Impure Company was founded in 2000 by Hooman Sharifi, a choreographer of Iranian origin, living and working in Norway. Sharifi’s dance performances are filled with an expression of physical power. Spontaneous and intense at the same time, they result from meticulous thinking and choreography, and their motions are somewhere in between theatre, dance, and visual arts. Sharifi is one of few contemporary dance artists directly confronting social and political issues in his work, in accordance with the motto „The Art Equals Politics,” referring to the history dance theatre, deeply rooted in the work of two German artists: Rudolf Laban and Kurt Jooss. The background for this performance and installation Once Upon a Time Country was the green revolution that took place in Iran, before the president election in 2009. The televised pictures from this uprising brought Hooman’s memories of the revolution in 1979 flooding back: the smell of burned car tiles and burned hair, running people, sounds of gunshots, screaming and melodic slogans. “I remember these noises. The first time was when I was around 6, the revolution. I was in the living room; I did not understand anything but I remember my brother jumping over the fence to get home, cutting himself. The second time, was when the war arrived, with bombing, in Tehran. I was in the living room, which was dark and deafening, the sound was not only deafening it was also blinding. I did not understand then.” Once upon a time... is dialog with these memories and ideas about ”revolution”.
Choreography by Hooman Sharifi
Impure Company is Matthew William Smith, Ida Gudbrandsen, Rikke Baewert, Ali Moini, Elika Hedayat.
http://www.nxtstp.eu/hooman-sharifi
