Schedule

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026

9:00- 10:30 - 1. Keynote Speaker

Tala Jarjour  

Visiting Research Fellow  King's College London

11:00-12:30 - 2. Rhythmic non-Dance Movement in Spiritual Contexts

Sinibaldo De Rosa

When Patterned Movement is Not Dance: The Alevi Semah as Non-Dance, Devotion, and Commemoration

Suchismita Ghoshal

Veiled Sensualities: The Aesthetics of Concealment, Desire, and Sacred Movement in Moroccan Sufi Performance 

Narciss Sohrabi

Layered Devotions: Sound, Movement, and the Transformation of Ritual Practices in Yazd

12:30 – 2:00 - Lunch

2:00 – 3:30 - 3.  Movement, Mourning and Spiritual Experience

Hakim Elnazarov 

The Funeral Dance Poyamal and its Spiritual Meanings among the People of the Pamir Mountains

Maryam Rezaee

Dancing Through Loss: Mourning, Memory, and Resistance in Contemporary Iran

Banafshe Amiri

The Body Remembers First: Sound, Movement, and Lived Spirituality in Contemporary Iran

4:00 – 5:30 - 4. States of Transformation in Classical and Contemporary Performance Traditions 

Shahrzad Khorsandi

Hal, Improvisation and the Spiritual Conceptualization of Time

Anthony Shay

Staging Spirituality, Innocent Sexualities, and Glorious Histories: Choreographic Strategies of State Folk Dance Ensembles to Create Idealized National Identities

Daryoush Mohammad Poor

From the Elite to the People: The Choreographic Evolution of Meshkatian and Shajarian’s Masterpieces in Post-Revolutionary Iran

Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026

9:00 – 10:30 - 5. Performance Culture and Theatrical Arts

Walid Ghali 

From Zawya to Stage. The Performance of Devotion in Egypt

Afshin Derakh'shesh

The Emergence of New Dance in Iran: from Denigration of Old Dance and Movement Forms to Fusion

Suhaila Salimpour

Sacralizing the Stage: Spirituality and Respectability in Belly Dance

11:00 – 1:00 – 6.  Devotional Music and Dance, and Sacrality of Space 

Nida Fatima Sheikh

When Movement Becomes Divine: Music, the Body, and Devotion in the Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ and the Chishtiyya Sufi Order

Shafaat Saleem 

Dhamaal – Rhythmic Dhikr at the Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar

Carolina Grandela Tortuero

The Relationship between African Sufism and Candomblé through Dance

Wajiha Naqvi

Sounding Lineage: Qawwali, Sama, and the Ritual Assemblage of Devotional Sound

1:00 – 2:00 - Lunch

2:00 – 4:00 - 7. Transmission of Knowledge about Performance Traditions 

Katia Chaterji

To ‘Move like Water’: Narrating the Past and Performing the Future through Malay Muslim Zapin Dance

Riaz Rhemetula

The Performing Arts and the Education about Muslims: A Case Study of “kathak dance”/Storytelling and the Body as a Place of Knowledge Creation, Understanding, and the Engagement with Audiences.

Sayed Munir Shah

A Step Towards Contextualisation of the IIS-SC: Integrating Performative Central Asian Qasidakhani Tradition into Teaching Learning Practices in The Region

Chorshanbe Goibnazarov

Living the Qasīda: Music, Faith, and Everyday Devotion in Wakhan, Tajikistan

4:30 – 6:00 – 8. Traditional Performance and Musical Transformation

Abdulmamad Iloliev

The ‘Mongol Play’ (Mughul-bozi): A Traditional Musical of Wakhan

Maruf Noyoft 

Raqs-i Aspak (Horse Dance)

Qudsia Naunehal Shah

Breaking the Silence: Women, Religion, and Musical Transformation in Hunza Valley

8:00 - 9:30 pm Music and Dance Concert 

(at IIS in Kensington)

Friday, Oct. 30.

9:00 – 10:30 - 9. Staging the Spiritual and Golden Eras

Roberta L. Dougherty

“O Honored and Esteemed Isis”: Imagining Ancient Spectacle for Egypt’s Modern State

Maria Faidi

Stars, Dreams and Djinns in Egyptian Golden Age cinema (1940s-1960s)

Naiara Müssnich Rotta Gomes de Assunção

From Samia Gamal to Farida Fahmy: Dance and National Representation in Nasser’s Egypt

11:00-12:30. New Perspectives in Dance and Music Studies

Idris Ersan KÜÇÜK 

Ethnochoreohistory: A Critical Reframing

Bayu Elton Muloko 

Collective Rhythm: Embodied Synchronization and Communal Cohesion in Timorese Gong and Drum Ritual Music

12:30 – 1:30 Lunch

1:30 – 3:00 – 11. Publishing Roundtable

Eileen Srebernik, Roberta L. Dougherty, Anthony Shay

3:00 – 3:30

Closing remarks

Please do check this section regularly for further information.