Embodied historiography
History carried through movement, testimony, cultural memory, and witnessed experience.
Research & talks
Presentations, performances, and public-facing research.
Movement does not illustrate the research.
It is one of the ways the research thinks.
Current strands
Iranian music as choreographic knowledge
Avaz, tahrir, breath, pause, nonmetric time, and melodic phrasing as generators of movement.
Censorship & underground practice
The hidden infrastructures through which dance in Iran endured, changed, and entered public life again.
Upcoming
Upcoming events
Dance Studies Association · 2026
Speculative Choreographies: Bodies, Economies, and Movement in a World in Flux
California State University, Long Beach
October 23–25, 2026
Panel
Bodies That Refuse Silence: Censorship and the Underground Survival of Dance in Iran
Three Iranian dance scholars from the Iranian Dance Studies Working Group come together to examine the role of dance amid recent tragic events in Iran.
My talk
Anti-Mourning Dance in Iran
This paper examines a recent shift in how dance has appeared and functioned in Iran.
MENACASEA · 2026
Music, Dance, and Spirituality in Muslim Contexts
Aga Khan Centre, London, UK
October 28–30, 2026
Paper
The Body Remembers First: Sound, Movement, and Lived Spirituality in Contemporary Iran
This paper examines the body as a site where sound, memory, and spirituality re-emerge in contemporary Iran, especially where public movement remains restricted.
Selected presentations
Talks, lecture-demonstrations, and performance.
2023–2025
Embodied Avaz
Lecture-demonstration · MENACASEA Symposium · 2025
Daughter of Kasra + Paper Presentation
Global Fusion Conference · Southern Illinois University · 2025
Faryad
Solo · MENACA Symposium · Pomona College · 2024
Disparity
Solo and lecture · Pearson Global Forum · University of Chicago · 2023
Current project · 2026–2027
Embodied Iranian Music
Reimagining Iranian Dance: Music, Movement, and Cultural Voice
Through movement research, musical exploration, documentation, and lecture-performance, the project creates a deeper dialogue between Iranian music, the body, and cultural memory.
Current research · Lecture-performance
Dance in the Corners of the House
Bodies That Refuse Erasure: Censorship and the Underground Survival of Dance in Iran.
This project develops a public-facing lecture-performance examining how censorship and underground conditions have reshaped the spaces, transmission, language, and embodied practices of dance in Iran.
Explore the project