An Evolving Form
By VICTORIA LOOSELEAF
The Los Angeles Times
October 29, 2000
The single-named Jamal can claim a wealth of talents: architecture,
costume design, painting and, increasingly over the last decade, choreography.
Since 1995, the Iranian-born artist has been co-director of Avaz International
Dance Theatre, L.A.'s leading Middle Eastern folk troupe, with its founder,
Anthony Shay. Now, as Avaz prepares for its 25th anniversary next year,
Shay is stepping back and Jamal is assuming the reins of the company. When
the troupe performs Saturday at Japan America Theatre, it will still carry
its founder's name (Anthony Shay's Avaz International Dance Theatre, for
legal reasons), but the torch, in effect, will have been passed.
"Tony wants to push me out from under his shadow," says Jamal,
48, who emigrated from Teheran to the United States in 1975 to study architecture
and visual arts at Oklahoma University, eventually getting a master's degree
in fine arts and environmental design at Cal State Los Angeles. "I
will be doing more choreography," he adds, "and Tony will spend
most of his time writing."
Shay, who is 63, characterizes the shift as a natural evolution. Jamal
joined the board of Avaz in 1990, and his earliest contributions were in
costume and set design. Now, Shay hopes that his colleague will infuse
Avaz's original folk-dance vision with contemporary energy and yet keep
it tied to its Iranian roots.
"The one basic thing we share," Shay explains, "is that
the dance traditions we do--no matter how contemporary Jamal chooses to
express them--are always based in Iranian and [other] authentic movement
practices. And that is our aesthetic tie, one to the other."
Jamal, who sports a thick mustache and has dark hair flecked with gray,
first choreographed "Shateri" for Avaz in 1993. He choreographed
the dance, originally a solo male piece performed in cities by the lower
classes, for women, dressing them in men's outfits and spunky fedoras.
It was, in fact, the first time this urban dance had ever been staged.
Since then, he has continued to push the choreographic envelope, having
created more than a dozen pieces for the 16-person troupe.
"I want to take the company to a level that has international appeal
to a mass audience," he explains, "yet keep it close to tradition
and give a contemporary look to it. My new work is basically a takeoff
from folk, and because I lived [in Iran] for 25 years, I'm doing the urban
dances through my memory.
"Areas that I have seen, things that I have seen," he adds,
"will be in the dances, but with the facilities here--like staging,
lights and all the other elements--that will help [make] the work contemporary."
His impulses seem on target. A Times reviewer, writing about one of
his pieces in 1999, cited his vision of Iran as "approaching a postmodernist
sensibility." More recently, another reviewer noted that the traditional
Iranian dances Avaz presents have "proved a matrix for the company
to explore new choreographic and staging ideas."
Jamal insists too that he wishes to showcase Persian dance as the art
form that he and Shay firmly believe it is.
"I grew up and am dealing with a culture that, as Tony says, is
'choreophobic.' Dance is either banned by the rulers in Iran or banned
by society itself. They don't consider dance [an] art form. We have been
thinking, 'How do we change this attitude toward dance?'
"When you look at other dance forms--flamenco or tango--everybody
has an easier time to understand it," he continues in his lightly
accented English, "but not too many people know about Iranian dance.
We understand every aspect of the urban and Iranian folklore genre, and
are capitalizing on this to make Iranian dance more appealing and getting
it noticed by non-Iranians."
While the Iranian emigre community has always made up Avaz's biggest
audience, the desire to branch out is strong. Shay, who has choreographed
more than 200 works for the company and will continue to contribute on
a smaller scale, says, "What we're out to do is make it a preeminent
art form [in the wider world]."
Shay, who recently earned a doctorate in dance history and theory from
UC Riverside, spent the first five months of this year in Greece, Turkey
and Egypt, doing research for "Choreographic Politics," his latest
scholarly book, which is about state-sponsored national folk-dance companies
and is slated for publication next year from Wesleyan University Press.
While he was away, Jamal minded the store, so to speak.
* * *
In choosing Jamal as his successor, Shay says he wanted a director with
a strong vision. "Jamal is an artist who would be able to expand on
[what] I first created, and he brings that sense of space he has in both
his architecture and his painting to the stage in a unique way. He's [already]
given a whole new look to the company."
Before joining forces with Shay in Avaz, Jamal earned his living as
an artist. Primarily a painter of figurative works and still lifes, his
highly detailed paintings often depicted some form of the American Southwest.
He has had numerous exhibitions in galleries from Santa Fe to New York
and Las Vegas.
His paintings, like his choreography, have evolved, however, and are
now more movement-oriented. Indeed, he occasionally creates painted backdrops
for Avaz--vivid floating lines and forms--while his choreography splashes
dancers across large spaces. As he puts it, "When I'm choreographing,
I'm painting, and when I'm painting, I'm choreographing."
Jamal even sews many of the sumptuous costumes adorning Avaz dancers,
and for the upcoming concerts he created 100 of them, including coats,
dresses, headpieces and sashes.
Dancers Brandy Maya Healy and Cay Lundy have been with Avaz for the
last decade. Lundy describes the troupe's current work as more challenging
than earlier choreography.
"We started with more traditional folk dances, but Jamal's dances
are [like] art in motion. He makes it look good for the audience. He pushes
us as dancers."
Healy agrees: "We're becoming more theatrical but [we] still retain
the flavor of the Middle East."
Jamal's latest suite is one example. Inspired by 13th century mystic
poet Rumi, it is called, "Charkh: Turning Through Time." Ten
dancers lie face down on the floor in a yoga-based pose, arms outstretched
with left knees bent. Rising to the music, they brandish silver, spokeless
bicycle rims. Turning in unison, they face front, their intent faces framed
by the hoops, before executing a series of traditional spinning turns.
"I'm elaborating the turning, which is the essence of Iranian dance,"
Jamal explains. "My concept [comes] from medieval Iran, [where] we
always had Jews, Christians and Muslims. But one thing they all had in
common was poetry, and this art form brought these people with a different
ethnicity together. I use Rumi because of the tremendous impact he had.
Charkh means cycle of life, and this piece is [about] how we start and
finish and go back--birth, death and in between. Like a society in progress."
And like Avaz today.
* * *
AVAZ INTERNATIONAL DANCE THEATRE, Japan America Theatre, 244 S. San
Pedro St. Date: Saturday. Prices: $25. Phone: (323) 663-2829.
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