zahra masaoka
“Being Asian American means honoring the great sacrifice and resilience of my ancestors. It means a lifetime of unlearning and reclaiming. It means awareness of my white passing privilege and how that is weaponized to divide communities of color and to uphold white supremacy. It means not letting other people erase and invalidate me. It means celebrating and loving myself, fully.
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Photo by: Marika Tzantarmas
zahra masaoka
@zmasaoka
Zahra Masaoka (she/her) is a 4th generation Japanese-American/Nikkeijin (日系人) born and raised on Duwamish Land/Seattle. She has been dancing for over 10 years and has trained in various dance forms such as Locking, Hip Hop, Waacking, Voguing and more. Along with being a co-director of Malicious Vixens, Zahra is a teacher at Westlake Dance Center and has been heavily involved in the Seattle dance community in a variety of ways. In reflection of her own journey with dance and navigating studio environments, she is continually working on unlearning harmful messaging around gender, body image, ‘grind culture’, perfectionism and more.
Zahra graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. She works at a recovery center that treats folks struggling with eating disorders where she facilitates group therapy and provides meal support using a HAES and non-diet approach.
Zahra is passionate about social justice, helping folks heal their relationship with food and body and reconnecting with her heritage. She cares deeply for family and for fostering meaningful connections with the people and communities in her life. Zahra hopes to continue stepping into her power, taking up space and showing up as her whole self so that she can live a full, rich life and give back to those around her.
