iran

This year we seek to tell the story of Scheherazade, a famous folktale which takes place in a Persian Kingdom featuring a King and his eventual Queen and the story of how that came to be. The story of the storyteller begins with an enraged King who is set on taking revenge on all women in the land. To do this he marries a new woman each day, just to behead her the next. It is then he meets Scheherazade who, on her last wish, asks to spend her final night alive with her sister to whom she tells half a story. The suspense of not knowing the end of the story leads the Sultan to keep her alive for another night. After this goes on for 1001 nights (this being the premise of 1001 Arabian Nights) which by then the Sultan has fallen in love with her and the kingdom’s peace returns. 

The dance itself has three traditional dances, with the first being the Sharyar’s dance which encompasses sharp and powerful movements and are meant to show the disarray within the kingdom. The second section then captures the mesmerising dance of Scheherazade and is all about the evocative stories she tells in order to stay alive. Finally, there is the Ehtefal dance that adapts styles from the Qashqai dances.