Mladi levi: SHIRAZ

Watching Shiraz is like looking into a kaleidoscope; a geometric choreography of particles moving along their own unpredictable paths. Except that these particles are not crystals, but dancers, moving with extraordinary, meticulous precision along invisible paths through space. The performance delicately layers movements, gestures and reminiscences into a shared choreography that creates the sense of the known and familiar, even though we may never have performed these movements ourselves. But perhaps the movements being choreographically (re)arranged on stage in inexplicable variations, like the tiny pebbles in a kaleidoscope against a striking musical backdrop, are carriers of memories, replicas of the movement found by the performance’s creators in their personal memories and in the festival archives. Shiraz takes as its point of departure the eponymous festival (or rather, a critical reflection on the festival context) of theatre, music, film and dance in 1960s and 1970s Iran.
Berlin-based Iranian choreographer Armin Hokmi bases his choreographic practice on the suggestive power of the language of movement, relying on allusions that we recognise almost intuitively in movement forms. In doing so, he maintains his faith in the autonomy of dance and choreography as a separate and emancipated practice.

Concept and choreography: Armin Hokmi
Dance and performance: Daniel Sarr, Luisa Fernanda Alfonso, Aleksandra Petrushevska, Efthimios Moschopoulos, Johanna Ryynänen, Emmi Venna, Charlott Madeleine Utzig/Xenia Koghilaki
Music: EHSXN, Reza R
Light design: Vito Walter
Scenography and light concept: Felipe Osorio Guzmán
Created in conversation with: Emmi Venna
Costumes: Moriah Askenaizer
Reworking of the costumes: Katharina Fritz
Tour management: Tammo Walter
Consultation and archival study of the Shiraz Arts Festival (1966-1977): Vali Mahlouji
Co-production: Festival Montpellier Danse 2024, Rosendal Teater, Dansehallerne, Black Box teater, Tanzfabrik
Supported by: Arts Council Norway, Nordic Culture Fund, FFUK, Nordic Culture Point
Residency support: Montpellier Danse, Tanzfabrik, Lake Studios, Uferstudios, DAVVI Center for Performing Arts Hammerfest
Research period supported by: Dis-Tanzen
Thanks to: Anne-Cécile Sibué, Rasmus Jensen, Diletta Sperman, Ellen Söderhult, Theatre Haus Berlin

Photo by: Armin Hokmi Kiasaraei, Nadja Krüger