Armin Hokmi
Shiraz
2024
February 6 at 20:00
February 7 at 20:00
Ballet national de Marseille
Dance
Duration: 1h
Book your ticket
10€/15€ — Evening pass 7.02 15€/20€
Coproduced with CCN-Ballet national de Marseille
With the support of Onda
How do you pay tribute to ten years of artistic work and creativity brought to a halt? Is there a way to revive the Shiraz Arts Festival through a dance performance? Armin Hokmi, an Iranian choreographer based in Berlin and Oslo explores these questions in Shiraz. Together with his team they transpose this event to the present, imagining its rebirth in the form of a dance performance. Both a tribute and a fictional reenactment, the piece Shiraz conveys the festival's passion for the performing arts, celebrating their autonomy and shared roots across geographical boundaries.
Seven dancers weave a pattern of movements, coiling and uncoiling to the pulsating beat of the capturing soundtrack. Their gestures are minimal, performed with rigor and subtlety. While moving in unison, they also express their particularities, tracing fluid trajectories that bring them together in ephemeral constellations— immersing us into another place and time.
Biography
Based in Berlin, Armin Hokmi is an artist working in the field of performing arts, at the intersection of theater and dance. He began his artistic journey in 2009 as a performer in an independent theater in Rasht, Iran. He later continued to work and study abroad, gaining experience in various performative practices and expressions. He holds a bachelor's degree in acting from the Norwegian Theatre Academy (2015–2018) and a master's degree in Solo/Dance/Authorship from HZT Berlin (2019–2021).
Armin Hokmi’s dance vocabulary weaves together familiar forms that evoke a sense of recognition with practices that defy easy categorization. Cultivating a space where different references converge through contrasts and transformations, his choreographic practice evolves across time and space. His recent works include Passages (2019), Public Dance, Permutable Stage (2021), and International Dance (2022), which premiered at Uferstudios in Berlin. Following Shiraz (2024), he is developing projects for 2025 and 2026: a solo and a large-scale choreographic piece for eleven dancers. Both projects explore the concept of repertoire, historicity, and the dances deemed worthy of preservation.
As a dancer and performer, Hokmi has collaborated with artists such as Mette Ingvartsen, Kasper Ravnhøj, Hooman Sharifi, and Phillip Zarrilli, among others.
Credits
Distribution
Concept and choreography: Armin Hokmi
Dance and performance: Daniel Sarr, Luisa Fernanda Alfonso, Aleksandra Petrusevska, Efthimios Moschopoulos, Johanna Ryynänen, Emmi Venna, Charlott Madeleine Utzig, alternating with Xenia Koghilaki
Music: EHSXN, Reza R
Set and lighting design: Felipe Osorio Guzmán, Vito Walter
In conversation with: Emmi Venna
Costumes: Moriah Askenaizer
Archival consulting and study for Shiraz Arts Festival (1966-1977): Vali Mahlouji
Sound technician: Pablo Thiermann
Coproductions
Festival Montpellier Danse 2024, Rosendal Teater (Trondheim), Dansehallerne (Copenhaguen), Black Box teater (Oslo), Tanzfabrik (Berlin)
Support
Arts Council Norway, Nordic Culture Fund, FFUK, Nordic Culture Point, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ International Guest Performance Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media
Research support
Dis-Tanzen
Residencies
Montpellier Danse, Tanzfabrik (Berlin), Lake Studios (Berlin), Uferstudios (Berlin), DAVVI Center for Performing Arts Hammerfest
Special thanks
Anne-Cécile Sibué, Rasmus Jensen, Diletta Sperman, Ellen Söderhult, Theatre Haus Berlin
Photos
© Bertrand Delous, Armin Hokmi
