Elnaz Sheshgelani

Elnaz Sheshgelani is a dancer, dance researcher, storyteller, director, puppeteer, and educator. She holds a PhD in Performing Arts where she explored Naghali (a largely lost form of Persian dramatic storytelling) and used ancient illustrations to creatively reconstruct a vocabulary of Persian storytelling gestures. Elnaz is deeply interested in the performative aspects of communication and has focused on reconstructing and choreographing Persian body movement vocabularies. Elnaz has creatively reconstructed and documented the gestural aspects of Persian dramatic storytelling so that Naghali can be revived, thereby averting its complete extinction.