In 1958 the Iranian national ballet company was established and produced over 50 shows till the revolution. According to the islamic law, immorality and fornication result from sensual dance, why 1979 all dance facilities got dissolved and dance got banned from the Iranian public. Nevertheless, more and more Iranians are dancing today and try to make this their profession.

In the summer of 2018, Nona (21), Mojdeh (25), Reyhaneh (26), Narges (26) and Yasamin (26) danced next to male performers on Tehran’s most famous stage, Vahdat Hall, for the public during the show “Richard”. They were members of the Alternative Motion Group until 2020, a dance group in Tehran which was found by the ballerina Pardis and the contemporary dancer Nima, in 2008. Having said that, the group is struggling with reprisals: Already approved plays are cancelled, the light is turned off during the performance and too much public attention, such on Instagram for instance may result in the arrest of the participating artists.

These young women from Tehran’s upper middle class are part of the Iranian post-war generation, which stands up for self-determination, freedom and equality. Whereas during the revolution ballet‘s abolition symbolized independence from the West, today dance stands for the longing of a generation for Western freedom.

I started this project in 2019, and meanwhile a lot changed in the life of the dancers. Yasamin married her boyfriend, Mojdeh received a scholarship to study dance in Russia, Reyhaneh went to Turkey to work as a dancer, Narges and Nona are trying to leave the country, too. The circumstances in Iran shaped all of them and took their hope. This story is about the social change in Iran on the basis of a subculture in which dance is elementary to life. By this, the dancers represent a whole generation, who reclaims their desired future with a peaceful resistance through their bare existence.