Long-expected dance solo about authenticity, manipulation and avatars.

After the intriguing Lives in 2014, the Iranian choreographer and performer Ali Moini is a guest at NEXT festival for the second time with a unique dance solo. The title of his newest creation is a popular saying from Farsi and can be translated as “through Rostam I earn my honour”. Rostam is one of the greatest heroes in Persian mythology and is often referred to as a source of strength. For Ali Moini this title consequently refers to the idea of an invisible other, a doppelgänger or an avatar whom people derive their qualities from.

In this new solo Moini is on stage like a puppet in a construction with a lot of strings connected to a machine that sets him in motion. But to what extent does the performer accept this manipulation ? What happens if he rebels against this machine and sets his double in motion ? Who then becomes the leader and who the follower ? Through the metaphor of the marionette Moini asks pertinent questions about authenticity, obedience and (dis)loyalty.

Ali Moini, who was born in Shiraz in 1974, studied music and theatre in Iran and worked with the well-known Iranian company Mehr Theatre Group as an actor and composer. Later he engaged in choreography in Portugal where Meg Stuart was one of this teachers. Ever since he has created his own performances with his company Selon l'heure in which music and sound play an important part. In 2009 Moini created the solo My Paradoxical Knives in which he spun around in a costume of knives while mystical poems from Sufism were heard. In 2012 he made the group performance It shocks me but not you about traumas, embodied by performers who were the victim of different forms of aggression. After that came Lives which could be seen at NEXT 2014. Now there is this long-expected new solo which had its premiere this summer at Montpellier Danse. Le Monde wrote : “Moini becomes an instrument in the hands of this unbelievable machinery which fascinates by its visual strength and its connection between life and death.”

PARCOURS: 
*25.11 - Ali Moini + Milo Rau