
Foreign Sleep by Lilian Nejatpour
Foreign Sleep (2019) is a revised iteration of the original Choreophobia performance by artist Lilian Nejatpour. The performance borrows its name from the theory of dancer and choreographer Anthony Shay, who examined the intervening occurrence of colonialism and Western thought on Middle Eastern dance practices. Shay articulates Western involvement in the Middle East as transforming gender and sensuality in non-Western male bodies, arguing that this interference influenced a phobia toward transgressive and fluid forms of gender display.