By bring­ing to life the memory of a unique event in the per­form­ing arts of the 1970s, Shiraz cre­ates a joy­ful and con­tem­por­ary ges­ture, a hyp­not­ic blend and inter­weav­ing of movements.

Before becom­ing the name of a piece by Ira­ni­an-born cho­reo­graph­er Armin Hokmi, Shiraz was the name of a city in south­ern Iran, where an ambi­tious mod­ern per­form­ing arts fest­iv­al was held between 1967 and 1977. There, a diverse pro­gram was cre­ated that tran­scen­ded geo­pol­it­ic­al and cul­tur­al divides, for­ging a new con­nec­tion between the works, the artists, and the audi­ence. Both an homage and a work of fic­tion, Shiraz draws inspir­a­tion from this place and exper­i­ence to engage sev­en dan­cers in a pulsat­ing bal­let, a poet­ic inter­weav­ing of min­im­al­ist move­ments and ges­tures where each dancer’s indi­vidu­al­ity emerges, cre­at­ing a sen­su­al fresco open to the world. A col­lect­ive work of memory and dance that gives rise to a form that is both new and faith­ful to the uto­pi­as of the past.