On Sunday the 22nd of March 2015 DIWAN celebrated the beginning of spring and the beginning of the iranian new year in the rooms of Sartory in the city of Cologne.
At the beginning of our New Year’s festival the DIWAN-Choir appeared. “Singing in Persian… and walking down the sweet memory lane.” Under the leadership of the sophisticated singing coach Mr. Sharifi, the group sang the following songs:
“Gole Pamchal” (Common primrose)
“Sharghie Ghamgin” (Sad Eastern Man)
“Gole Gandom” (Bluebottle)
“Dokhtare BoyerAhmadi” (Girl from Boyer-Ahmad)
“Raghse Shekufeh” (The blossom’s dance)
“Porsun Porsun” (Asking and asking)
By the appearance of Pu from RebellComedy the audience witnessed a young and honest standup comedian, who considers himself being an iranian in Germany and Iran.
Before break the play “Nane Sarma va Amu Norouz” was acted by the two young DIWANis Nila and Nazanin. Although in this year Amu Norouz also couldn’t make it to wake up Nane Sarma, he had a good surprise for the children. Gifts!!!
Before the main program the DIWAN members Dr. Navid Kermani and Caroline Schreiber came on stage to tell the meaning of the Nouruz festival and its special rituals from their point of view.
After that the main program began. Powerful and poignant tunes by the Barbad-project combined with the beautiful dance moves of Shahrokh Moshkin-Ghalam.
Once again he showed, how dance can be the philosophy of a person’s life. This iranian dancer ecstasized the audience with his choreographies from the traditions of his homeland by a mixture of flamenco, Sufi-rituals and indian dances. The cast of the Barbad-project was:
Ali Reza Mehdi (Kamancheh), Arjang Ala Alahi (Daaf), Hossain Baharbin (singer), Navid Mohsenipour (oboe), Hamid Mohsenipour (percussion, flute, Tombak), Reza Mohsenipour (composition, arrangements, Tar, Setar and Saz).
Before vacating the stage the founding members of DIWAN Golineh Atai and Ali Samadi Ahadi came on stage first to thank all freinds who had worked hard for months to realize this event and second to tell the audience the philosophy and motives of DIWAN once again.
At the end DJ Peyman put on some rhymes and we ALL tried to move according to that.
Lateron we asked people from the audience to tell us their impressions. And here is the answer of someone who had celebrated with us:
“I’m very happy and I feel honored to have celebrated the iranian Nouruz-festival 1394/2015 with the DIWAN.
In the last years I’ve been a lot on the way in the green continent, especially in beautifal Germany, with its rational people. During these trips I’ve always been wondering: How can people, especially young people with iranian roots, who are living far away from the homeland of their parents, manage to find a path between these two cultures and how do the parents handle this situation? This Nouruz-festival which was organized by DIWAN used to answer my question in an impressive manner.
This event showed me, that trying to build a bridge between the two cultures has worked very well.
The youths know both the german and the iranian culture and they enjoy the advantages of both cultures.
Of course this situation gives the people (both the hosts and the guests) the opportunity to get rid of burdensome and awkward traditions and to find new alternatives in other cultures.
I think that DIWAN can solve this problem of the two cultures with its openminded point of view by unifying with a great result. And this feature makes DIWAN unique.
Photo Gallery
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