This book is a critical study of Iranian dance and the works of Iranian-American female dancers
in exile. Focusing on the study of contemporary Iranian dance through analysis of the
choreographies of three female dancers in diaspora (namely Aisan Hoss Shahrzad Khorsandi and
Banafsheh Sayyad) this research is among the first of its kind. Elaheh Hatami investigates the
transformation of professional Iranian dance and discusses the role of relocation and
displacement in its performance. She argues that Iranian dance and Iranian female dancers have
always been in exile - not only in a physical sense but also in the metaphorical sense of
>exile< implying foreignness exclusion and marginalization.
