REFORMANCES COMPANY / AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN

LE CRI PERSAN / ARTÉ JOURNAL

LE CORPS IMPOSÉ DE LA CENSURE

Une performance sous la thème de la censure, la où la censure danse ...

اجرایی درباره ی موضوع ممیزی، جایی که سانسور می رقصد ...

LES TEMPS D'ART

Quand les cultures, les livres, les voix des êtres humains dansent, c'est un retour vers les sources la où il n'y plus ni danseur ni spectateur mais une rencontre ...

هنگامی که فرهنگ, کتاب و صدای انسان ها می رقصند,بازگشتی به سرچشمه های نمایش  جایی که دیگر نه رقصنده و نه تماشاچی باقی می ماند و هر آنچه هست یک آیین دست جمعی است.

DIVANEGI* / BANDE-ANNONCE

"A movie where the dancing actor gently slips through choreographic improvisations into a certain state which will be called "madness" by others".

"Un film où l'acteur-danseur glisse doucement à travers des improvisations chorégraphiques vers un état que l'Autre nommera Folie".

فیلمی که در آن بازیگر- رقصنده ، آرام آرام از مسیر بداهه پردازی و رقص به سوی وضعیتی قدم می گذارد که دیگران آن را دیوانگی می نامند

Chorégraphie et Interprétation: Afshin Ghaffarian

Réalisation: Julien Condemine

Regard extérieur: Cindy Séchet

Textes: Séverine Blot

* La folie en Persan / Madness in Persian .

   Un film de 55 mins

[ Nous sommes ouverts à toute proposition de votre part pour ce film ] 

                            © 2011- CIE DES RÉFORMANCES / YDZ PRODUCTION

AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN / THOMAS LEBRUN

LE CRI PERSAN / AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN

AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN / VOA - SHABAHANG

FESTIVAL AVIGNON 2010

Paris / Chaillot / Imaginez Maintenant

PARIS / MAY 2010

AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN / CCN-CAEN 2010

STRANGE BUT TRUE / IRAN - 2009

SECRET PRESENTATION OF MÉDÉE IN DESERT / IRAN - 2007

BODY, ENERGY AND PRESENCE / AZAD UNIVERSITY / TEHRAN - 2008

AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN / ARTÉ

AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN / CNN - IRANIAN DANCER IN EXILE

LE MONDE / JANVIER 2010

Afshin Ghaffarian, danseur iranien

"En Iran, le corps est un péché"

"در ایران, بدن گناه به شمار می آید"

THE TIMES

Iranian dancer, Afshin Ghaffarian, describes ordeal at the hands of Basij militia - Times Online

Adam Sage in Paris

Mr Ghaffarian's underground dance company

 gave a 'public' performance in the desert

outside Tehran. He has now lived in France

   As the protesters lay blindfolded in an Iranian paramilitary van, blows and death threats rained down on them. One, however, was singled out for particular punishment.

Afshin Ghaffarian’s identity papers described him as an actor, a profession that was not to the liking of the Basij militia commander in charge of the operation. “If you’re an artist we’ll beat you artistically,” he said. What the commander did not know, and it would have sealed the 23-year-old’s fate if he had found out, was that acting was a cover.

Ghaffarian is a dancer — an activity banned by Iran’s Islamic rulers and punishable by long prison terms. “If he had known that he would have beaten me even harder,” Ghaffarian said. As a student in Tehran he would spend hours on his computer looking for videos of the West’s greatest contemporary dancers such as the American Merce Cunningham, who died this year. “I had to do it because this was my inspiration, my ignition. I just wanted to explore new ways of expression and this was my only source of information,” he said.He recounted the incident that could have cost him his freedom, and perhaps his life, in an interview with The Times in Paris. His story illustrates the oppression under Iran’s regime, but also the courage and ingenuity of those opposing it.

He formed an underground dance company with four other performers while studying for a degree in theatre studies at the University of Tehran. They danced to music, touched each other and even appeared on stage partially undressed — all crimes under Iranian law.

