance. Based in Sydney Australia, Artia juggles a busy schedule of home and international teaching and performance commitments, as well as working on his own professional development and home city dance projects.

 

 

ARTIA’S PHILOSOPHY

Artia’s main philosophy in dance is based on developing an understanding of the intricacies of salsa music and being able to better represent the complexity of this music in comparison to the more mainstream dance music. He strives to educate dancers about the power of musicality and the representation of the music through the use of appropriate body movement.

 

More recently, Artia has been striving to lead more meaningfully in his professional role in his community: he partakes in two main activities in the hope of giving back to the wider community as well as the dance community. The first project is providing free, online dance classes for the Persian community in Iran. With this project, Artia aims to fight against some of the limitations that the youth and dance enthusiasts battle in Iran. The second project is one which uses dance to raise awareness towards eating disorders in the community. As Artia has been a sufferer of eating disorder himself, he decided to start publicly speaking and raising awareness about this largely unspoken-about issue with in the dance community. 

 

 

BACKGROUND

Artia has always had an innate interest for music and dance. Born in the Iran’s capital city Tehran, his first tastes of music and dancing were not so traditional, but  based on watching his dad do breakdancing in the living room and listening to western dance music. 

 

As he grew up, Artia found his main interest for music and dance inspired not by the streets and ceremonies in Tehran but by sources a world away: Western dance shows and Hollywood dance movies. From a young age he was drawn to illegal TV broadcasts, such as “so you think you can dance”, “Dancing with the stars” and “Step-up”. As most forms of non-traditional art expressions were restricted in Iran, all this early inspiration was streamed and practiced, on imaginary stages, in front of imaginary audiences, in the privacy of his own home. 

 

At the age of 15, Artia moved away from Iran and his passion for dancing and his dream of being a professional dancer was allowed to grow without restriction. Artia moved to Australia and his dancing life really began. In high school, he took up dance courses and joined street dance teams. And, it was in high school that he first found salsa and fell in love. As well as the music, the rhythms, Artia fell in love with the salsa culture and the social aspect of the dance. From high school, Artia has been fusing his street style and love for Latin dance, most notably salsa.

 

Education and staying up to date with the world of dance is at the forefront of Artia’s dance journey. He has studied with many different salsa dancers from around the world including Australia’s ten-time world champion Olivia Pineda; Australia’s world-renown teacher, choreographer and promoter Jamie Jesus Manuelian; Mambo legend Adolfo Indacochea, Peru; and, the king of fusion salsa Fernando Salsa and the Tropical Gem team, Italy.