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*For her own safety and protection, one of the sources has asked to remain anonymous.

“Dancing is a blessing … It feels like you’re at the center of the universe,” said a 20-year-old female dancer from Iran. 

Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, it has been illegal for women to dance publicly in the country because it is considered to be perverse and immoral, according to the principles of the “cultural revolution.”

However, upon finding a passion for the art form, this woman continues to dance in secret. While dancing may be outlawed for women in Iran, this has not stopped them from searching for ways to practice and teach it. Dance teachers are able to hold classes in underground basements or other secretive locations. However, proper teachers are hard to come by and it is a dangerous study to pursue.

“I’m always nervous about it,” she said. “Whenever I’m going to ballet class, I’m paranoid [that] someone is following me. If someone shows up, I need to be able to run.”

Despite this constant fear, she has continued to train and search for ways to make a lifestyle out of dancing. Two years ago, she decided to apply to universities in the United States to study dance. One of her applications found its way to Giada Matteini, a dance instructor, founder and artistic director of WADE (Wandering Avian Dance Experience), an institution that operates at the intersection of performing arts, activism and social change.

“She sent a video application and I absolutely fell in love with her,” Matteini said. “Not only because of her ability as a dancer, but because of her story.”

Matteini proceeded to reach out to the young dancer, offering her the chance for work with Matteini through a scholarship to a summer program in Italy. However, due to problems with her visa, she was unable to attend. Since then, Matteini has been working with her to find a way to get an education in dance. And once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, all efforts were put on hold. This caused Matteini to become aware of her own privilege amid the increase in violence and injustice against women globally, and she was inspired to create WADE.

“The main interest of WADE is to promote women’s work, to elevate women’s voices, to have a space for women to talk about their experiences,” Matteini said. “We want to fuel systemic cultural change through dance and through music and through conversation in the arts.”

In December, WADE joined the UNITE to End Violence against Women campaign to create the 16-day “WADE into Activism” virtual event series, focusing on activism against gender-based violence. The series consisted of performances, conversations and interviews by artists and activists, including a dance video created by the Iranian dancer.

The dancer’s video brought attention to the gender inequality in Iran and the pain women feel not being able to properly express themselves. “It’s a kingdom for boys here,” the dancer said. “You can’t expose yourself when you go out. You can’t talk like yourself when you go out. You can’t walk like yourself when you go out.” 

Because of the continued struggle for even more basic women’s rights in Iran, the freedom to dance is not at the forefront of rights to reclaim. This dancer believes that many do not think the risk of advocating for women to dance publicly is worth it.

“Dance has been dead here for over forty years and people haven’t realized that [it] has been taken from them,” she said. “We’ve fought for so many basic things for so long, like not wearing a hijab or having the same rights as men. Even those things have gone nowhere.”

Over the past couple months, Matteini has been able to work with universities to give her a space to tell her story and expose her to different dance educators, all in the hopes of finding a way for her to leave Iran and dance freely.

“I want to give her a space to tell her story and keep her engaged because she doesn’t have opportunities to go dance and perform,” Matteini said. “Listening to her story really makes all of us put things into perspective.”

Despite the constant fear, challenges and disappointment, this dancer will not let anything deter her from attaining her dream. “If the whole world can do it, then why can’t I,” she said.

Matteini urges people to become aware of the challenges and injustices women face all over the world and do something about it. “We can open the conversation,” she said. “We can talk about solutions and we can push for things to actually happen.”