Seattle Iranian Festival: Artist Info & Bios

Golha Dance Company and Kids Club
mandana@centurytel.net

Golha Dance Company started in April of 2009 to encourage the children and youth to become involved in their community through the Iranian Festival of 2009 at Seattle Center.  Our goal was to share the culture, to tie the Iranian-American community better together, and to see kids who are proud of their cultural heritage.  This move was initiated by the team work of Mandana Afrassiabi (organizer) and Heather Rastovac (dance teacher) and of course with the great community spirit of the IACA ( Iranian American Community Alliance).  As a result of parents’ and kids’ encouragement, the class was continued in fall of 2009 and is continued till now. The dance class is led now by the hard work of Elham Hakimi Lawson and Emiko Nakamura. The interest is growing as we have parents joining in to volunteer more and more.

Mission statement of Golha Dance Company and Kids Club:
Our goal is to promote awareness to the rich Persian Heritage and culture among our children and Iranian-American community.  Our effort is to value this culture through traditional and modern performing arts by interesting kids and youth to be involved in the community and cultural venues.

Helene Eriksen and ANAR: Helene Eriksen’s Traditional Dance Theater
www.helene-eriksen.de

Helene Eriksen is a dance scholar, performer, teacher and choreographer who has been involved with the dance traditions of the Middle East and Central Asia for over 30 years.  She teaches and performs internationally and she has performed for Iranian communities all over the world.

ANAR: Helene Eriksen’s Traditional Dance Theatre presents women’s dance and culture from the regions of North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. ANAR means pomegranate and symbolizes the crystalline beauty of collective traditions…where each kernel is unique and luminous, yet together they form a fruit that is celebrated in the Middle East as a symbol of beauty, fertility and culture. The ancient traditions of these predominately Muslim societies are largely unknown in the West and are disappearing quickly in our globalized world. Our view of the cultures of the Muslim world are skewed by clichés, deep seated fears and current wars. ANAR brings these breathtaking and inspiring traditions into a new focus for a wider audience through professional dance concerts with spectacular traditional music and costumes.

Ali Khaghani

Ali was born in Iran and unto Persian ethnicity; he has a heritage rich in poetry. The likes of Rumi, Hafez, and Attar lace the Persian poetry, literature, and philosophy. To him poetry has been a tool with which to ordain and manipulate simple and ordinary semantics into emotional expressions. Experience made emotively enabled and universally synergized.

Tooradj Javadi

For the last 30 years Tooradj has passionately been studying “Rumi” in his original Language “Farsi”. He has been taking the message of Rumi’s UNCONDITIONAL LOVE,to numerous classes, community gatherings and lecture halls. He holds tremendous gratitude to be in the spiritual pass of Rumi’s universal invitation to “UNCONDITIONAL LOVE”

Delshodeh Dance Ensemble
www.delshodeh.org

Delshodeh performs dances of the Persian-speaking world at festivals and cultural celebrations in Seattle and the surrounding area. The group was formed in 2007 by artistic directors, Sonja Hinz and Heather Rastovac.  The ensemble’s repertoire includes pieces set to both traditional Persian reng and contemporary Persian classical music, regional folk dances of Iran and classical Tajik dance set to mystical Sufi poetry. The name “Delshodeh” (translated literally, “to be consumed by the heart” or, more loosely, “enamored”) accurately expresses the physical and spiritual goal of their dancing – to become enamored with the music and, through dance, express from the heart.

Heather Rastovac
heather-rastovac.blogspot.com

Heather Rastovac has been performing and teaching Persian dances in the Pacific Northwest for the past nine years. Together with Sonja Hinz, she performed in Shourangiz Persian music and dance ensemble from 2001 – 2004 and then co-founded Delshodeh dance ensemble in 2007. Heather is currently a PhD student at UC Berkeley in the department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies where she is researching contemporary movements of Iranian performance, as well as developing new multi-media performance pieces.

Emiko Noor
www.emikonoordance.com

Emiko Noor dedicated her major life time and energy into Persian Dance since 78.  She has studied extensively and intensively with experts in this field and lived in native lands and attended universities there. For the last 3 decades, Emiko has entertained Persian Communities through out western states of United States, Canada and also in Tajikistan.  She started teaching Persian Dance right here in 1984.  Currently, Emiko is an instructor with both Golha School of Persian Dance in Eastside and Youth Art Dance International in Seattle.  Her foundation of Eastern Arts is always accepting new students young and old.  Emiko would like you to join her and enjoy more of your precious life with tremendous joy and beauty of Persian Dancing.

Karavans Dance Troupe
www.karavansdancetroupe.com

Karavans Dance Troupe specializes in folkloric and tribal dances from the Middle East, North Africa and Persia. They have appeared at the Nowruz celebration at Town Hall  and recently performed at the Folklife Festival.

Elham Lawson
elham_hakimi@hotmail.com

Elham Hakimi Lawson is the instructor for the Golha Dance Ensemble as well as a member of Delshodeh Dance Ensemble.  She has loved to dance since she was a small child and finds great joy in her work with both these ensembles.  Elham is proud of her Iranian heritage and enjoys sharing her love of Persian dance with both Iranian and non-Iranian audiences.

Parvaneh Daneshvar
Orginally from Zanjan, Parvaneh is a highly recognized artist of one of the most important Persian musical instruments the tar. The general trends of Persian classical music have been deeply influenced by tar players and the tar is claimed to be the root of the names of the Persian setar and the guitar.

Hossein Ghaffari
Hossein started learning piano when he was 8 years old. He self-taught this instrument until the age of 14. He had a few private lessons but then he continued learning and practicing on his own up until today. Hossein’s dream is to communicate his feelings and passion to his audience through music.

Behrooz Alavi
Behrooz is a local Persian ney (giant reed flute) player. He began studying Persian poetry and music at a young age, in 2003 he became a student of Ostad Hossein Omoumi in Seattle.

Reyhaneh Bakhtiari
www.canadaoilpainting.com

Reyhaneh is an international acclaimed Artist; she was born in Tehran, Iran . At the age of 19 she went to England where she attended Swindon College, U of London to continue her studies. During the 2010 Olympics Reyhaneh’s Winter Sports paintings were displayed at the North Vancouver’s City Hall and the Centennial Theatre.

Distinguished visiting Artists from Vancouver, B.C.

Reyhaneh Bakhtiari, Effat Meernia and Naheed Sharifi
Milad Zendehnam

Milad is a former instructor at Art University of Tehran.  He has also performed with variety of musical groups in and outside of Iran. Currently, he conducts private lessons and composes music.  His experimental unique style fuses traditional Persian with jazz, rock, and classical music.  This has given him the opportunity to be versatile in his performances and teaching style.