The Dérive is a multi-media project which embraces live performance and film. In her performance, Tanin invites the audience to travel with her to an honest image of her own country, come back home again and face the reality of the moment, exploring social and cultural issues. What happens that we feel we belong to a place and a culture? How does society influence us? If it is more than one culture that we are influenced by, how do we manage to find our very own identity? The camera follows her in an old bazaar and a mosque in Tehran, capturing the reactions of common people to a dancing body in Iran where self-expression with dance is concerned inappropriate which brings so many layers and questions with itself. Culture, identity and place…
In The Dérive, Tanin acknowledges the very important role of the society in people’s lives, but she also tries to talk about individuals. The influence of individuals in a society and how they can make changes around them, as she does in the film, and hopefully with carrying her story and her live performance in new places.