PARISA KHOBDEH, born in Dallas, Texas, trained with Kathy Chamberlain and Gilles Tanguay. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.F.A in Dance Performance and Computer Science from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. While a scholarship student there, and at the American Dance Festival as a Tom Adams Scholar, she worked with choreographers Robert Battle, Judith Jamison, Donald McKayle and Shen Wei, among others. She also attended Paul Taylor and Martha Graham dance intensives in New York City. She made her debut with the Paul Taylor Dance Company at the American Dance Festival in Summer 2003. In 2006 she made her New York theatrical debut at the Stella Adler Studios in the lead role of Lanford Wilson's play, Burn This, and was featured in Dance Magazine as a performer "On The Rise." She was featured on the cover of that magazine's December 2012 issue, and in October 2015 she penned an article for it entitled "Why I Dance." She restaged Paul Taylor's The Word at The College of William and Mary in 2013 and continues teaching masterclasses at universities, schools, and festivals around the world. She has choreographed dances to benefit human rights organizations and for independent films. Her most recent ballet, Traces, premiered in New York City for an arts fundraiser benefiting the Children of Bellevue Hospital. In 2016 she performed in David Grenke's Vespers at the University of California, Davis, and will appear in Doug Elkins's film, A Hundred Indecisions, in 2017. Her body of work for the Taylor Company earned her a nomination for a 2016 New York Dance and Performance Award ("The Bessie").