MIRROR
2008 North American Tour 10/9 – 10/19, 2008
www.namah.net www.zarbang.com
Performance: October 12, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Theater: Wilshire Ebell Theater Address: 4401 West 8th St., Los Angeles, CA 90005
Tickets: $100, $75, $60, $50, $45, $40, $35, $25
Tickets & Information: (818) 887-7878
Press Contact: John Imlach, (310) 266-6866 namahbiz@yahoo.com
Here comes a program in full prime- an evening of wild and whirling dance, world-class drumming, music, and evocative poetry, featuring world premieres as well as repertory pieces. This is a well-established collection of masters, seasoned from years together on the world circuit, and all at the top of their game. This event called Mirror touches down in only a few cities- Los Angeles fortunate to be one of them- and revolves around a week-long residency organized by the prestigious Dance Center at Columbia College in Chicago for the long-favoured Sufi dance innovator Banafsheh Sayyad, who will give three performances there, in addition to master classes and workshops. Mirror features Banafsheh’s internationally recognized dance company NAMAH, and her long time collaborating percussion ensemble, the world renowned ZARBANG, and together they sweep the audience into a remarkable journey inward, into the Mystery of being alive and living with Heart.
The Columbia College Dance Center’s 2007 lineup of dance companies included Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Susan Marshall and Company, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Armitage Gone! Dance, and Urban Bush Women/Campanie JANT-BI.
Mirror reflects our common human heritage- that of our full glory and majesty being veiled in the self-absorbed egoism, which wreaks havoc in our world. The premise here is, our human-veil keeps us from seeing and being our true Divine Nature, thus we tend to reflect only selfishness, fear, and apathy. The event examples the action and courage needed to lift our veil, to reveal instead our own shining goodness, that we may now trust and take part in the larger Sacred Dance with full faith in its reflecting the Greater Good.
Here for the first time the male-dominated tradition of Sufism is being transmitted through the feminine, celebrating sensuality and the Sacred Connection with wild abandon yet mindful, embracing movement and music. The timing of this could hardly be more appropriate; as the peaceful peoples of Iran and the US are now the players caught up in the oily net, the international moneychangers once again sniff the floor for any excuse possible to effect more conflict. Mirror is a platform for discovery, for life lived through love- and a groundbreaking evolution in gender balance, and no harm is intended throughout this entire event. The spoken word is drawn from the teachings of Rumi as well as Banafsheh’s own writings. The evening’s music is composed and arranged by ZARBANG.
Banafsheh Sayyad, Artistic Director of NAMAH and one of the few authentic bearers of classical Persian dance outside of Iran, here reveals her unique pioneering- translating language into movement. She maps the Persian alphabet into bodily form and gesture, thus bringing illumined Word and Poetry to the dance stage. Banafsheh holds an MFA in Dance from UCLA and an MA in Chinese Medicine, fusing a rigorous discipline with Persian mysticism and a Taoist body-sense to create movement that is technique based yet internal. Banafsheh’s explosive movement is sensual and ritualistic, an organic trance of impeccable technique gone wild, while staying in touch with the inner landscape. She reconnects us with the power of the ancient priestesses, here to vitalize, liberate and heal. With a background in Persian, Modern, Flamenco and Eastern sacred dances and philosophy, Banafsheh both preserves and innovates the Persian tradition including a lifelong dedication to the works of Jalaledin Rumi, creating dances that “fuse ancient forms with a postmodern punch” (Los Angeles Times).
ZARBANG is a collective of the finest percussionists from Iran, and one of the leading world percussion ensembles. ZARBANG’s sound has a primal dynamic, meditative and internal on one hand and ecstatic and trance inducing on the other, drawing upon Sufi and ancient Persian tribal rhythms used for inducing altered states. The members that give ZARBANG its vitality and innovative sound include founder Behnam Samani, the acclaimed Tombak, Daf and Udu player; Pejman Hadadi, the two-time recipient of the prestigious Durfee Master Musician Fellowship and hailed the “finest Iranian percussionist in the West”; the versatile Reza Samani playing Iranian Ney (flute), Ney-Anban and Zorna in addition to percussion; and Santur player Javid Afsari, recipient of “The Norwegian Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra’s Prize” in 2007 and The Oslo Municipality’s Artist of the Year in 2008.
NAMAH in the ancient language of Avesta means reverence, homage and greeting, and was founded in San Francisco by Banafsheh Sayyad in 1999, touring annually in North America, and also Australia and New Zealand in 2006. The popular and exciting company serves a deep commitment- to create dance that preserves and elevates both the art of dance and the Persian spirit- borne out of the shamed and demeaning stature dance has been assigned in the Persian culture, to the point that today women’s dancing is banned in public. NAMAH celebrates the dance tradition and its gentle diplomacy with all Life and culture, offering relevant insight and bridging ancient tradition with our familiar times. Two of the members of NAMAH will join Banafsheh for Mirror. Kelly Archbold is a UCLA graduate, and Bahareh Ebrahimzadeh is a Cal State Long Beach graduate in Dance. Eileen Cooley is the Lighting Designer and the costume design is by the highly acclaimed Shahla Dorriz.
