Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 Gender and Dance in Modern Iran Gender and Dance in Modern Iran: Biopolitics on stage investigates the ways dancing bodies have been providing evidence for competing representations of modernity, urbanism, and religiosity throughout the twentieth century. Focusing on the transformation of the staged dancing body, its space of performance, and spectatorial cultural ideology, this book traces the dancing body in multiple milieus of performance, including the Pahlavi era’s national artistic scene and the popular café and cabaret stages as well as the commer- cial cinematic screen and the post-revolutionary Islamized theatrical stage. It links the socio-political discourses on performance with the staged public dancer in order to interrogate the formation of dominant categories of “modern,”“high,” and “artistic,” and the subsequent “othering” of cultural realms that were discursively peripheralized from the “national” stage. Through the study of archival and ethnographic research as well as a diverse literature pertaining to music, theater, cinema, and popular culture, it com- bines a close reading of primary sources such as official documents, press materials, and program notes with visual analysis of films and imageries, as well as interviews with practitioners. It offers an original and informed exploration into the ways performing bodies and their public have been associated with binary notions of vice and virtue, morality and immorality, commitment and degeneration, chastity and eroticism, and veiled-ness and nakedness. Engaging with a range of methodological and historiographical methods, including postcolonial, performance, and feminist studies, this book is a valuable Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 resource for students and scholars of Middle East history and Iranian studies, as well as gender studies and dance and performance studies. Ida Meftahi is Visiting Assistant Professor in contemporary Iranian culture and society at the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, University of Maryland. Her interdisciplinary historical research transcends the studies of gender, dance, theater, cinema, public entertainment, and performative politics. Iranian Studies Edited by: Homa Katouzian, University of Oxford and Mohamad Tavakoli, University of Toronto. Since 1967 the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS) has been a leading learned society for the advancement of new approaches in the study of Iranian society, history, culture, and literature. The new ISIS Iranian Stu- dies series published by Routledge will provide a venue for the publication of original and innovative scholarly works in all areas of Iranian and Persianate Studies. 1 Journalism in Iran 7 Continuity in Iranian Identity From mission to profession Resilience of a cultural heritage Hossein Shahidi Fereshteh Davaran 2 Sadeq Hedayat 8 New Perspectives on Safavid Iran His work and his wondrous world Empire and society Edited by Homa Katouzian Edited by Colin P. Mitchell 3 Iran in the 21st Century 9 Islamic Tolerance Politics, economics and conflict Am-ır Khusraw and pluralism Edited by Homa Katouzian and Alyssa Gabbay Hossein Shahidi 10 City of Knowledge in Twentieth 4 Media, Culture and Society in Iran Century Iran Living with globalization and the Shiraz, history and poetry Islamic State Setrag Manoukian Edited by Mehdi Semati 11 Domestic Violence in Iran 5 Modern Persian Literature Women, marriage and Islam Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 in Afghanistan Zahra Tizro Anomalous visions of history and form 12 Gnostic Apocalypse and Islam Wali Ahmadi Qur’an, exegesis, messianism, and the literary origins of the 6 The Politics of Iranian Cinema Babi religion Film and society in the Todd Lawson Islamic Republic Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad 13 Social Movements in Iran 22 Nomads in Environmentalism and civil society Post-Revolutionary Iran Simin Fadaee The Qashqa’i in an era of change Lois Beck 14 Iranian-Russian Encounters Empires and revolutions since 1800 23 Persian Language, Literature Edited by Stephanie Cronin and Culture New leaves, fresh looks 15 Iran Edited by Kamran Talattof Politics, history and literature Homa Katouzian 24 The Dae-va Cult in the Ga-tha-s An ideological archaeology 