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29-591: The history of ballet in Iran started in 1928 when Madame Cornelli , a Russian immigrant who fled the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, started giving dance lessons in Tehran. There was no methodical ballet training; the classes consisted of various exercises to make the body supple and to cultivate the students' awareness of rhythm and musicality. Part of each class was devoted to character or folk dances. A later dance teacher

58-563: A cultural attaché at the American Embassy in Tehran from 1941 to 1947. During that time, Cook converted to Islam , and spent years on a personal project, editing and translating the Koran into English, with her own commentary. She held a high position in Iran's Ministry of Education, oversaw film censorship, and went on radio to read her translations of poetry. She helped build national theatre, ballet, and opera programs in Iran in

87-630: A dance school. However, upon being expelled after this proposal to the city council, he turned himself to the Armenian Church in Qazvin. With allowance of the Church's head priest, he was allowed to hold dance classes on the rooftop of the church, in the same year of 1938. Djanbazian left Qazvin for Tehran in 1942. There, he started to give dancing classes in the Armenian Kušeš high school after

116-600: A follower of Gandhi , converted to Hinduism , and studied Sanskrit , Hindi , and Persian literatures. After she left Gandhi's ashram , with a shaved head and barefoot, she crashed a car, and was detained as a vagrant and hospitalized for a month in 1934, in Calcutta , then deported with her son back to the United States. On arrival at Ellis Island , she made odd pronouncements ("delusions of grandeur", according to her brother), and news stories remarked on

145-809: A love story in the Ferdowsi's Shahnameh . Over the course of his career, he collaborated with many artists and intellectuals of the time. He also served, in 1948, as the head of the faculty at the National Guard and Armed Forces Academy (Laškar-e gard-e šāhanšāhi), where he trained high-ranking officials of the country. As the Encyclopedia Iranica lastly states, Djanbazian founded the Folk Dance and Song Ensemble (Goruh-e raqṣ o āvāz-e maḥalli) conducted by maestro Edik Hovespian in 1959. Later on, this ensemble continued their performances under

174-871: Is entirely based on the Persian culture and heritage and does not include any works of the Western repertoire unless they are created based on Persian heritage. The project of revival of the Iranian National Ballet Company made an international impact and was regarded as the most extensive individual artistic project ever realized outside of Iran. Sarkis Djanbazian Sarkis Djanbazian ( Armenian : Սարգիս Ջանբազյան ; Persian : سرکیس جانبازیان ), also written as Sarkis Janbazian , (15 January 1913 in Armavir – 11 December 1963 in Tehran )

203-463: The "dramatic" and "hectic" scene. She wrote about this part of her life in a memoir, My Road to India (1939). Mary Sully painted an abstract portrait titled "Nila Cram Cook" in the 1930s. In 1939, she became Europe correspondent for an American weekly, Liberty. She covered World War II from Greece, until she escaped Nazi detention in July 1941, and fled with her son to Tehran . She worked as

232-640: The 1940s. She worked with a fellow American expatriate, dancer Xenia Zarina , in Iran. Cook took a renewed interest in Kashmir in 1954, and compiled a book of translated poems, titled The Way of the Swan: Poems of Kashmir (1958). At age 18, in 1927, Nilla Cram Cook married Greek poet and government official Nikos Proestopoulos; they had a son, Serios Nicholas Proestopoulos (also known as Sirius Cook), and divorced in 1932. She married again very briefly, to Albert Nathaniel Hutchins in 1934; that marriage

261-663: The Iranian National Ballet, the Swedish-Iranian dancer, and choreographer Nima Kiann created a new company in Stockholm , Sweden with the support of the Swedish authorities. Inspired by Les Ballets Russes and Ballets suédois as exiled dance companies representing vastly the culture of their countries, he named the company Les Ballets Persans ( Persian : سازمان باله ایران ). The company repertory

290-490: The Iranian National Ballet. The dance troupe performed at functions at the American Embassy in Tehran and toured nationally and internationally, remaining active until around 1953. In 1955, Mehrdad Pahlbod , the head of the Fine Arts department commissioned Nejad and Haideh Ahmadzadeh to start a ballet school on a professional basis aiming to raise native Iranian ballet dancers for a future national ballet company. The School

