PRESS
"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
“A group of
performers who challenge stereotypes about Iranian
identity, ZARBANG and Banafsheh Sayyad’s work is
entertaining and revolutionary, both.”
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."
Shokooh Mirzadegi From the
Archives of A Woman's View
Read the entire review in Persian in
HERE
"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
"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
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TESTIMONIALS
"When Banafsheh
Sayyad & ZARBANG came to Northern Virginia last May, my
dance teacher Laurel Victoria Gray told me about the
show and I went to see it. Here is a brief, informal
review I wrote then and just found it again... Banafsheh
Sayyad is a real Sufi priestess from Iran. She is
bringing to life the actual presence and power of
ancient priestesses through her incredible spiritually
overwhelming dance. I just came from a performance by
her, and all I could say was "Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh
my God!!!" She and the percussionists created a space
that took herself and the audience into intense ecstasy.
She whirled with abandon in a freeform dance in which
she really let herself go and used the mystical power of
rhythm and dance to charge the space with unbelievable,
unimaginable ecstatic trance. I can't find the words to
describe it, except to say you know those times when you
suddenly realize that what you've gotten yourself into
is extremely more intense than you could have
anticipated? She took us there tonight. The sacred dance
she has recreated and mastered caused that almost
unbearable ecstasy to rise up within me and burst forth
into another world. The only times I have felt this way
before was on powerful psychedelics. Now I know the
experience can be created purely through rhythm and
dance, and the power of wild women. As I saw Banafsheh
dancing, I understood she is beyond being an "artist."
She is truly a priestess, and her dance removed
historical time altogether, the thousands of years in
which the patriarchy tried to stamp out women's sacred
dance, women's role as powerful priestesses of the
numinous. All that was banished as she reconnected us
with the power of the ancient priestesses and made it
live again. It's coming back! It felt somehow out of
place to applaud afterward, as though it were just
another artistic performance. It wasn't. It was ageless,
pure spiritual trance. It was real, immediate, mind
blowing."
John Monastra, Virginia
“What was new and
very unexpected at least for myself, was your dance.
Really it is out of this world, and no word or
compliment can describe it. I love music and dancing and
in my previous life, I was also fascinated by Sufism.
I’ve taken some Yoga and Martial Arts before. I always
thought, Sufism is great in spirituality, it’s a great
food for mind and soul, but unfortunately opposite of
the Hindu or far east philosophy which address the soul,
mind as well as body, Sufism, never get to the physical
part, like Yoga and Martial Art. Do you know what I
mean? But I guess, I found the missing link! Your dance,
which I saw last night, is very representative of what
one can call Sufi dance or “Raghs-e Sama”. When I
checked out your web site, I realized I was not very
off! Keep up the excellent work. I hope to see your
performance again!”
Abbas, Denver
“You are the ultimate
artist, the one who says yes to creating your own way
and sees too the value of establishing true technique to
support that way.. i have admired you for that for years
now, and am heartened to see it recognized and even put
into print! I am so happy that you are creating the
genre for your heritage, that you are bringing your
elegance and your fierceness, your total self, your
history with your father, your culture, that you are
weaving the sufi, the gypsy, the healing arts and the
very unique YOU into inspirational art. Again I say
BRAVO DANCER!
It is a privilege to watch you dance. You are a
beautiful dancer. Watching you move is to watch an
ecstatic. What is so extraordinary about ‘Banafsheh
Dance’? Your hands are so graceful and beautiful to
watch. Your body merges with the music and with spirit
and you move with a divine integrity. You are like
water: flowing and strong. I cannot get the images of
you turning out of my mind's eye. I want to tell you
again how beautiful your dancing is. I loved your
dancing. You are really extraordinary, your whole being
becomes transformed into fluid strengths and poems.
Congratulations on achieving such a high level of
mastery."
Antonia Kabakov
“Thank you so much
for an exquisitely beautiful, powerful and profound
dancing experience this past weekend. It was such an
honour, a privilege and a delight to be with and to
dance with you. Your gentle, clear encouragement, your
fluid, responsive teaching style and the sheer presence
of your inspiring essence are peacefully intoxicating.
My life and my body.mind.spirit have been indelibly
altered and I will continue to cherish the feelings and
movements we generated, individually and as a group!
Thank you so much for your grace, your generosity and
your deep loving kindness. The wisdom and beauty of your
dance and your teaching are still “turning” within me!
What gifts you have given us.”
Deborah, Vancouver
“There are many
things shifting and opening in me, which I do not
understand but do welcome - moving to the edges of
invisibility and stillness. I am so grateful to you for
the gracious space you create for making possible the
most profound level of transformation possible - that
which moves through our bodies.”
Tannis, Vancouver
“I wanted to tell you
how much I loved watching your work, it is truly
breathtaking.”
Gelareh, Hawaii
“You were flowing
like a beautiful river of light.”
Amel Tafsout
“Just wanted to take
this opportunity to thank you very much for the
wonderful experience I gained during your dance workshop
in Madrid. It was both interesting and inspiring
watching and learning from you. What has been even more
exciting is that as soon as I arrived in the UK an
opportunity arose where I have been able to take the
techniques you gave us and use them as tools to create a
small solo dance routine.”
Mona, London
“I would like to
thank you for your beautiful mystical Persian dance
which flew us to the mystical realm of Rumi so we would
feel the impossible with all of our being”
Majid, Calgari
“Dear Banafsheh, this
is my second time that I am seeing your performance. It
was magnificent. Your performance, while so feminist, is
artistic and beautiful. I have no words to explain how
much I enjoyed it. When you were dancing with that
beautiful red dress, I could not help but to shed tears.
I am proud of you. It was so moving to see you dance
with your father. It was meaningful. Thank You.”
Victoria, Los Angeles
“Your program was the
best concert I have ever seen!”
Simin, Los Angeles
“I just got home from
seeing your performance and just couldn't wait to
congratulate you on such a great performance and a great
program. I am, as every other person having seen your
program, so proud to have been in the audience and I am
especially proud to know you.”
Fereshteh Fatemi, Los Angeles
“I loved
your show at the Huntington Beach Theater!!!
You and the girls were simply terrific!!!!!!!”
Elaine Ownby, Orange County
“Your style of your
dance is unique and so rare.”
Mohammad Hassan Bakhti, Salt Lake
City
“Thank you so much
for your beautiful performance in Salt Lake City. I was
once again inspired by your moving dance. We are
grateful to you for presenting such uplifting, tasteful
dance in a world where many performers offer only
temporal or pseudo sensual dance in the name of ‘Middle
Eastern tradition’.”
Kathryn St. John, Salt Lake City
“Maybe the strongest
sensation I had from your workshop, apart from others,
was when we did body-waves going back, feeling the
"great ball behind" and you suggested to imagine "the
invisible" supporting our back...then I got it. I saw
the door. I really could dance with my deceased, I used
their force to move. I believed on my ancestors. I was
feeling my roots. (Fifteen days before the workshop, I
lost my related cousin on a car crash and he was also
dancing with life through the waves from my physical
body. Not a special sensation, just love.)
...Very precise work Banafsheh, Bravo. You induce
people to be just connectors, cleaning themselves
through the dance. Allowing to feel what's really
happening out of their skin. And also inside. What I
love the most is that you have chosen the very best
things you have learned from every discipline to act as
a powerful cocktail for a human being.”
Natalia, Madrid
“I can't tell you how
much I am looking forward to your serenity/power in
dance and movement the next time you are in Vancouver. I
am sure that I continue to speak for others in saying
that we have been deeply affected and had our spiritual
practices enriched.”
Karin, Vancouver
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