Foreign Sleep

Foreign Sleep
2019
Performance
Duration: 20 Minutes
Choreographed by Lilian Nejatpour, Eva Escrich González and Lauren Stewart
Performed by Eva Escrich González and Lauren Stewart
Live Piano by Mahsa Salali
Original Score by Lilian Nejatpour
Photographed by Dimitri Djuric

Foreign Sleep investigates the absence of women from ceremonial practices in Sufi Islam and the wider Middle East. The work underpins women who have been erased from spiritual ceremonies and challenges this power dynamic through movement and sound. The performance is rewriting of female enlightenment, which samples rituals from Sufism, including Zikr (meditative chanting) and Varzesh-e Pahlavāni (male wrestling). The musical composition of Foreign Sleep is a collaborative work between Lilian Nejatpour and Mahsa Salali; the piano parts are improvised live following the dancers movements with extracts from French-Iranian composer André Hossein (1905-1983).

Foreign Sleep live at Bath Spa University
2019
Performed by Eva Escrich González and Lauren Stewart
Live Piano by Mahsa Salali
Documentation by Megan Ashton