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When I was a dance major at San Francisco State University years ago, I was proud to attend a university with such a unique dance program.  SFSU was one of few universities that actually recognized Ethnic dance as a legitimate dance form to study.  As a dance major, one could choose between Performance and Choreography and Ethnic Dance. 

photo by Juan Soto

Since then, not only has Ethnic dance– now referred to as World dance- been recognized in more colleges and universities, but the line separating western dance styles such as Ballet, Modern and Jazz, from World dances is supposedly becoming thinner.  The reason I use the word “supposedly” is that my experience suggests otherwise.

Dancers and dance educators who are trained in “classical” (i.e. Ballet) or “modern” dance view World dance as folkloric, regional, multi-generational dances where the entire village may participate in a dance that is often ritualistic and not intended for an audience.  They do not consider World dance a technique-oriented movement style.  While this may be somewhat true of some folk dances, it certainly does not begin to describe all world dance styles.

I was born and raised in Iran and grew up doing Persian social dancing.  In the US, I studied western dance styles such as Jazz, Modern and Ballet, and received a BA in Dance and an MA in Creative Arts.  So, my formal training has been in western dance, while my aesthetic tendencies and artistic inclination are founded in Persian culture. 

This has resulted in a choreographic and movement style that is very Persian, yet involves a lot of ballet and modern dance technique; not what one may typically refer to as “Ethnic” or “World” dance. I tried calling my style of dance Fusion, until I realized that much like the music industry, everyone, their mothers, and their grandmothers are throwing together bits of whatever dance styles they have picked up at various workshops without regard to any cohesive composition, and calling it Fusion. I finally decided to call my dance style Contemporary Persian Ballet. 

photo by anonymous

For years I have been teaching Modern and Jazz dance classes at various colleges, but have been interested in teaching my style of dance in those environments.  With the growing openness to world dance styles, I thought this could be a very real possibility.  This hope was almost confirmed when I was asked to teach Persian dance at a college in Northern California. 

For the four years that I taught Persian dance at this college, no dance majors enrolled in my class, nor was I ever allowed to bring my choreography into the Dance Department's productions.  When I asked if I could work with the dance majors to teach them one of my dances for the Dance Department's concert, the reply was that they already had an “Ethnic” dance in the program, which was a West African dance.  In other words, their “ethnic” quota was met and therefore there was no need to bother with any other “ethnic” dance. 

It was made clear that there was a big distinction between the style I taught and the style the dance program was geared towards: Modern dance.  This is ironic because Modern dance itself was born out of a rebellious movement against the rigidity of classical ballet, and was meant to encompass all dance styles that are authentic to the body without stylistic distinctions; sort of a dance without borders idea.

In Northern California there is so much talk about multiculturalism and the melting pot of music and dance styles and yet when it comes to official degrees and college credits, the scales shift to western or technique - oriented dances (i.e. Ballet, Modern and  Jazz).  Is this the best we can do? 

What I want to know is, where does my dance style fit in?!

photo by Lori Ahmadi