Miniature Archive · Tehran · 2012–2022

Miniature Dance
Academy & Collective

A decade of women-centered training, choreography, performance, and cultural practice in Tehran.

Members of Miniature Dance Academy gathered in the Tehran studio — Inside the Miniature studio · Tehran · Photo: Miniature Dance Academy archive

The story

A space for practice, imagination, and belonging.

Founded and directed by Banafsheh Amiri, Miniature brought the academy and the collective into the same living ecosystem. Women came to study Iranian dance, develop movement skills, rehearse original works, and encounter their cultural inheritance through the body.

The studio offered professional training while also making room for self-discovery, collaboration, and cultural memory. Technique, music, poetry, visual form, and lived experience met in a practice that was rigorous, social, and responsive to the conditions of making dance in Iran.

Years: 2012–2022
Place: Tehran, Iran
Founded & directed by: Banafsheh Amiri
Structure: Dance Studio · Collective · Community
Archive: Training · Concerts · Cultural Events · 50+ Dance Videos

Student voices

From the Miniature community.

An original Persian-language reflection from a Miniature student — Student reflection · Original Persian message

For years, I searched the world, only to discover that, by God’s grace, what I sought had been at home all along. My journey with miniature and through Banafsheh’s exquisite movements, has been an extraordinary story. My connection with this class is still young, yet I know with certainty that it came into my life during one of the most extraordinary chapters of my life’s journey. This connection could never have happened had this class not been so authentic, sound, and profoundly grounded. In every minute of this course, one can feel the wisdom, integrity, and seasoned experience of someone who has truly weathered life’s challenges, generously sharing both subtle insights and practical teachings with every student. Such a quality is exceedingly rare. Here, teaching exists in its highest form, friendship in its purest expression, art at its pinnacle, and genuine love is offered with boundless generosity. I am deeply grateful to have been fortunate enough to experience something so precious. Thank you, dear Banafsheh, graceful lady, for all the beautiful feelings this journey has awakened in me.
English translation

01 / 04

The work of the studio

Training was only one part of what happened here.

Training

Foundational Iranian dance technique, musicality, expression, movement vocabulary, and progressive study for women at different levels.

A Miniature dancer in costume beneath an arched ceiling and chandelier — Movement, architecture, and visual memory · Photo: Nina Zarabi

Making

Original choreography, rehearsals, costume development, visual research, and the collective labor of bringing performance into being.

Two Miniature dancers in layered blue and burgundy costumes by tall windows — Costume and spatial studies · Photo: Nina Zarabi

Gathering

Seasonal celebrations, poetry, music, food, conversation, and a shared environment in which culture could be experienced together.

Two Miniature collaborators smiling through a doorway — A shared moment between rehearsal and gathering · Photo: Nina Zarabi

Bilingual Miniature Dance Academy card in Persian and English — Archive card · Miniature Dance Academy

Inside the making

Movement began before anyone entered the stage.

Miniature’s visual language developed through close attention to fabric, silhouette, gesture, light, and the relationship between bodies and place. The archive holds that process: fitting, adjusting, testing, observing, and returning to the work together.

A Miniature costume fitting in progress in the studio — Costume development in the studio · Miniature Dance Academy archive

Two Miniature dancers preparing a veil and costume — Preparation and collaboration · Photo: Nina Zarabi

A Miniature dancer studying gesture beside a tall window — Gesture, costume, and space · Photo: Nina Zarabi

Members of Miniature gathered for a group photograph — Community portrait · Photo: Miniature Dance Academy archive

A Miniature community member holding a book of Hafez — Life of the academy · Photo: Miniature Dance Academy archive

Banafsheh Amiri dancing with a student during the pandemic — Dance and connection · Photo: Miniature Dance Academy archive

Life of the academy

A place where culture was lived together.

Yalda, Mehregan, Nowruz, and other gatherings brought students, artists, and guests into the studio. Dance shared space with poetry, music, conversation, and food. These events were not separate from the practice; they were part of how Miniature sustained connection, memory, and community.

Performance history

Works, events, and public traces.

Members of Miniature Dance Collective gathered after a performance — Miniature Dance Collective · Performance archive · Photo: Miniature Dance Academy archive

2012
Miniature begins
Banafsheh Amiri founded Miniature Dance Academy and Miniature Dance Collective in Tehran, bringing training, choreographic research, and performance into one sustained practice.
2015
Performance and public gathering
Women’s Day Celebration at Ekbatan Community Center on March 6, followed by Miniature Performance at Niavaran Cultural Center on May 28.
2016
Sepehr–Miniature
Presented at Niavaran Cultural Center on April 21, continuing the collective’s women-centered performance work in Tehran.
2018
Nowruz and Naghshe Jahan
Miniature Nowruz Event at Fatimah Charity Association on March 1, followed by Naghshe Jahan at Niavaran Cultural Center on July 5–6.
2018–22
The studio years
A dedicated studio supported regular classes, rehearsals, cultural gatherings, costume development, certification, and the daily work of sustaining a women-centered dance community.

Posters & ephemera

Selected performance records

Four members of Miniature Dance Collective performing on a Tehran rooftop — Miniature Dance Collective · Photo: Ali Oladi

Poster for Miniature Music and Performance at Niavaran Cultural Center in 2015 — Miniature Performance · 2015

Poster for Sepehr–Miniature Music and Performance at Niavaran Cultural Center in 2016 — Sepehr–Miniature · 2016

Poster for Naghshe Jahan at Niavaran Cultural Center in 2018 — Naghshe Jahan · 2018

Earlier performance history leading to Miniature

1994–2004Women-only Iranian dance performances · Tehran

2007Nowruz, poetry, and music programs · Bologna and Brighton

2009Brighton International Student Celebration · United Kingdom

2011Performance at Rustam School · London

The archive continues

Miniature was a school, a company, and a way of keeping dance in motion.

This page gathers parts of a larger history. More photographs, programs, posters, testimonies, and performance records can be added as the archive grows.

Miniature DanceAcademy & Collective