Shiraz is a choreography for seven dancers, weaving together a fabric of movements and gestures. Their insistent energy, the moments of convergence and their passage through a sphere of expressions and coordinates are what takes center stage in this performance. A pulsating dance imbued with a sense of enchantment and longing. The starting point for this piece is the Shiraz Arts Festival. A festival for live arts that took place between 1967 and 1977 in south of Iran and radically rethought the relationship to the audience and modalities of framing art works. Armin Hokmi, together with the team, places it into our present day in the form of a revival, by giving it a new appearance through a dance performance. Shiraz is both an homage and a fictional setting. It seeks to reimagine the ambitions of the festival and its love for the live arts, their autonomy as art forms and their common roots across geographical borders.
Armin Hokmi (Oslo/Berlin) is working with dance and choreography. He began in 2009 as a performer with independent theater in Iran and later continued to work and study abroad toward experiences with multiple performative practices and mediums. He holds a B.A. in acting from Norwegian Theatre Academy (2015 –2018) and has received his M.A. in Solo / Dance / Authorship at HZT Berlin (2019 – 2021). Armin is an associate artist at Montpellier Danse for 2024 – 2026.
Duration: 60 min.
Concept, choreography: Armin Hokmi; dance, performance: Aleksandra Petrushevska, Charlott Madeleine Utzig, Daniel Sarr, Efthimios Moschopoulos, Emmi Venna, Johanna Ryynänen, Luisa Fernanda Alfonso in alternation with Xenia Koghilaki; music: EHSXN, Reza R; lighting design: Vito Walter; stage + lighting concept: Felipe Osorio Guzmán in conversation with Emmi Venna; costumes / revision of the costumes for the tour: Katharina Fritz, Moriah Askenaizer; consultation / research, archive material on the Shiraz Arts Festival (1966 - 1977): Vali Mahlouji; tour management: Tammo Walter.
A production by Armin Hokmi. A co-production of Montpellier Danse, Rosendal Teater (Trondheim), Dansehallerne (Copenhagen), Black Box Teater (Oslo), Tanzfabrik Berlin Support Arts Council Norway, Nordic Culture Fund, FFUK (Fond for utøvende kunstnere), Nordic Culture Point, Finnish Cultural Foundation Residency Support Montpellier Danse, Tanzfabrik Berlin, Uferstudios (Berlin), Davvi - Senter for scenekunst (Hammerfest) Support Recherche Dis-Tanzen thanks to Anne-Cécile Sibué, Rasmus Jensen, Diletta Sperman, Ellen Söderhult, Theaterhaus Berlin. Supported by the National Performance Network and the Alliance of International Production Houses, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