After a year of clandestine rehearsals the company risked a public performance. “We chose 15 spectators, who included professors from my university, and drove them in a bus to the desert 50km [30 miles] out of Tehran,” Ghaffarian said.

The landscape was vast, barren and inhospitable but, for Ghaffarian, it was a stage for the freedom that he craved. “It was a great experience,” he said. “It was dangerous but, in Iran, danger is part of our lives every day.”

The company broke up in 2008, largely because Ghaffarian’s fellow performers were reluctant to continue. He joined an authorised theatre company where he trod a thin line between acting and dance.

He describes dance as his passion, but also a form of protest against the intolerance of the Islamic Republic. So, when demonstrations broke out after this summer’s disputed election, he was quick to join them. “I felt it was my duty to do something,” he said.

Using the training he had acquired during his theatre studies, he filmed the protests and the police response and posted his videos on the internet.

It was while filming in Haft-e-Tir Square, Tehran, on June 22, that he was arrested by the Basij and thrown into a van with about 30 other protesters. He spent ten hours in the vehicle, where he was beaten and told that he was a dead man.

He was then taken to a military camp, beaten some more and finally driven out of the capital and released. “I can only think there was no more room in the jails that day and they just did not know what to do with us,” he said. Ghaffarian was lucky — and he was to get lucky again when a German theatre director invited his company to an Iranian cultural festival in Mülheim an der Ruhr, in western Germany, this autumn.

He thought that he would not be allowed to go after his arrest. Yet, amid the chaos, the militia had failed to send his details to the bureaucrats responsible for approving his journey. They told him to pay €10,000 (£8,875) for a passport and let him go.

His final performance in Germany was memorable. As the play ended, he appeared with a green wristband in a show of support for the opposition Green Movement, holding one hand over his mouth to symbolise the country’s repression of free speech and forming a victory sign with the other.Some of the audience clapped. Others cried. Before his Iranian Government minders could react, however, Ghaffarian had left the theatre and headed for France where his talents have been recognised by the National Centre for Dance. “I’ve been invited to go there every day,” he said. “It’s incredible to be able to do everything that I was forbidden from doing in Iran.”

AT WORK WTH GROWTOWSKI / AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN

This book had been recently published in Iran:

::AT WORK WITH GROTOWSKI ON PHYSICAL ACTIONS::

By: THOMAS RICHARDS

Translated to persian by:

AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN

GREEN ON STAGE / AFSHIN GHAFFARIAN / GERMANY - 2009

I went green on stage in support of Iranian green movement in Mullheim Ruhr theater festival-Germany I shouted : Freedom for Iran ! Solidarity with Iranian people

To announce that I'm not representing my government but I'm representing the people who was killed innocently on streets .

I'M A SOUND OF FREEDOM,I WANT TO BE A REPRESENTATIVE OF FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY FOR MY COUNTRY ...

Rumi and Grotowski

| Rumi,a Persian poem,achivment in Theosophy and Grotowski's desire in theatre |

This article emphasis on the relation between Rumi and Grotowski. How can we interpret Rumi's though in the context of theatre .

Grotowski wanted from his actors to return to their very first root and to find their true impulses. He wanted a pure human being, a pure actor, a pure body, a pure action and a pure reaction. When the pure bodies appears in theatre, then bodies and theatre will be disappeared but only pure energy remains and pure impulses would be visible.Grotowski was looking for these pure impulses in his work, and that pure energy in his life.

Rumi says:

Go and die, Go and die, go and die of this love

Of this love if you die, you would revive you all

Rumi believe that the truth is love and love is flame, when it comes to your heart, it will burn you, and when you burned of love, you can reflect the pure truth.Grotowski said that if you go beyond of your limitation, the pure impulses would be visible, in other words, if you burn, the pure impulses would comes out, and you can
reflect the pure actions.
Rumi says:

The body is like a mirror but covered with dust, if you clean the dust on the mirror,

the mirror can reflect everything so that you can reflect the whole universe.

