Vahid is an Iranian-Danish award-winning filmmaker and theatre director based in the UK. He was born in Iran and worked there as an artist until 2001 when he went to Denmark to study with Eugenio Barba and Odin Teatret. Vahid has studied with a number of masters including Augusto Boal (Theater of the Oppressed), Akira Matsui (Noh), Augusto Omolú (Orixa Dance), Thomas Leabhart (Mime) etc. Vahid directs and produces artistic, cultural and socially relevant international projects that challenge the states quo both artistically and they way they are produced. He specializes in training performers (actors and dancers) with the method of Formative Theater he has developed since 2006. He has studied political science and economics at Copenhagen Business School and Multimedia Design at Copenhagen Technical School. He was on the board of directors and is now an expert at Roberto Cimetta Fund (an international association for arts mobility). Vahid is the artistic director of Counter Institute as well as the the creative and business leader of Vee Evazz Artisan Food Experiment. Vahid was a member of the Advisory Board of IETM between 2016 and 2019 and a member of the IETM IDEA group.
“I found what I saw fascinating and original.”
– David Lan, former director of Young Vic (London)
HamletZar was an international research, exchange and education performance project that set the first step stone for the notion of pre-formance. The project set Hamlet in a Middle Eastern Zar ceremony and explored questions of citizenship, migration and refugees. The project included a series of workshops, masterclasses and work demonstration which developed from 2008 – 2011 throughout 7 residencies in the UK, Denmark, Greece, Canada, Lebanon etc. HamletZar was funded by National Lottery through Arts Council England, The Danish Art Council and in partnership with Goldsmiths, Odin Teatret, The Barbican Center, Laboratoriet, Modern Times Stage Co, Visiting Arts, Maqamat, Dance Base and many more.
The Maids is a pre-formance based on Jean Genet’s play, adapted to the a number of social and historical contexts in Turkey, China etc., dealing with issue of mater/slave relation. The adaptations were made possible by employing local artists in each country and conducting Fieldwork sessions with citizens of each city. The Maids was a Swedish, Turkihs and Chinese coproduction trhough a partnership between The Counter Institute, Penghao Theater (Beijing), Teater Sláva (Stockholm) and A Corner in the World Festival (Istanbul).
Uncle Fool is the latest and the smallest pre-formance project of The Counter Institute. A collaboration between Chinese, Danish, Greek and Russian artists, hosted by Sydhavn Teater in Copenhagen during winter and spring 2018. The project served as a very important mile stone in defining many details of the system of Formative Theater and pre-formance.
“Vahid's workshops were a very valuable introduction to a mode of working that I have not experienced before. I am highly intrigued and want to explore more.”
– Rosalind Parker, performer (UK)
“It really was a profoundly inspiring and enriching experience. It made me rethink many aspects of my practice and I know that it will have a deep influence on my work.”
– Guillaume Bernardi, opera director (Italy)
“It was a pleasure to go on some very useful journeys with you. I particularly responded to the voice exercises - I don't think I've ever connected so deeply with my voice.”
–Steve Loader, performer (UK)
"...a complex workshop, involving the whole body and mind, including so many elements which a performer needs. Especially the preciousness of the movement, working with the memory, imagination, use of the rhythm, to be able to do a quick response/reflex, to be able to combine text and movement etc.”
– Tereza Havlickova, performer (Czech Republic)
