Founder
Salto Ergo Sum
I dance therefore I am
I have danced through my life
Life is dance
I dance I live I am
I danced even before I walked. I learned dancing without using my feet, sitting on the kitchen counter of my very rhythmic dancing family in Shiraz. Among my oldest sensory memories are the smells of Saffron, Pomegranate and Rosewater paired with sounds of jingling kitchen pots and pans, movements of my aunties flying fingers and the flirtatious looks and dancing hips of my cousins. Dancing runs in my veins and carries deep ancestral knowledge in my DNA.
The aromatic smells of slowly cooked Persian dishes, the happy chatter of everybody in the kitchen, not just women. Everybody, young and old. A happy place. A place of creativity and inspiring new creations. A place of exchange and human kindness. A place of vivid memories, of loud laughter, fascinating smells, delightful tastes, and all the colors of life.
Sanaz Hanke
Founder & Artist
One of the distinct cultural & culinary customs of Persian families is to mix food with dancing. If you ask any Iranian, they will tell you that it has been a custom in their family to dance after dining. Probably for as long as Persians can remember, think and exist.
The marriage of dining & dancing takes place at the so called “Mehmooni”. The word mehmooni means “party” and derives from the word “Mehmoon” which means guest in Persian and is typically a culinary feast, usually organized weekly by Persian families to proudly present their hospitality, meet, and socialize with relatives and friends. It serves as regular cultural exchange in form of conversations on local or world news, political, economic, philosophical, and spiritual debates, as much as for gossip about relatives, news about an upcoming wedding, or time-off from overly active kids who get to play with each-other or learn invaluable skills from those debates. Family members perform on Persian instruments as the “Tar” “Setar” “Tonbak” or “Santur”, reciting poems from poets such as Hafez, Saadi, Rumi or of their own creation and if you are super lucky, the most sage aunties and uncles would be interpreting from the Divan-e Hafez (the Divan of Hafez) by having you memorize a question in your heart, blindfold you to choose a page from it and telling your future from the wisdom of Hafez, but also from their own heart and soul.
As if this doesn’t sound already like the very best possible entertainment, everybody waits for the one moment, when dinner & dancing melt with each other. After all debating they all agree on one thing, which is that after dinner comes dancing. The moment, when after all the culinary indulgence and stuffing, the “sofreh-e mehmani” (a tablecloth on which food is served either on a dining table or on the floor) is removed, tables and chairs are removed, and the music is turned on. This is when the word does itself justice and the real party begins. My absolute most favorite moment and the best post-food workout that you can image.
The highlights are always, when the eldest dance with the toddlers, the men dance with men while being funny or super impressive, mothers, sisters and aunties show off their most flirtatious moves and looks on the dance floor to each other and to their youngest followed by laughter, applause and whistles, friends showing off their tricks such as 2-finger-whistle techniques or competing in the loudest finger-snapping contest, everybody moves, everybody dances, no exception even for those with artificial hips or a humps, the hosts dance with their guests, the tall with the small, the brave with the shy, everybody with everybody, until dawn. Dinner & dancing belong together, this is a fact, this is the truth, this is life, and this is us. My entire childhood was filled with exactly these moments of dining and dancing. As I cooked and danced myself through decades, built and strengthened my culinary palette, explored dances such as Belly Dance, Flamenco, Hip Hop, Salsa or Tango among many others, both fountains of youth and life-essence formed into something much stronger.
A life motto and purpose based social enterprise called “Salto Ergo Sum” which stands for “I dance therefore I am”, and derives from the famous principle of philosopher René Descartes’s “Cogito Ergo Sum” standing for “I think therefore I am”. As much as I agree with the latter, I brought this project and business unit of Sanaz Group to life, in order to pursue all purpose-based world-changing business ideas under this umbrella, where we thrive to the best versions of ourselves and where we still believe we can change the world to the better, by incorporating music, art & entertainment to support our world-changing causes.
Whether that’d be organizing live-events such as fundraisers with action-painting performances to raise awareness for underprivileged students in Africa, or selling these artworks to fund the educational materials like laptops for our partner organization Wings of Change where I teach Computer Science to students, who learn coding with us within 6 months.
And coming soon in March 2023, you will be able to buy the NFT of our artworks, with its proceeds going directly into the Wings of Change Global fund, supporting kids with education around the globe.
In summer during the month of August 2023, you will be able to buy the very first “Salto Ergo Sum” canvas choreographed by me and danced on by the semester class finalists from the Wings of Change at Nosy Be. The dance will be live-streamed, where you will be able to bid on the NFT and shared on Social Media. The artworks will go for auction right after on our platform here.
And until today you might always catch me on the dance-floor or on the canvas with my students…
…and much more to come in near future…
