Rumi Jeraj

Rumi Jeraj is an Ismailli muslim hailing from Sherwood Park, Alberta (the world’s largest hamlet). A Graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University, Rumi has worked for dance artists including Hannah Kiel, Daryl Tracy, Heidi Strauss, Maxine Hepner and Eilish Shin-Culhane. He has presented his work at Dusk Dances, the Hamilton Fringe Festival, Citadel Compagnie’s Night Shift, Interaccess Gallery and Common Ground Dance Festival. Notable projects include Nature Boy, a collaboration with Purawai Vyas (a Bharatanatyam dancer), which saw the pair exchange over rhythm and culture and Space and Spectra, a collaboration with drummer Aidan McConnell, which brought together contemporary dancers and free improvised musicians. Rumi just completed a season as guest curator for Dance Makers, exploring what the tap shoe of the future might look like. Shoe Dreams brought together dancers, shoe makers and designers to collectively dream up this shoe. He is currently interested in bringing together his Tap and Contemporary dance practices to create a body percussion work on dancers and musicians of various forms and traditions. His work has taken him to Soul Korea with Human Body Expression, for the creation and performance of a work entitled BODY, which premiered in 2024 in Seoul and 2025 in Toronto. He aspires to create and be a part of work which mixes forms in order to better tell stories. He believes there is a perfect balance between words, music, and movement, which can communicate intellectually, emotionally and viscerally all at once. He aspires to find this state on stage.