Studies Project: Dancers Of Iran

*Please note that due to extended delays with visa processing, this event has been shifted from an in-person to virtual format. To participate, please RSVP through the link on the event webpage and register on Zoom. 

The planning of this event has been full of turns and twists, all shaped by a single factor: the “geography of the body.” 

This Studies Project features Dancers of Iran (DOI), a nonprofit organization founded in April 2021 in response to the ban on dance in Iran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. DOI is a platform that supports and connects Iranian dancers both inside the country and in the diaspora. Its goal is to provide resources and visibility to a community that continues to dance under repression while building an Iranian dance community that has long been forgotten.

The event will begin with an introduction to the organization, its mission, and the work it has accomplished over the past few years. It will then pivot to the current revolution in Iran and the historical ritual of the “Dance of Mourning.” We will then open the floor for an interactive discussion with participants, exploring questions such as: When access to professional dance training is not available, can one still become a professional dancer through self-practice? How can the body function as a form of protest in politically and socially oppressive environments? In what ways do societal limitations influence how the body moves and learns movement? And we will close the forum with one crucial question: “What is the geography of the body?”

For the past 47 years, people in Iran have been fighting for freedom, repeatedly facing brutal crackdowns. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), now designated as a terrorist organization worldwide, has been responsible for widespread repression and the killing of thousands of people over the years. In the recent protests in January 2026, the IRGC massacred more than 50,000 people in a span of only a few hours. This crime against humanity has made people more determined than ever to dismantle this regime. In defiance of the pain inflicted on families who lost their loved ones, people returned to their historical roots and began mourning their loved ones by dancing around their graves. This phenomenon echoes an ancient tradition described in the “Shahnameh” as “The Mourning of Siyâvash” (or Siyâvashân). It is one of the oldest epic mourning rituals in Iran. In this rite, death is understood not as an end but as part of the cycle of nature’s rebirth. Historical ceremonies of Siyâvashân included music and ritual dances meant to call for justice and honor the purity of the person who was killed. Researchers view the mourning dances taking place in Iran today as a contemporary reinterpretation of this tradition, where through movement mourners keep the name and the path of those who lost their lives for freedom alive.

This event will coincide with Nowruz, the Persian New Year, which marks the first day of spring and the beginning of the solar calendar year, as well as the 5th anniversary of DOI. Our event invites artists, scholars, and community members to engage in dialogue about the complex relationship between movement, identity, and place.