german version

Iran, 1979: The toppling of the Shah’s authoritarian regime was supposed to liberate the Persian people. But now, celebration and loud music were frowned upon, dancing was banned, people were veiled in grey and black. They withdrew into their houses and sought freedom in their own four walls.

The project is based on a childhood experience from this time. While the outside world became more and more closed and inaccessible to women, another world opened up to the girl Modjgan: She began dancing the patterns of the carpets in her grandparents house, reading them playfully as choreographic instructions, discovering the freedom that resides in dance.
For MOVE IN PATTERNS, Modjgan Hashemian draws on the history of these carpets, the techniques used to weave them, their colours and shapes, but above all she works with the patterns, with their fabulous abstraction and their symbolic meaning.
There is so much movement behind, under and on such a carpet, and she explores it on various levels.
Sometimes it follows the earnest game everyone knows from their own childhood: not walking on the lines between the floor tiles, paving stones, or rugs. The patterns are a restriction, a limitation, and at the same time they provide almost magical protection against fear. The other side of this is compulsive repetition and entrapment in a system.

Choreography/concept: Modjgan Hashemian
Dramaturgy: Susanne Vincenz
Music: Oliver Doerell and Mohammad Reza Mortazavi
Video: Isabel Robson
Light: Benjamin Schälike
Production management: Julia Schreiner
Trainee: Stephan Ehrlich
Training: Matthew Hashemian Thomas
PR: Nora Gores
Dance:
Parwanhe Tomiko Frei
Maryam Nikandish
Niloufar Shahisavandi
Kristian Breitenbach
Michele Meloni

A production by Modjgan Hashemian in coproduction with Kultursprünge e.V., founded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds and Interkulturelle Projektförderung of Berlin.