Namah (Persian Dance Company) http://friendfeed.com/e... http://namah.net - Banafsheh Sayyad is an internationally renowned Persian dancer and choreographer. Considered a pioneer in her field, she approaches dance as prayer. Her teaching is an innovative fusion of dance technique and rapturous response - Mitchell Tsai

She holds an MFA in Dance from UCLA and is a certified acupuncturist. Sayyad has extensively toured her solo and ensemble work with her company NAMAH in Europe, North America and Australia. - Mitchell Tsai

@Selma I studied Modern Persian Dance one semester with Banafsheh at UCLA circa 1996-2002. She's awesome! A real princess, with very regal impressive demanor. Her husband Peshman (?) plays awesome drums. His fingers are so fast! - Mitchell Tsai

Her dancers use their long hair like another tail/arm/leg. It's amazing. She taught us "male" Persian dancing along with the "female" dance. - Mitchell Tsai

Women aren't allowed to dance in modern Persia, right? - Tad

Tad: Banafsheh told us a funny story. When she & her husband were approaching other musicians to ask them to play music with their dance, she was very worried. But when her husband's friends saw her dance, they said "We'd love to play. This is ART, not DANCE." Dance has a very low reputation in Persia (from what Banafsheh shared with us)...ala NYC 42nd St hookers. - Mitchell Tsai

I love how the music, poetry and dance mix together to create this trance like ‎feeling… ‎ - Selma

Well not really, dance is quite popular among people here (although the dance in its ‎general sense is considered a way of seduction and to go with pop music it is ‎considered a bit cheap (what is cheap any way?) ) but I'm absolutely certain ‎choreography and dance as art and performance is loved …the problem is that the ‎hardliner religious view totally rejects it as useless and distracting from the true duty ‎of human in worshipping God (even as a non-believer, I am convinced dance can be a ‎method to worship)…and as we know the rulers have the final say …so dance in this ‎sense is almost never performed in official scenes inside Iran and the few random ‎shows that are allowed to be staged are very very limited in dress code, movements, ‎music, the role of women is very very limited too - Selma

Selma: Do you think the opinion of dance has changed in Iran since Banafsheh left - maybe in 1990? In Taiwan and my parents generation (born 1937-40), going to nightclubs and dancing was considered very bad, like being in a gang and having fights. Even now, only the VERY progressive friends of my parents age do any social dancing (even just waltz) For my generation (born 1960-1975) and later, the kids in Taiwan all go dancing at night clubs. - Mitchell Tsai

The change isn't dramatic … but these past few years there have been so many private ‎unofficial dance classes …even in small gyms they have started classes where they ‎teach dance (you see we have integrated it into physical exercise as a way to ‎legitimize it !) most parents here are proud to let their children learn the traditional ‎Persian dances. Something you could not see happening around 15 years ago. ‎However, these are all left unofficial… there is still a long way to have performances ‎with the professional caliber and studied delicacy of these choreographies by ‎Banafsheh Sayyad… but we'll get there one day :-)‎ - Selma

Different story by West African dancers - dance was accepted in the communities, but not viewed as a good career. See my pictures here http://spiritualbusinesscompan... The "master dancers" from Guinea, Mali, and Congo talked about how their parents didn't like their following a dance career (in the Ballet de Jolie, etc...), but now they make lots of money in the US. And the Guinea people now respect the "master dancers" because their country is so poor, and US money makes them rich. - Mitchell Tsai

interesting coz I think the young generation are more into dance styles other than traditional Persian style! - Shandiz

I think it's like that everywhere. Korea & Japan have SO many hip-hop teachers. Way more than America. - Mitchell Tsai

[MySpace] http://www.myspace.com/namahba... - Mitchell Tsai