Mille et Une Nuits
Paris-based Iranian choreographer Sorour Darabi presents his most ambitious project to date, the experimental opera Mille et Une Nuits, with an ensemble of eight musicians and performers. Darabi focuses on the expressiveness of fragility and the emotional texture of the trans* voice through music. The performance approaches the fascinating stories from One Thousand and One Nights through bodies, voices and perspectives that have been pushed to the margins by ancient legends. In the literary classic, Scheherazade delays the hour of her death by inventing new stories each night. Narration becomes a matter of survival and resistance. In the original work, however, the figure of Scheherazade is reduced to a narrative tool, her subjectivity and desire remain in the shadows of the stories told. Sorour Darabi draws the audience in a sensuous pull through a long, auspicious night in which Scheherazade’s being can finally self-actualise – as a queer myth, far removed from the constraints of a heteronormative world.
is an Iranian trans-disciplinary artist working and living in Paris. He was a member of the ICCD underground association, whose Untimely festival in Tehran hosted his work before he left for France. Since 2016, his projects have been presented in numerous theatres and festivals in France and abroad. He created Farci.e in 2016 at the Montpellier Danse festival, Savušun in 2018 at the Montpellier Danse festival, Mowgli in 2021 at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Natural Drama in 2021 at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, From the Throat to the Dawn in 2022 at the Palais de Tokyo.
Credits
Choreography, dramaturgy, texts, artistic direction Sorour Darabi Performers, singers, actors, live musicians Aimilios Arapoglou, Li-Yun Hu, Lara Chanel, Felipe Faria, Sorour Darabi, Pablo Altar, Florian Le Prisé, Ange Halliwell Music composition Pablo Altar, Florian Le Prisé Vocal coach Henry Browne Light designer Shaly Lopez Technical director Jean-marc Ségalen Set design Alicia Zaton based on an original idea by Sorour Darabi Costumes Anousha Mohtashami Text editor, English-Persian curator (Poetic Societies, Crafted Conseil Remote Residency Programme) Ava Ansari Outside eye Marouane Bakhti Production/tour manager Jenny Suarez Administration, production manager Martin Buisson Exclusive Production DEEPDAWN / Sorour Darabi Coproduction Festival Montpellier Danse, CCN Ballet national de Marseille, Arsenic – Centre d’art scénique contemporain (Lausanne), Festival d’Automne à Paris, La Villette (Paris), CND Centre national de la danse (Pantin), Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna), Transfabrik – Fonds franco-allemand pour le spectacle vivant (Berlin), Charleroi Danse – Centre chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Festival Theaterformen (Berlin) With the support of Drac Île-de-France – Ministère de la Culture With the support of La Manutention du Palais de Tokyo, CND Centre national de la danse, Trauma Bar und Kino (Berlin), Tanzhaus Zurich, PACT Zollverein (Essen), KWP Kunstenwerkplaats (Brussels), Poetic Societies (Detroit), The Saison Foundation (Japan) Thanks to Palmina D’Ascoli, David Lopez, Thomas Gachet.
No language skills required to see the performance; songs in English and Farsi