319-775: The United States. The company established a close collaboration with dance institutions in Soviet Union, United States and Europe. The Royal Ballet, Royal Academy of Dance, Bolshoi Ballet, American Ballet Theatre were parts of a vast exchanging cultural program between the companies. Some early works of the company were those choreographed by Nilla Cram Cook for the Revival of the Iranian Ancient Arts Ensemble which were restaged by Cram Cook's former dancers, Nejad and Haideh Ahmadzadeh. Prominent and world-famous ballet dancers from renowned ballet companies of

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348-728: The ballet academy and company. The Iranian National Ballet Company developed to become the most renowned Iranian cultural institution during its tenure as the country's only ballet institution. Company productions were often performed at official events and functions in the presence of the Royal family and invited national and international dignitaries. The company moved to the Roudaki Hall Opera upon its completion in 1967. The company repertoire included classical, neoclassical and contemporary ballets which were staged usually by invited guest choreographers and ballet masters from Europe and

377-546: The company members came mostly from Europe and the United States. The civil unrest and political upheavals that caused the collapse of the Monarchy and establishment of a theocracy in Iran started in 1978 and was escalating rapidly. The last ballet production that was staged at the Roudaki Hall Opera was Sleeping Beauty during the fall season of 1978. By December 1978 and January 1979, the political situation of

406-849: The completion of her dance education in Russia. She took over the academy in 1972 and managed it until 1984, when she left Iran and continued her dance activities in the United States, at the Djanbazian Dance Company in La Crescenta, California . In 1950, Djanbazian married Fleur Djanbazian; they had two children, Anna and Albert Djanbazian. Anna received her education in dance first under her father's direction and then continued her training in Russia after her father died. Nilla Cram Cook Nilla Cram Cook (December 21, 1908 – October 11, 1982), also known as Nila Nagini Devi ,

435-518: The country became more and more unstable. Almost all foreign members of the company left Iran during this period as soon as there was a flight available, before the complete collapse of the regime in February 1979. Employed dancers were informed that there were dismissed till the new government's further notice. Eventually, a meeting was arranged in Bāgh-e Manzariyeh in northern Tehran soon after

464-451: The direction of maestro Hovik Gasparian at the second national dance festival in Iran in 1962. Sarkis Djanbazian died of heart attack at the age of fifty on 11 December 1963 in Tehran. His greatest concern was that his school might not continue after his death. The school remained open and instructors such as Yagāna Šāygān, ʿAbd-Allāh Nāẓemi, Yerjanik Djanbazian, and Zohra Amjadi taught there until Djanbazian's daughter, Anna, returned home after

493-895: The formation of a ballet company during one of his official visits to London and after a command performance in his honor at the Royal Opera House. In the summer of 1958, Dame Ninette de Valois was visiting Turkey where she had founded a ballet school. On the invitation of the Ministry of Culture and Arts, she prolonged her trip in order to visit the National Ballet Academy of Iran and budding company in Tehran. On her return to London, she sent Ann Cox followed by Miro Michael Zolan and his wife Sandra Vane. Later Nicholas Beriozoff, Marion English-Delanian, Richard Brown and finally Robert and Jacqueline de Warren were sent by de Valois to teach and stage dances and short ballets for

522-915: The lessons had ended, initially for some 150 students. His perseverance, energy, and tireless effort made him establish the Tehran Ballet School in 1942 in Tehran . Djanbazian staged many full stage ballets in Iran. As the Encyclopedia Iranica states, these included but are not limited to Alexander Pushkin ’s “Fountain of Baghchehsarai” and “Dreams of Hafez,” and Reinhold Glière ’s “Chinese Flower Girl,” and choreographed shorter ballets such as “Jealousy” (Ḥesādat), “Persian Miniature” (Miniātorhā-ye Irāni), “Anuš,” as well as several classical and traditional Persian dance pieces including “Gol-e gandom,” “Woodchopper” (Tabar-zan), “Sailors” (Malavānān), “Life and Death” (Zendegi va marg, widely known as “Snake Dance” or Raqṣ- mār), “Prayers in