In this article, I would touch Rumi's though in grotowski's work. Rumi doesn't want to make a poetry,he just want to express his discursive emotions and his discoveries but his language formes in poem. Grotowski also doesn't looking for theater,he was looking for something els but his language formed in Theater. Both looking for truth,pure impulses and pure energies in their life. both of them went beyond theater and poem ,they stepped into the unknowns. Rumi says : Hey bud , story is like a bowl and the meaning is seeds in the bowl...
Grotowski also used story as a screen to protect his actor's intimacy. For both the seeds are more than the form or story.
Rumi believe that if you want to reflect the truth, you should go beyond of yourself , you should make yourself empty from yourself. Grotowski told his actors that you should go beyond of your limitations.

When you make yourself empty from the organic resistance ,then you can reflect truly , you can reach a "Total Act".

For both , their art was not their purpose but a vehicle to something els , a quest into the human beings ...
Rumi was not in the hostage of words and Grotowski neither , the flow of life leads them into the poem an theater. The actor's body becomes like a flute ,empty from inside . whit a true energy the body starts to sing, and a true sound comes out of this flute. The actors should not look for an emotion ,everything is inside of the actor ,the actor should just make them free .

بیرون ز تو نیست هر آنچه در عالم هست از خود بطلب هر آنچه خواهی که تویی 

Theater is flame , it would burn the actors but when this happen, a theatreical experience gained .

حاصل عمرم سه سخن بیش نیست خام بودم پخته شدم سوختم

By : Afshin Ghaffarian

© All Rights Reserved .

::Lemnos In Rehearsal::

Hi,

These days I am working with an mexican director Raul Valles on the myth of Philoctetes .
We work on phisycal theater and body expression in theater.
Our first presentation will be on 8th and 9th of February 2008 in the Fadjr International Festival in Tehran/Iran .

These are some pictures of our work:

INTRODUCTION

Hi,

My name is Afshin Ghaffarian ,

I'm starting this blog to publish my ideas and my thoughts about Dance and theater and specially about the Experimental Dance and Theater and also to introduce our Experimental Dance-Theater Group named "TANTALOS"and make a place to interact with the people who are interested in contemporary Dance- theater.

Feel free to contact me anytime with this E-mail: My E-mail

I'm a Dancer and actor in Iran,i work in Experimental Dance-Theater(Underground).

I am so interested in Grotowski's method and we are working on this method to explore new things and new ways of expression in theater. 

Here's a short introduction of our Experimental Dance-Theater Group ( TANTALOS ) in Iran.

We use Experimental Dance-Theater to explore artistic freedom and we recognized that the political climate in Iran has similarities to Grotowski's in the late 50's and 60's. 

Our Experimental Dance-Theater Group ( TANTALOS ) was founded about 2 years ago and also found it's different way of thinking...

Our first production was "TEHRAN,THE CAPITAL OF IRAN" (performed in the lobby of Tehran university). "TANTALOS" next began a year's work on "MEDEA" (a new interpretation based on our social condition without words and dialog ) in private settings outside of the limitations of the formal university.

"TANTALOS" started a year secret rehearsing period working on "MEDEA"(a new interpretation based on our social condition without words and dialog ).

We rehearsed a year for one presentation. 

In our production "MEDEA", we experienced these things:

Theatrical-Dance performance in a desert. 

presence and combination of 3 kind of play: 

TAZIYEE (an iranian traditional play) 

BALLET 

PANTOMIME 

Confrontation with the audiences during our peformance and even after that. 

Desert exploration with the audiences. 

[We chose venue in the desert for a single performance of this work, far away from Tehran, bringing our threatre into the liberating openness of nature. The performance was for a select audience. we were aware of risk.

We should stay underground in our country but we wish to be visible to you and to the free people in the world. Those are some of our difficulties in the path of working on Experimental Dance-theater in Iran. 

We have the film's of our works (-TEHRAN,THE CAPITAL OF IRAN, -MEDEA.) and more pictures of our 2 years advanture in Experimental Theater,we can send them to you if you like to see these Experiences.

As we are developing our knowledge in the Experimental Theater ,we would appreciate any kind of help.

"I observe that new generation has already advanced in respect to the preceding one"

"Grotowski"