“A group of performers who challenge stereotypes about Iranian identity, ZARBANG and Banafsheh Sayyad’s work is entertaining and revolutionary, both.”
Testimonials
Reviews
Vancouver Sun
"If the television show, "Are You Hot?" had a fraction of the heat that choreographer-dancer Banafsheh Sayyad and her all female Namah Ensemble generated at Japan America Theater, the show would have been a hit. Talk about sensual: Iranian-born, locally based Sayyad, a purveyor of trance dancing and unabashed hair tossing, presented "En/trance", two hours of exotic music and dance that fused ancient forms with postmodern punch.Most numbers were accompanied by Zarbang Percussion Ensemble, led by the extraordinary Pejman Hadadi, who opened with a blistering 50-minute set. Sayyad and Mashro continuously brought down the packed house with theatrical flair. Soraya Soltani's flowing chiffon and velvet harem-like costumes - including veils that would make Salome jealous - helped amp up the startlingly beautiful whirling dervish moves."
Victoria Looseleaf, Los Angeles Times
"From the very beginning of Banafsheh Sayyad’s performance, I realized that we are faced with something entirely different and distinctive from what has commonly been called Persian Dance. Banafsheh’s dance was not only a highly artistic and virtuosic work both in terms of choreography and execution, but also for the first time I was witnessing a dance that one could call contemporary or modern Persian Dance – a dance with its own artistic language, neither Eastern in the style of Arabic, Indian and Chinese, nor Western as in Flamenco, Modern European or American. A dance close to the essence of Persian culture with harmonious movement, insightful, connected to the music and above all, beautiful.
The dance form created by Banafsheh Sayyad can be called Banafsheh Dance. Much like how Lezgi Dance is reminiscent of Azeri culture or Flamenco is particular to Spain, etc, Banafsheh Dance can be representative of Persian culture.
Banafsheh Dance has another beauty, which comes from being borne in a period where dance is forbidden in our country. In essence, Banafsheh Dance is a heartfelt expression of our cultural and artistic needs that have been long oppressed. Luckily, unlike most of our modern music, both inside or outside of Iran, Banafsheh Dance is not backwards and regressive artistically. It is actually advancing on the path of becoming international – even if Banafsheh Sayyad, as the creator of Banafsheh Dance may not entirely find this chance for herself."
Read the entire review in Persian in HERE
Shokooh Mirzadegi From the Archives of A Woman's View
"In the second half, ZARBANG enlarged its percussive setup: besides the Tombak, brilliantly played frame drums and the Iberian Cajon built a richly coloured surface for the many-faced dance of Banafsheh Sayyad who has the ability to combine different traditional roots to create one expression of dance and movement. Her uniquely fluid and supple hands and arm movements fit perfectly to the crystal clear and transparent sounds of Javid Afsari Rad’s Santur.”
Stefan Franzen, Badische Zeitung, Germany
“Sayyad’s body moved in a trance, exuding a supernatural power as the vortex which seemed to take the submitting body higher and higher became really perceptible. At the end, in a spectacular finale she improvised on a flamenco-rhythm, and dance movements from the Middle East merged together with Iberian gestures.”
Stefan Franzen, Badische Zeitung, Germany
"Sayyad, a font of exquisite perpetual motion, is a temple frieze come to life, a one woman whirling dervish, trance spinning to a glorious percussive track as she beckons us into her exotic world."
Victoria Looseleaf, Los Angeles Times
"The highlight of the night was Banafsheh Sayyad ... who was amazing to watch ... she danced fluidly enough to be part of the music. She depicted the ultimate Persian woman. She moved perfectly in circles for an entire three minutes without a flaw. She resembled the whirling dervishes of Sufism who spin in a trance to reach the point of perfect meditation."
Sadaf Baghbani, Red Magazine, Salt Lake City
"Banafsheh Sayyad’s trance dance, Cycle of Fire was mind-blowing. She whirled as if possessed."
Victoria Looseleaf, Los Angeles Times
"Prayer #7, a breathtaking trance dance by Banafsheh Sayyad and the two dancers of her Namah Ensemble, would be right at home in a modern dance concert. Though never touching, the dancers stayed in touch - with one another and some force that propelled them. Sayyad's solo, Axis of Love impressed because of her pure and transparent response to the music as performed by a fabulous trio from Los Angeles, Pejman Hadadi, Javid Afsari Rad, and Brad Dutz whose work proved to be one of the evening's many musical highlights."
