We Came to Dance

With more than thirty years of experience in theater, Ali Asghar Dashti is one of the most active theater directors and educators in Iran. He is co-founder and director of the Don Quixote Theatre Group. During his career, Dashti has directed more than twenty-five productions both in Iran and internationally, earning significant recognition at various international festivals and arts forums. He has taught at Tehran University of Art and has been actively involved as a manager, consultant, and member of arts committees and festivals. His research and writing contributions cover numerous artistic disciplines, including theses, books and articles. Dashti is also an instructor and consultant in theater workshops and seminars, further solidifying his impact on the Iranian theater community. 

Nasim Ahmadpour is a theatre director, playwright, and screenwriter. Over her career, Ahmadpour has down her productions both in Iran and internationally, achieving notable recognition at various international festivals and artistic forums. She co-founded the Don Quixote theatre group in Tehran in 2003. Since then, she has written and/or directed eight plays for the group. In 2018, she was awarded Best Playwright at Tehran’s TIFF. Ahmadpour has co-written scripts for five short films as well as feature films with director Shahram Mokri. Fish & Cat and Careless Crime were screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2014 and 2020, respectively, while Invasion was featured at the Berlin Film Festival in 2018. The Careless Crime screenplay was nominated at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and won the Bisato d’Oro Award for Best Original Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival in 2020. Ahmadpour’s recent screenplays include A Fleeting Encounter, which premiered at the Luxembourg Film Festival, and Black Rabbit / White Rabbit directed by Shahram Mokri currently in Post-production. Her play, The Report on the Judgment Day, was performed in a private underground hall in Tehran, and its text was presented at the Performa Biennale in New York in 2023. We Came to Dance was premiered at Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2024 in Brussels. Her latest work as a director was directing England by Tim Crouch for Albanian theater in North Macedonia, which was premiered on 25 December 2024.