Dr. Riselda Sejdiu: From Choreography to Creative Entrepreneurship | HP MAGAZINE

For our readers meeting you for the first time, how would you introduce yourself beyond your work as an artist, author, choreographer, and academic?

I would introduce myself first as Dr. Riselda Sejdiu, a woman whose life has always been guided by the need to create, evolve and explore new forms of expression.

I was born and raised in Tirana, and my journey began with dance and choreography, which became my first artistic language. Over the years, that language expanded into academic research, literature, meditation, spirituality, fashion, fragrance and entrepreneurship.

I am the author of eight books, and I am currently completing my latest book, The Art of Meditation and Yoga, a project that is especially close to me. It brings together years of personal experience, reflection, meditation, breathing, movement and my understanding of the relationship between body, mind and inner energy.

Alongside my work as an author, I hold a PhD in Ethnochoreology, and for many years I was part of the academic world as a lecturer at the University of Arts in Tirana. Today, my creative life has expanded internationally through my businesses and brands in Dubai and Albania, including fragrance and fashion.

But beyond all these titles, I see myself simply as a creator.

I have never believed that a person should be defined by only one profession or one chapter of life. For me, every new project is another language through which I can express the same inner world — sometimes through movement, sometimes through words, sometimes through a fragrance, and sometimes through something that has never existed before.

I don’t believe we are born to remain one version of ourselves. I believe we are here to keep discovering who else we can become.

Your journey brings together art, movement, writing, and spirituality. What has shaped the person you are today?

Life itself has shaped me more than anything else.

My artistic discipline began early. I studied at the National Ballet School in Tirana, graduating in 2003, and later continued my education in choreography. Dance taught me discipline, endurance and the extraordinary intelligence of the human body.

Academia gave me another dimension. In 2013, I completed my doctorate in Ethnochoreology at the Center for Albanological Studies in Tirana. From 2010 until 2022, I was a full-time lecturer at the University of Arts in Tirana. Teaching young artists taught me as much as I taught them.

Writing, meanwhile, gave me another kind of freedom. It allowed me to express what movement sometimes cannot.

And spirituality came gradually, through experience. At some point, you realize that achievement alone cannot answer every question. You begin looking inward.

Today I understand my journey as a continuous dialogue between the body, the mind, creativity and the soul.

You’ve built a life between Albania and Dubai. How have these two cultures influenced your creativity and identity?

Albania is my foundation. Dubai represents expansion.

Tirana gave me my first artistic memories, my education, my relationship with dance, culture and identity. There is an emotional depth in Albania that remains present in everything I create, regardless of where I am in the world.

Dubai introduced another rhythm into my life. It is international, ambitious and constantly evolving. Living and working there encouraged me to think beyond borders and to understand creativity not only as artistic expression, but also as something that can become a global business.

Today, my identity carries both worlds. Albania keeps me connected to my roots; Dubai constantly reminds me to think bigger.

As a choreographer and artist, what does movement mean to you beyond dance — and how do you use it as a form of expression?

Movement has never been only dance for me.

The body remembers things that the mind sometimes tries to forget. A gesture, posture, breath or moment of stillness can reveal an entire emotional story.

As a choreographer, I have always been interested in what happens beneath the movement. I don’t want movement simply to look beautiful; I want it to mean something.

This understanding later became important in my work with meditation and yoga as well. Movement can be powerful, but stillness can be equally powerful. Sometimes the strongest movement is the moment when you stop.

For me, choreography is ultimately the art of giving emotion a physical language.

You’ve also explored meditation and spirituality through your work. What role does inner peace play in your creative journey?

Inner peace has become one of the most important forms of luxury in my life.

We live in a world that constantly asks us to produce, achieve, respond and move faster. Meditation taught me something very different: not every answer comes through action.

This philosophy became deeply connected to Riselda’s Chakra – The Art of Meditation and Yoga. The book brings together meditation, breathing, energy, reflection and personal experience.

I never wanted to write a book that tells people how they should live. I wanted to create a space where someone could stop for a moment, listen inwardly and perhaps remember something we often forget: peace is not always something we find outside ourselves.

Sometimes it begins with one breath.

With your experience as an author and PhD scholar, how do knowledge and creativity intersect in your work?

For me, knowledge gives creativity depth, while creativity gives knowledge life.

Academic research taught me to question, observe and understand context. Art taught me to feel, interpret and transform.

I don’t believe these worlds should be separated. Some of my strongest ideas have emerged exactly where intellectual research meets intuition.

