On Sunday, September 9th we went to see Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam's Dance Variations on Persian Themes in Los Gatos. It was an amazing performance by him and two other female dancers, Karine Gonzalez and Sahar Dehghan. They performed several solo and duo pieces, choreographed by Moshkin Ghalam to Iranian classical, folkloric, and fusion music. Do you remember the long video clip I had put in my earlier posts about him? That was the first piece they performed, entitled "Sohrab and Gordafarid." Throughout the program, Iranian poetry and music accompanied the dance pieces. Poems by Nima Youshij, Forough Farrokhzad, Vahshi Bafghi, and Fereidoon Moshiri were included, performed by Ahmad Shamloo (narrated), Shajarian, Zande Vakil, Sousan Deyhim, and Parvin. Before I knew that a Spanish dancer, Karine Gonzalez, was the lead female dancer of Nikissa Dance Company, I had observed that what little I had seen of their work had a profound flamenco influence. Combining flamenco moves and steps into his dances may have somewhat distanced them from their Iranian roots, but has added much excitement and electric energy to them.
One piece of dance Moshkin Ghalam did himself around Hossein Alizadeh's Faryad, sung by Mohammad Reza Shajarian, was particularly moving and brought tears to my eyes. Moshkin Ghalam brings athletic energy to his dances, which are delivered with artistic and poetic ease and beauty. I found the performance, the costumes, the music, and the poetry beautiful and quite memorable. I will leave you a treat. Watch this video clip of Moshkin Ghalam talk about his passion in life: Iranian Dance, which was produce by bebin.tv. I love what he says about Iranian dance, its roots, its lost years, and some artists' efforts to find it again and to revive it.
Though I was delighted to know that Moshkin Ghalam's dance company would answer questions at the end of their program, I was a bit disappointed by that segment of the program. I think Moshkin Ghalam must have been tired of answering repetitive and what he may have thought as "silly" questions on his tour, and I could sense an impatience which appeared as arogrance in the way he received questions. Well, to cut him some slack, he is a dancer and an actor, and a good one at that, so I won't score him on his Q/A abilities too harshly! The video from bebin.tv does a better job of representing his points of view than the Q/A we sat through. Backstage he was warm and kind and I took some pictures of him and the other dancers. It was a fabulous night.
9/19/2007
Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam's Dance Performance
On Sunday, September 9th we went to see Shahrokh Moshkin Ghalam's Dance Variations on Persian Themes in Los Gatos. It was an amazing performance by him and two other female dancers, Karine Gonzalez and Sahar Dehghan. They performed several solo and duo pieces, choreographed by Moshkin Ghalam to Iranian classical, folkloric, and fusion music. Do you remember the long video clip I had put in my earlier posts about him? That was the first piece they performed, entitled "Sohrab and Gordafarid." Throughout the program, Iranian poetry and music accompanied the dance pieces. Poems by Nima Youshij, Forough Farrokhzad, Vahshi Bafghi, and Fereidoon Moshiri were included, performed by Ahmad Shamloo (narrated), Shajarian, Zande Vakil, Sousan Deyhim, and Parvin. Before I knew that a Spanish dancer, Karine Gonzalez, was the lead female dancer of Nikissa Dance Company, I had observed that what little I had seen of their work had a profound flamenco influence. Combining flamenco moves and steps into his dances may have somewhat distanced them from their Iranian roots, but has added much excitement and electric energy to them.
One piece of dance Moshkin Ghalam did himself around Hossein Alizadeh's Faryad, sung by Mohammad Reza Shajarian, was particularly moving and brought tears to my eyes. Moshkin Ghalam brings athletic energy to his dances, which are delivered with artistic and poetic ease and beauty. I found the performance, the costumes, the music, and the poetry beautiful and quite memorable. I will leave you a treat. Watch this video clip of Moshkin Ghalam talk about his passion in life: Iranian Dance, which was produce by bebin.tv. I love what he says about Iranian dance, its roots, its lost years, and some artists' efforts to find it again and to revive it.
Though I was delighted to know that Moshkin Ghalam's dance company would answer questions at the end of their program, I was a bit disappointed by that segment of the program. I think Moshkin Ghalam must have been tired of answering repetitive and what he may have thought as "silly" questions on his tour, and I could sense an impatience which appeared as arogrance in the way he received questions. Well, to cut him some slack, he is a dancer and an actor, and a good one at that, so I won't score him on his Q/A abilities too harshly! The video from bebin.tv does a better job of representing his points of view than the Q/A we sat through. Backstage he was warm and kind and I took some pictures of him and the other dancers. It was a fabulous night.
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2 comments:
Nazy joon you should have told me about this, I am so keen to see his performances.
I'm so sorry Nimeh Shab Jan! I thought I had done a good job of advertising it, but I guess the advertising happened while you were on your trip and somehow our signals got crossed. He will come back again next August. He works in Comedie Francaise 11 months of the year and takes his month off in August to put these performances on in the US. I know that he will come back for at least the next two years, as he has reached agreements with his sponsors.
Forgive me again for leaving you behind my art-loving fabulous friend. I'll see you on Saturday.
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