Choreophobia

Choreophobia
2018
Performance
Duration: 20 Minutes
Co-choreographed by Lilian Nejatpour, Eva Escrich González and Lauren Stewart
Performed by Eva Escrich González and Lauren Stewart
Curated by Nora-Swantje Almes and Lorén Elhili (TWTMC Collective)
Lancaster Rooms, Somerset House, London
Photographed by Dimitri Djuric

Choreophobia is a choreographed performance with dancers Eva Escrich and Lauren Stewart, accompanied by a sonic mashup edited by Nejatpour. The work sees Nejatpour's studio practice expand into performance, building upon the artist’s research into Iranian histories as well as continuing an ongoing exploration of her own cultural duality through contemporary forms. The performance borrows its name from the theory of dancer and choreographer Anthony Shay, who examined the intervening occurrence of colonialism and Western thought on Middle Eastern dance practices. Shay articulates Western involvement in the Middle East as transforming gender and sensuality in non-Western male bodies, arguing that this interference influenced a phobia toward transgressive and fluid forms of gender display.

Shay positions this theory as manifesting in the encouragement of hyper masculinity within public displays of dance, finally ending in 1979, with the criminalisation of public dance in many places including Tehran. Nejatpour viscerally works through Shay’s concept and critique by placing her own geographical displacement into a choreography, sampling movements and sonic references from her nostalgia for Northern Bassline club culture and juxtaposing these symbolic cyphers alongside a retracing of movements and gestures associated with the now banned Iranian solo improvised dance. With dancers Eva Escrich González and Lauren Stewart, Nejatpour has created a mesmerising performance that works with the body as a sculpture in flux, activating forgotten archives of movement and sound whilst troubling cultural relocation and gender stereotypes.

Choreophobia live at Somerset House London, Lancaster Rooms
2018
Curated by Nora-Swantje Almes and Lorén Elhili (TWTMC Collective)
Commissioned by Somerset House Studios
Performed by Eva Escrich González and Lauren Stewart

Choreophobia at Edinburgh Fringe Festival
2018
Curated by Colette Patterson (Dice Festival)
Performed by Eva Escrich González and Lauren Stewart
Photographed by Miau Vartiainen

Choreophobia WIP at Chisenhale Studios
2018
WIP and Panel Discussion @ Chisenhale Studios, London
Curated by Nora-Swantje Almes and Lorén Elhili (TWTMC Collective)
Performed by Eva Escrich González and Lauren Stewart
Documented by Lucy Sanderson