Simurgh - from Persian mythology to a project combining two performing arts

22 days ago

Good morning music lovers!

Today I want to share with you an experience I had last year. I went to a performance where the fusion between two arts that I admire and cherish happened. The name of this project, "Simurgh", comes from the word for a bird from Persian mythology, which mediated between heaven and earth, capable of uniting and regenerating... Emerging from this capacity, this project was born with the aim of uniting traditional Afghan music and contemporary dance. As many of you know, in Afghanistan, the current Taliban-led regime bans any form of music, banning and prohibiting people from having such a fundamental cultural activity, almost as old as humanity itself and its communities. But not wanting to politicize this post, today I want to share this experience I had a few months ago in an open-air space. Two musicians in a situation of forced mobility (with refugee status), from Afghanistan, named Aman Ehsan and Fazel Sapand, came together to play various traditional Persian instruments, such as the harmonium, the dhol, the tabla and the sitar. I can only describe the experience to you as very immersive. The metallic and intoxicating sounds of the sitar elevate the experience and remind you of a world I've never been to! Strange, isn't it?

The pounding rhythms marked by the percussion, in step with the dhol and the tabla and even the cymbal, mean that the tempo of the choreography presented is marked like a heartbeat to which all the organs obey. The dancers let us take them with them, in every gesture, in every note played by the musicians... freed from the restraints placed on them relatively recently. It's strange to think that in the 21st century there are regimes and religions that ban music... For me, this is a huge attack on expression and on the very divinity and wonder of our existence. A breath of life that is mercilessly taken away in the name of a "greater" good.

^{Photocolage made with Canva}

At the end of the performance, there was still time for a brief question and answer session with the audience. A perspective on Afghan society today was given, and I confess that oppression and the obligation to follow ancient writings, which was certainly not the intention, or even if it were, we cannot subjugate a society by castrating it from one of the greatest forms of cultural expression.