ERR dance diary examines Waterkind and Shiraz

In the fourth entry of the Independent Dance Festival diary, published by ERR, Grete Liina Tuuksam reflects on the dance works Waterkind and Shiraz. Waterkind was performed at Tallinn City Hall on Tuesday, while Shiraz was staged at Von Krahl Theatre on Wednesday.

The low tide that arrived at the festival on Sunday and continued on Monday is over. Waterkind, as its name suggests, is inspired by water. The dancers’ movements are fluid and unhurried. The two performers seem connected by an invisible substance, although they do not touch during the performance. Their chemistry creates a new space where time slows down or speeds up according to their movements.

The venue also helped create this altered sense of time and space. Tallinn City Hall may evoke nostalgia for some, but to Tuuksam, who is 22, it feels new and unfamiliar: both colossal and forgotten. The building seems suspended between past and present, amplifying the work’s effect. The dancers move between slow motion and ordinary speed, while the venue’s liminal atmosphere and the performance’s distorted sense of time combine to create an almost otherworldly impression.

On Wednesday, the festival presented Shiraz by Armin Hokmi, a Europe-based choreographer and dancer of Iranian heritage. The title refers to the Iranian city where an international arts festival was held from 1967 to 1977. After the performance, curator Evelyn Raudsepp moderated a conversation with Hokmi. He described the work as both a tribute and an extension of the festival, treating it as a concept rather than a specific historical event. The piece is not a collage of festival archives, he said, but an act of imagining.

Minimalist staging, music that Hokmi described as Persian trap, and the choreography create a hypnotic atmosphere. The dancers’ intimate, restrained movements and small steps across the stage leave room for each body. Even when they gather in a corner, each performer retains a strong sense of individuality. Gradually, as their movements grow and synchronise, the dancers become more unified. The work feels like the company’s collective imagining of the arts festival in Shiraz.

Hokmi said the choreography draws less on the culture of the Middle East than on country music, ballet and the movement of singer Shakira. Despite these varied influences, Shiraz is neither hectic nor overloaded. The work is delicate and controlled, but never meek. Its trance-like repetitions are hypnotic, encouraging the audience to focus and reflect without demanding their attention.