is a Bengali-American fusion dancer and devoted student, performer, chemical engineer, and corporate leader.

Born and raised in the Bronx, New York City, Sarima is the daughter of Bengali vocal artist Tahmina Shahid and dancer/musician Shahid Uddin. So it is no surprise that Sarima’s natural passion for the performing arts courses through her veins.

Dancing since she could walk, Sarima grew up dancing and teaching at the Trimurti Arts Dance School in Queens, NY under the guidance of her beloved guru Sri Anil Kumar. Formally trained in Bharatanatyam, Kathak, and Kuchipudi Indian classical dance styles, Sarima fell in love with the “Trimurti”, which means “three statues” and signifies the three classical forms specialized. From the ages of 7 to 13, Sarima and her family traveled across the country every summer touring and performing, sharing their love of music and dance with communities across the East coast to the West coast and back.

In college, Sarima discovered belly dance at Bellyqueen Studios in NYC back in 2009, and she has never looked back! She studies under world-renowned dancers such as her beloved teachers Irina Akulenko and Colleena Shakti, as well as forever taking classes with different belly dance instructors and performers in the fusion community.

Sarima now specializes in Indian fusion dance. She loves to marry her Indian classical, Bollywood, and Bengali folk dance backgrounds with her obsession for belly dance, forever on a mission to bridge the beautiful worlds of seemingly opposite aesthetics: Eastern and Western cultures, science and art, classical and modern, delicate and powerful.

After taking a lengthy hiatus from the professional dance world to pursue her chemical engineer career for the last 10 years, Sarima is back to traveling and performing, excited to resume sharing and celebrating her love of cultural fusion with the community!