My academic background in Ethnochoreology taught me to look at movement not simply as performance, but as culture, identity, history and human behavior.

As an author, I take that same curiosity into language.

Knowledge helps us understand what already exists. Creativity gives us permission to imagine what might exist next.

You’ve created several ventures and creative projects. What inspires you to transform an idea into something tangible and lasting?

I love the moment when something that exists only in my imagination begins to acquire a physical form.

That is probably why entrepreneurship became such a natural continuation of my artistic life.

With Sweet Poison Fragrances, I entered the world of fragrance because perfume fascinates me as an invisible form of expression. I have already created Riselda’s Luxe Fusion Platinum Collection and Riselda’s Chakra Extrait de Parfum, while the third fragrance, God Code – Riselda’s Chakra, is now on its way.

Each fragrance represents more than a scent to me. I approach perfume almost as I approach choreography: it needs structure, character, contrast, emotion and memory.

Fashion is another important part of this world. Through RS Couture, I create distinctive pieces developed in Dubai and offered internationally. I love the idea that something born first as a sketch or thought can eventually be worn by someone on the other side of the world.

My businesses in Dubai and Albania have taught me that creativity does not have to remain an idea. With discipline and vision, an idea can become a product, a company and eventually a legacy.

⁠What is one challenge you faced in your journey that ultimately made you stronger or more determined?

One of the greatest challenges has been learning not to be limited by the version of myself that other people already understood.

When people know you as a choreographer, they expect choreography. When they know you as an academic, they expect academia. When you begin writing, building businesses, creating fragrances or entering fashion, some people naturally ask why.

I learned to stop asking for permission to evolve.

Reinvention requires courage because every new beginning temporarily makes you a beginner again. But I have discovered that growth often begins exactly there — when you are willing to leave a familiar identity without knowing completely what the next one will become.

If you could give one piece of advice to young artists who are afraid to take the first step, what would you tell them?

Do not wait until fear disappears.

Take the first step while fear is still there.

People often imagine that confidence comes first and action follows. In my experience, it is usually the opposite. You begin, you make mistakes, you learn, you continue — and confidence slowly becomes the result.

You don’t need to see the entire road before beginning.

Sometimes one courageous step is enough to reveal the next one.

What does HP MAGAZINE mean to you, and what made you want to be part of this edition?

For me, being part of HP MAGAZINE is an opportunity to share a story that cannot be represented by only one title.

I appreciate platforms that allow people to speak not simply about what they have achieved, but about what has shaped those achievements.

This moment in my life feels particularly meaningful because many different chapters are meeting at the same point — literature, meditation, fragrance, fashion, business and the artistic work that has accompanied me from the beginning.

So this interview feels less like presenting a résumé and more like opening a window into the philosophy behind everything I create.

Looking ahead, what is the one big dream project you’re determined to bring to life — the project that would make you say, “This is exactly what I was meant to create”?

My greatest dream is not one isolated product or project. It is to build a creative universe under my name where everything I have developed throughout my life can finally meet.

I imagine a world where fragrance, fashion, jewelry, books, movement, meditation and artistic experience communicate with one another rather than existing separately.

I want Riselda’s Chakra to grow beyond a fragrance or a book into a recognizable philosophy — an experience connected to inner luxury, energy, beauty and consciousness.

At the same time, I want my creative businesses to continue expanding internationally from Dubai, while preserving the personal identity behind them.

The project that would make me say, “This is exactly what I was meant to create,” would be something people can enter and experience — not simply purchase.

A universe with its own scent, movement, aesthetic, words and soul.

Finally, when people look back at your journey years from now, what do you hope your name and work will represent?

I hope my name will represent the courage to create without accepting boundaries.

I would like people to remember that I began with movement, but I never allowed myself to remain inside one form of expression. I moved from choreography into academia, from academia into books, from words into meditation, from meditation into fragrance, fashion and entrepreneurship — without abandoning the person who started the journey.

More than success, I would like my work to represent evolution.

I want my books to leave thoughts behind. I want my choreography to leave emotion. I want my fragrances to leave memories. I want my fashion to carry identity. And I want the businesses I build to prove that creativity can have both a soul and a structure.

Perhaps that is the legacy I care about most: that when people hear the name Riselda Sejdiu, they don’t think of only one profession.

I hope they think of a woman who kept creating, kept evolving and had the courage to turn imagination into something real.

Because in the end, I don’t want to be remembered simply for what I created.

I want to be remembered for the world I created around everything I believed in.