Dance in the Persianate World is a rich collected volume featuring the most up-to-date writings that addresses multiple issues surrounding dance, its performance and its reception throughout the Persianate world and constitutes a sequel to Anthony Shay’s Choreophobia: Solo Improvised Dance in the Iranian World (Mazda Publishers 1999). Edited by Shay, scholars and practitioners of dance contribute their scholarly knowledge and experiences as dancers and musicians to Dance in the Persianate World to the four sections of the volume features chapters about dance in historical periods and contemporary issues of dance throughout the Persianate world, that is those areas of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucuses in which the Persian language, literature, and culture have historically and culturally bound this vast region together into a cultural region for millennia. Dance and music, especially the ubiquitous 6/8 rhythm that underpins dancing throughout the area, which several of the authors describe and analyze, clearly demonstrates the interconnectedness of the region. The first section features two chapters by Nathalie Chubineh and Amir-Hosein Pourjavady on the history of dance in the Persianate world. The second section contains four chapters on various aspects of regional folk dance and music by Sasan Fatemi, Hersh Armand, and George Murer. The third section addresses various aspects surrounding solo improvised dance, the most popular urban dance tradition throughout the region, particularly the negative and ambiguous attitudes toward dance in the contemporary areas of Iran and Central Asia in which the role of Islam and Islamic attitudes toward the propriety of dance and music remain important in the performance of solo improvised dance throughout the Persianate world, particularly in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Afghanistan where its performance is banned, and in the diaspora. Robyn Friend, Shireen Nabatian, Ghoncheh Tazmini, and Anthony Shay have written chapters about various aspects and issues surrounding solo improvised dance as both a domestic and professional dance genre, reactions to the dance ban in Iran, performance in the diaspora, dancing in the age of covid, and spirituality in art music and dance. In the final section, Tanya Merchant and Anthony Shay each contribute chapters about dance prepared for the stage and attitudes toward the professional dancers of both sexes, which focus on more in-depth discussions about issues of gender and sexuality, masculinity and femininity that are at the core of concerns and anxieties surrounding dance in the Persianate world.



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