Community Engagements

Banafsheh works with presenters to create multi-faceted residencies in conjunction with full evening-length or shared evening performances. She believes that residencies encourage a stronger base of understanding and support for artistic work and creates a more receptive audience for performances as well as the cultural heritage she represents. She welcomes the opportunity to work with you to design specific activities for the audiences you want to reach and build upon. Some of these activities can include:

School Assemblies / KIDS Performances
Banafsheh & NAMAH's interactive assemblies and performances provide K-12 students exciting experiences of participating as audience members of a live performance either in the familiar setting of their school or in a theater setting. Programs are combined with historical and cultural information on Persian dance and music and typically last 35-45 minutes. (Programs range from solo to 5-member dance pieces with or without live music)

ENSEMBLE WORKSHOPS AND MASTER CLASSES
With an extensive teaching experience,  Banafsheh has created long-term workshops and single classes for all age groups which include:

TrancenDance and Drum Ritual
Open to everyone including people with no background in movement, this class weaves together movement and live drumming with spoken word about Rumi’s message and mysticism as a relevant practice in today’s world. Both meditative and ecstatic, this workshop draws upon Sufi and ancient Persian rhythm where sema or pure listening leads us into movement. A great workshop to be presented in conjunction with performances, the participants get to try what the artists have mastered and perform in their concerts. Wherever presented, this workshop has drawn close to 60 people.

The Mystical in Dance technique, philosophical background, improvisation and choreography based on a myriad of mystical traditions from the east.

Contemporary Mystical Persian Dance technique, cultural and philosophical background, improvisation and choreography.

Classical Persian Dance technique, cultural and philosophical background, and choreography

Banafsheh also directs performance labs, in which a cast of community members (often spanning a wide range of generations, backgrounds, and abilities) design and create dance pieces, which are then presented in various community settings and venues.

LECTURE DEMONSTRATIONS
Banafsheh & NAMAH as well as ZARBANG offer lecture-demonstrations geared for a variety of audiences. For example, in working with a general audience, we may focus our attention on "demystifying" dance and music, making their structures, creative process, background and context more accessible to the uninitiated audience. Other topics for a general audience include What constitutes the Mystical in Dance & Music; History and Demonstration of Persian Dance; Sufi Teachings and Ritual; and Persian Music.

For dance students or audiences with greater exposure to dance, in addition to a presenting a more advanced technique class, Banafsheh offers a more in-depth choreographic excavation of the dance work, looking at theme development, how narrative is created and cross-cultural analysis of the movement vocabulary.

PRE- and POST- PERFORMANCE QUESTION & ANSWER SESSIONS
Not only is this a great way to share in-depth issues with our audiences, it is also a very effective way for us to assess and continue to develop our work.