Ehsan Hemat - NeyNavã
08.06.2026 — 12.06.2026
NeyNavã is a contemporary dance work for five performers, inspired by the landmark 1983 composition NeyNava by Hossein Alizadeh. Created in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution and during the Iran–Iraq War, the piece redefined musical structure by centering Persian modal logic (dastgah-e Nava) within a Western orchestral form. Composed through tension, delay, and resonance rather than melody alone, NeyNava carries a historical weight where rupture is lived, mourning is collective, and expression emerges indirectly.
More than four decades later, that context persists and has intensified. NeyNavã responds to this continuity. The impulse for this work arises from recent mass killings of Iranian protesters in January, where grief revealed itself through an unexpected gesture: during funeral ceremonies, the dead were honored through dance. Bodies dressed in white moved not only in mourning, but in pride for lives sacrificed in the name of freedom. Witnessing this, a fundamental need emerged: to mourn together, through the body. This gave rise to NeyNavã.
Rather than representing mourning, the work inhabits its structure. It constructs a space where time is delayed, actions echo, and presence is continuously reshaped by forces beyond the individual. In a moment marked by fragmentation, displacement, and the erosion of collective sensibility, the body becomes a site of memory, resistance, and transformation.
Maker Ehsan Hemat Dancers Roshanak Morrowatian, Kayoko Minami, Marita Schwanke, 2 more dancers Production 2nd to the right International sales StepTurnMove
Ehsan Hemat is an Iranian-Belgian choreographer. His dance career began in 2000 with Dance on Glasses by Amir Reza Koohestani. Since then, he has collaborated with a range of artists across disciplines, including William Forsythe, Felix van Groeningen, Goele van Dijk, Mokhallad Rasem and Hooman Sharifi.
He has taught at institutions such as Fontys Academy of the Arts (Tilburg), LCDS/The Place (London), CCDC (Cairo), ICCD (Tehran), the Dance Academy of Bahia Blanca (Argentina), and the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp.
His debut piece, I Put a Spell on You, investigates the impact of discipline and control on the human body. It received the Best Choreography Award at the Tehran International Fadjr Theater Festival and the Grand Prix at the Belgrade International Theater Festival (BITEF). His recent work, A in the Role of B When C Didn't Make It, premiered in 2023 at the Flemish city theatre KVS in Brussels.
His current project, Everything Brings Us Back to the Body, premiered on 12 March 2025 at Monty in Antwerp and is now touring.