Rita Feliciano, SF Bay Guardian
"Namah Ensemble’s Prayer #7 was interesting to look at. The stylized and syncopated bowing, spinning and trance-like hair-tossing of 3 black clad women had variations that became mesmerizing."
Jennifer Fisher, Los Angeles Times
"The Namah Ensemble from Iran confirmed the power of musically focused, non-narrative dancing. Accompanied by percussive beats on skins, this trio of incantory dancers spiraled in tandem and around each other as if carried along by the desert wind."
Rita Feliciano, Dance Magazine
"Pejman Hadadi and Brad Dutz’s musical backing was the perfect accompaniment for the elegant whirling of lead dancer Banafsheh Sayyad and her talented ensemble."
Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times
"Namah Ensemble shone brilliantly at the Festival of Iranian Theater in Hamburg. They presented a stirring fusion of traditional Persian dance with magnetic sufi spinning and the powerful stomping of flamenco to an enthusiastic crowd."
Houshang Mahmood, The London Keyhan
"Part whirling dervish, part flamenco femme fatale, sensuous and audacious, Sayyad’s dance is a mesmerizing foray into the body as trance mechanism; a DNA strand, supple, fluid and noble, come to life."
Victoria Looseleaf, Los Angeles Times
"In her bravura improvisational solo ‘Search’, Sayyad gloried in her hard-won technical prowess: initially swirling a translucent veil in complex patterns as she whirled, then lashing her hair rhythmically, next striking deeply sculpted flamenco poses accented with bursts of authoritative footwork and finishing with bold, mercurial undulations sustained by a spectacular command of balance."
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"The perfect way to open ritual aspects of Persian dance to a wider audience while preserving the sense of participating in something sacred."
Anne Haskins, LA Weekly
"Sayyad has mastered the lore of traditional Persian, flamenco and tai chi movement."
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"Amvaaj, a seven-part self-styled journey of seekers was skillfully performed by the six-woman Namah Ensemble in the UCLA Dance Building."
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"Namah Ensemble presented a decidedly contemporary innovation to Persian dance, flamenco, trance states, and improvisation. In "Axis of Love", Sayyad took the audience on a simple journey of ascension as she slowly raised her arms, all the while spinning. It could be said it was like the earth spinning; or, like a flower opening up to reach the sky's rays. As the program states, it was "...a structured improvisation exploring the familiar within the infinite."
Monique Molino, Voice of Dance
"The three women from the Namah Ensemble wove gentle curlicues in space, indulged in unisons on the diagonal and articulated extremities in a manner that suggested the symmetries of some species of American modern dance. The music making, which featured composer Pejman Hadadi on tombak, daf and frame drums; Brad Dutz on nagara and percussion, and Javid Afsari Rad on santoor, was downright bewitching. The music have been newly composed, but at such moments, questions of ‘authenticity’ don't seem to intrude.”
Allan Ulrich, Voice of Dance
"In ‘Amvaaj’, Sayyad presented a complete evening filled with spiritual mystery fused with reason and virtuosic Western dance technique, with special attention to improvisation. This very fulfilling evening took the audience through seven stages of a long and far-reaching journey filled with wishing, hope, enthusiasm, search and many many trials to reach union. In this spiritual journey, prayer had a big role. All this was presented in a beautiful form influenced by eastern practice and ancient thought yet expressed with modernism. This work had brought Sayyad and her ensemble to a very solid place that they were invited to present the Persian sacred tradition in the context of the World Festival of Sacred Music to share their message of unification and humane understanding. We hail Banafsheh Sayyad, Pejman Hadadi and Hossein Behroozi-Nia."
Javanan, a weekly Persian Magazine published in Los Angeles
"Equally spectacular as the dancing was the musicianship of Pejman Hadadi and Hossein Behroozi-Nia"
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
"The fascinating dance and sounds of Persia, the modern-day Iran, transformed the concert hall to a landscape for the senses. The dancer and choreographer, Banafsheh Sayyad translated the musical intensity and intricate nuances of ZARBANG with the language of the body. Her fluid movements were constantly dynamic, at times floating, then whirling at high speed, opening our vision to new dimensions. With complete mastery of her body, she exuded power down to the tips of her fingers.”
Hans-Jugen Truol, Badische Zeitung, Germany
"Beautiful, meditative movement…Sayyad is very ambitious in developing a new language, extending the dance into other areas and combining the miniature and sema dance forms."
The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival Committee