About Simona Jovic

The Dances of Joy founder and instructor

Simona Jovic is a Serbian/Czech internationally renowned dance artist, choreographer, actress, singer, movement instructor, and cultural explorer based in Paris.

Her Balkan cultural heritage being the starting point, she conducted years of researches in the field, immersing herself in traditional, spiritual, and healing music and dance celebrations, ceremonies, and rituals in the Eastern world and across the globe. And she has been sharing her discoveries, knowledge, and experience as a first source artist in performances, seminars, workshops, and conferences all over the world for the past 20 years.

Among many other encounters around the world, she danced with the nomadic communities in India, visited tribes in the Sahara desert, stayed in the Gypsy families in Transylvania, Turkey, and the Balkans, took part in the authentic healing Sufi trance ceremonies in the Maghreb, attended fire-walking rites in the Indian Ocean islands, participated in traditional music and dance celebrations in small villages in the mountains in Greece and Armenia, explored rich and meaningful rituals in long Romani weddings in Serbia and Macedonia and much more.


She is the first dancer in the history of the European council in Strasbourg, France to be invited to perform in the hemicycle. Her dances were recorded for the official archives of National Center for the Arts in New Delhi, India.

As a soloist dancer, Simona Jovic performed in venues such as Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts (New Delhi), Institut du monde Arabe (Paris), Auditorium de la Grande bibliothèque (Montreal), Teatro colonial (Buenos Aires), Casa del Lago (Mexico City), Antique Theater (Ohrid), Auditorium Edgar Neville (Malaga), Teatro Cousiño (Santiago de Chile) and many others.

Simona Jovic organized dozens of cultural dance trips to meet communities - their way of life, culture, and customs - in various countries: India, Armenia, Serbia, Greece, North Macedonia, Turkey, Tunisia, Montenegro, Romania, and Albania. As well as several dance retreats in Bahia (Brazil), the South of France, and the Sahara desert.

She has been giving dance workshops and intensive training worldwide for over 20 years in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, UK, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Greece, India, Serbia, Romania, Northern Macedonia...