551-562: The mountains” (Raqṣ-e namāz), “Qāli-e Kermān,” and “Šālikāri”. As the Encyclopedia Iranica states, Djanbazian took a great deal of interest in Iranian culture , and tried tirelessly to incorporate Iranian themes and stories in his artistic work. Despite his lack of fluency in Persian , his interest in Persian literature led him, with the collaboration of Ehsan Yarshater , to the production and staging of “Rostam and Tahmina” ballet, based on

580-739: The time) to study dance. He graduated from Vaganova Dance Academy of Leningrad on 14 January 1936 and from Lesgaft University with a Masters of Arts degree on 15 November 1936. After graduation, he worked as a principal dancer, choreographer, and artistic director in Kirov Theatre in Leningrad until July 1938. As the Russian Communist government exercised heavy political pressure on Armenians , Djanbazian left Russia for Iran in 1938, settling in Qazvin . There, he decided to found

609-595: The twentieth century. In 1946, Cram Cook founded the Studio of the Revival of the Iranian Ancient Arts (in Persian : استودیوی احیای هنرهای باستانی ایران ), aiming to revive and restore the “forgotten” ancient Iranian performing arts. Most of the dances were based on Persian history or mythology. An important work by Cram Cook, The Caravan, was developed from a poem by Saadi and was later performed in 1958 by

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638-405: The victorious revolution in the presence of Roudaki Hall's workforce and Ayatollah Mohammad Mofatteh . When he was asked about the fate of ballet in Iran, he replied irately and in no uncertain terms that Islamic Republic and ballet is paradoxical and self-contradictory. The Iranian National Ballet Company was thereafter formally declared as dissolved in 1979. Twenty-three years after disbanding of

667-493: The world were often invited to dance the principal roles of all great classical ballets. In order to keep the high standard of the productions the company relied on guest artists from abroad to perform the leading roles in most work premieres. Jamshid Saghabashi as the golden slave, Avak Abrahamian as Kalif The Iranian National Ballet Company started operating in 1958 with a dozen of dancers. The company grew to approximately 50 dancers, one third of them Iranian natives. The rest of

696-572: Was Madame Yelena (Avedisian), and Sarkis Djanbazian who respectively in 1933 and 1938 organized dance classes in the city of Tabriz and Qazvin. These newcomers expanded the European influenced dance scene in Iran by holding performances and dance classes of various style, including classical ballet, European folk dancing, the European partner dancing, etc. In the early 1940s Nilla Cram Cook , who had vast knowledge in Eastern cultures and languages,

725-586: Was a Russian -born Iranian-Armenian artist. He was the first male ballet master, dancer, choreographer, producer, as well as the founder of a ballet academy in Iran . Sarkis Djanbazian was born in Armavir , then part of the Russian Empire (now Armenia ). As the Encyclopedia Iranica states, from early childhood, Djanbazian took an avid interest in the arts, especially in dance. After graduating from high school, he went to Leningrad (St. Petersburg at

754-537: Was a sister company to the Iranian National Ballet Company using the same dancers to create and stage a nationally inspired repertoire. As institutionalizing ballet and bringing about a professional national ballet ensemble comparable to the ballet companies in the West had become a serious concern for the government, the Iranian monarch Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi had personally asked Dame Ninette de Valois to council on

783-539: Was an American writer, linguist, translator, and arts patron. Nilla Cram Cook was born in Davenport, Iowa , the daughter of playwright George Cram Cook and his second wife, journalist Mollie Anastasia Price. Her father and stepmother Susan Glaspell brought her to Greece as a girl, to study languages and culture there. In 1931, Cook left her husband in Greece and brought her young son to Kashmir , where she became

812-574: Was opened in 1956 in the premises of Tehran's Conservatory of Music. Two years later in 1958, the Iranian National Ballet Company was established with Nejad Ahmadzadeh as its founding director. When the Fine Arts Department of Iran eventually expanded and became The Ministry of Culture and Arts, Nejad Ahmadzadeh was appointed as director of the ballet academy, the ballet company and the National and Folk Music, Song and Dance Ensemble which

841-526: Was serving as the United States cultural attaché at the American Embassy in Tehran. During her time as the US culturаl attaché she became employed at the Ministry of Education and Propaganda, as director general of the Arts Department. Her endeavors and great interest in Persian culture, arts and literature resulted in the realization of the most extensive Iranian national dance project of the first half of

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