hekayat-e bakhe-o do bat

The performance lecture engages with the task of translating a very old parable from the iconic hybrid text of Panchatantra (Farsi: Kelileh o Demneh), using verbal communication, light and shadow, body and sound. The performance exercises the classics of storytelling as well as experimenting on the narrative elements of a story. Panchatantra, animal fables as old as we are able to imagine, has endured so much transformational torture in history, vanishing points and revivals; now it exists in old Farsi (with the title: Kalila and Dimna کلیله و دمنه) as an iconic transcript and witness for an old language hybrid of Farsi and Arabic. A reading of this story in English and collaboration with non-Iranian dancers opens thinking about contemporary themes along the voice of the ancients. When approached in a surgical carefulness, the story of The Turtle and the Two Storks (حکایت باخه و دو بط) provides a richness that allows rethinking with linguistic deconstructive tools. The story is already enriched by themes of literacy, science, friendship, space-travel, pollution, evolution, virtual space, language and speech.