Ali Moini proposes in his Paradoxical Knives the construction and the exploration of an image.
The audience, raptured and repulsed by the performer, is installed at the periphery of this dispositive and will assist to the meticulous building of this emerging system, its apogee and its silence.
»The work evolved from the image of a man hanging knives on his body. Then my mind went further, considering geography, holiness, danger, softness, communication, verticality and horizontality, the past and now.«
»I do not know if you know the concept of dervishes dance their issue of moving is so vertical the palm of their right hand is facing the ceiling and the palm of their left hand facing the floor, which means they take from the sky and give it to the ground( life... people or environment) but I changed this: My hands are facing myself and the audience (first part of rearrangement) then the first line to take the movement form a vertical position to horizontal position.«
»The traditional Sufi-dress represents safety, smoothness and equality, which I changed to danger, unsafty (for myself and also the others) a non-equality. Then there is a direction (horizontal, if you wish) between me and them, bouncing back and forth: curiosity, exotic movement, my presence, and ... the defense strategy at the same time because of feeling of danger, the knives imply for me as a performer and for them as the audience.« (Ali Moini)
Concept and performance: Ali Moini
Executive production: Latitudes Prod. – Lille
Diffusion: Selon l'Heure company
Support: Forum Dança.
Ali Moini was born in Shiraz, Iran. Growing up, he studied lyrical singing and musical composition, and at the age of 17, he joined the Youth Orchestra of Shiraz. In 1997, Moini started intensive studies in dramatic arts and acting, and joined the « Mehr Theater Group » as an actor and composer. There, he performed in numerous works, including Dance On Glasses, which was presented over 80 times throughout the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, and North America. Moini graduated in dramatic acting from Soureh High Educational University of Tehran, and in 2009 he participated in the Forum Dança Lisbon’s two- year advanced program Choreographic Creation and Research on Contemporary Dance, studying with international choreographers including André Lepecki, Deborah Hay, Emmanuelle Huynh, Jeremy Nelson, João Fiadeiro, Julyen Hamilton, Lisa Nelson, Mark Tompkins, Meg Stuart, Loïc Touzé, and Vera Mantero. It was there that he created the solo piece My Paradoxical Knives, which he performed to great acclaim at the Montpellier Danse Festival, the Tanzquartier Vienna, and Théâtre National de Chaillot, among others. In 2013, Moini concluded his Masters in Performance and Choreography in the ESSAI program at CNDC (Centre National de Danse Contemporaine) in Angers, France. Ali Moini helds, since 2019, workshops in Iran for young multidisciplinary artists within the framework of Mentorat, an ongoing project supported by several European structures. Since 2020, his company, Selon l’Heure, collaborates with Latitudes Prod., Latitudes Contemporaines’ production office.