16 Domesticity and Consumer of Zoroastrianism Culture in Iran Amir Ahmadi Interior revolutions of the modern era 25 The Revolutionary Guards in Pamela Karimi Iranian Politics Elites and shifting relations 17 The Development of the Babi/ Bayram Sinkaya Baha’i Communities Exploring Baron Rosen’s archives 26 Kirman and the Qajar Empire Youli Ioannesyan Local dimensions of modernity in Iran, 1794–1914 18 Culture and Cultural Politics James M Gustafson Under Reza Shah The Pahlavi State, new bourgeoisie 27 The Thousand and One Borders and the creation of a modern society of Iran in Iran Travel and identity Bianca Devos and Christoph Werner Fariba Adelkhah 19 Recasting Iranian Modernity 28 Iranian Culture International relations and Representation and identity social change Nasrin Rahimieh Kamran Matin 29 The Historiography of - - Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 20 The Sıh-rozag in Zoroastrianism Persian Architecture A textual and Edited by Mohammad Gharipour historico-religious analysis Enrico G. Raffaelli 30 Iran and Russian Imperialism The ideal snarchists, 1800–1914 21 Literary Subterfuge and Moritz Deutschmann Contemporary Persian Fiction Who writes Iran? Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami 31 Iranian Music and 33 Persian Authorship and Popular Entertainment Canonicity in Late Mughal Delhi From Motrebi to Losanjelesi Building an ark and beyond Prashant Keshavmurthy GJ Breyley and Sasan Fatemi 32 Gender and Dance in Modern Iran Biopolitics onstage Ida Meftahi Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 Gender and Dance in Modern Iran Biopolitics on stage Ida Meftahi Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 Add Add Add Add Add AddAdd AddAdd AddAdd First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Ida Meftahi The right of Ida Meftahi to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Meftahi, Ida. Title: Gender and dance in modern Iran : biopolitics on stage / Ida Meftahi. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, [2016] | Series: Iranian studies; 32 Identifiers: LCCN 2015030803| ISBN 9781138804043 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315753294 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Dance–Iran–History. | Gender expression–Iran–History. Classification: LCC GV1697 .M44 2016 | DDC 792.8/09550904–dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015030803 ISBN: 978-1-138-80404-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-75329-4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Taylor & Francis Books Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 To my life partner Arash My mother Surayya And my dance mother Farzanah Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 Contents List of figures x Acknowledgment xii 1 Introduction 1 2 The invention of an ideal female national dancer in twentieth-century Iran 18 3 Mutribs and their dancers: The counter-ideal performers of new Iran 49 4 The cabaret dancer in her quotidian life 70 5 Dancing bodies in pre-revolutionary films and the “enticing” reel cabaret dancer 99 6 The dancing body in the anti-obscenity discourse of the Islamic press in pre-revolutionary Iran 135 7 Harikat-i mawzun: The post-revolutionary Iranian theatrical dance 150 8 Dance, body, space, and subjectivity on the twentieth-century Iranian stage 170 Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:44 29 November 2016 Index 179 List of figures 1.1 A national dancer in the late 1940s 2 1.2 A Cabaret dancer; Rawshanak Sadr in Jahil va Raqqasah (The jahil and the dancer, 1976) 2 1.3 Rythmic Movements, Farzanah Kabuli in Epic of the Rock Revolution, 2000 3 1.4 Social dancing cartoon 11 1.5 Social dancing in discothèque in 1970s 12 1.6 Dance class advertisement which emphasizes the athletic aspects of ballet and hip-hop 13 2.1 Bachchah raqqas in a Qajar-era mutribi ensemble 19 2.2 Haideh Akhundzadeh in the 1940s 25 2.3 Haideh Akhundzadeh and Nesta Shahrokh (aka Ramazani) 26 2.4 Miniyatur-ha-yi Irani (Iranian miniatures) by the Iranian National Ballet Rudaki Hall 27 2.5 Zarb va Zangulah, a production by the National Folklore Organization 28 2.6 Haft Paykar, a production by the National Folklore Organization in the 1970s 29 2.7 Program note of the National Folklore Organization in the 1970s 30 2.8 Farzanah Kabuli, the lead dancer of the company in Kuhkiluyah