Ever since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, dance as an art form has been banned in Iran. Nevertheless, Banafsheh Sayyad dreamed of a dance career while growing up in the Middle Eastern country. “My earliest memories include forcing guests [in our home] to watch me [dance] and making other kids join in,” she says. Sayyad now lives in California and travels throughout the world with her company, Namah, to perform, teach and choreograph. She’s hailed as a bearer of ancient Persian tradition—though she has her own take on the form, influenced by her studies in tai chi, flamenco and Sufi philosophy.
“Because some Islamists feel that dancing interferes with the straight path to the divine, classical Persian dance never really got to flourish and become systematized,” Sayyad says. “I have not studied Persian dance with anyone. What arose in me was a response to the music, the designs in our architecture, carpets and mosques.” Sayyad will visit Chicago for the first time in October. She offered TOC insights into her art, describing moments of her dancing caught on camera.
“Here, I’m leaning forward in a reverential movement. Reverence plays a big part in my work. Namah is a word from Avestan, an ancient Iranian language. It means reverence, and it’s the root of the Sanskrit namaste, which is a gesture of greeting the divine in everything and everyone.”
“I’m in a moment of release, a state of receiving. The first photo is a kind of giving—this is a receptive mode. I’m very much interested in taking the audience [members] on a journey, not just having them be mesmerized and impressed by the performer. I want to dissolve, to merge into the oneness of all. I want to give the audience the experience of a shared heart.”
“Here I’m standing on my two feet; my head is thrown back. We need to bring our strength, fullness, robustness into the world. The heart needs to be powerful, not whimpering. What is needed [in the world] is not weakness—that would drag everything down. As part of oneness, we’re not just living for ourselves, but living for everyone, participating.”
See Namah October 16–18 with musical ensemble Zarbang at the Dance Center of Columbia College (1306 S Michigan Ave, 312-369-6600; colum.edu/dancecenter). $24.
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