Iranian National Ballet Company

Iranian National Ballet Company performing Carmina Burana, 1978

The company repertoire included classical, neoclassical and contemporary ballets which were staged usually by invited guest choreographers and ballet masters from Europe and the United States. The company established a close collaboration with dance institutions in Soviet Union, United States and Europe. The Royal Ballet, Royal Academy of Dance, Bolshoi Ballet, American Ballet Theatre were parts of a vast exchanging cultural program between the companies.

Some early works of the company were those choreographed by Nilla Cram Cook for the Revival of the Iranian Ancient Arts Ensemble which were restaged by Cram Cook's former dancers, Nejad and Haideh Ahmadzadeh.[7] Prominent and world-famous ballet dancers from renowned ballet companies of the world were often invited to dance the principal roles of all great classical ballets. In order to keep the high standard of the productions the company relied on guest artists from abroad to perform the leading roles in most work premieres.[8]

Birgit Cullberg (right) rehearsing Miss Julie with dancers of the Iranian National Ballet Company. Ali Pourfarrokh on the left. 1977

The Iranian National Ballet Company started operating in 1958 with a dozen of dancers. The company grew to approximately 50 dancers, one third of them Iranian natives. The rest of the company members came mostly from Europe and the United States.[7][9][10][11]

Iranian National Ballet Company's production of Sleeping Beauty. 1978

The civil unrest and political upheavals that caused the collapse of the Monarchy and establishment of a theocracy in Iran started in 1978 and was escalating rapidly. The last ballet production that was staged at the Roudaki Hall Opera was Sleeping Beauty during the fall season of 1978. By December 1978 and January 1979, the political situation of the country became more and more unstable. Almost all foreign members of the company left Iran during this period as soon as there was a flight available, before the complete collapse of the regime in February 1979. Employed dancers were informed that there were dismissed till the new government's further notice. Eventually, a meeting was arranged in Bāgh-e Manzariyeh in northern Tehran soon after the victorious revolution in the presence of Roudaki Hall's workforce and Ayatollah Mohammad Mofatteh. When he was asked about the fate of ballet in Iran, he replied irately and in no uncertain terms that Islamic Republic and ballet is paradoxical and self-contradictory. The Iranian National Ballet Company was thereafter formally declared as dissolved in 1979.[12]

Twenty-three years after disbanding of the Iranian National Ballet, the Swedish-Iranian dancer, and choreographer Nima Kiann created a new company in Stockholm, Sweden[11] with the support of the Swedish authorities. Inspired by Les Ballets Russes and Ballets suédois as exiled dance companies representing vastly the culture of their countries, he named the company Les Ballets Persans (Persian: سازمان باله ایران).[13][14] The company repertory is entirely based on the Persian culture and heritage and does not include any works of the Western repertoire unless they are created based on Persian heritage. The project of revival of the Iranian National Ballet Company made an international impact and was regarded as the most extensive individual artistic project ever realized outside of Iran.

• On the 35th anniversary of disbanding of the company, on August 29, 2014, around forty former members of the Iranian National Ballet, including Nejad and Haideh Ahmadzadeh and Ali Pourfarrokh, gathered together in Washington DC to celebrate and share the accomplishments of the company. This was the first reunion of company members after leaving Tehran thirty-five years ago. In a message sent to this reunion, Nima Kiann the founder of Les Ballets Persans, the successor company of the Iranian National Ballet, wrote: ...On behalf of the new generation of Iranian ballet artists, I salute all attending and even absent members of the company this evening. Your collective accomplishment of the past time is today’s fundament on which this new generation is standing on. It is a reason of pride for the new and future generations of Iranians and a reminder of a passed time of development and progress for the art form of dance in Iran.[15]

• Vahdat Hall
• Les Ballets Persans
• Official website of Nima Kiann

Bibliography

• Craine, Debra (2009). The Ballets Russes and the Art of Design. New York: The Monacelli Press.

• Chronology of the Iranian National Ballet and Les Ballets Persans
• Official website of Les Ballets Persans
• Ali Pourfarrokh