Tongue of the Invisible

Choreographic and Sonic-Based Performance

Duration: 90 minutes

“I hear the voice of every creature and plant, every world, and sun, and galaxy, singing your name!”
— Hafiz

This performance is a sonic and choreographic process calling Saqi, (one of the most powerful and important figures in Persian mystical poetry, who bridges the two worlds). 

Through the shape, frequency, and temporal quality of the recitation of the words, it resonates in sound, movement, and imagination to access the inherent energy of the poem. 
Through spiral and circular movements, the body resonates with the frequency of sound and the vibrational resonance of poetry to embody the figure of the Saqi.

“Tongue of the Invisible” invites us to extend the boundaries of imagination and perception, forging a relationship with the intangible to experience the Eastern wisdom and the enchantment of the mystical poetry through sound and movement. It explores transformation, spirituality and the formation of languages through harmonic progression.

About the Artists

Rik Masterson - student of Sound and the Mystery of Life. Rooted in Raga singing, the classical vocal music of North India as transmitted to him by his teacher, Pandit Pran Nath, and the study of just intonation, the pure harmonics hidden in each sound, as given by Nature. He strives to realize the unfolding order in the seemingly chaotic world we live in and contribute his little Light to the Illumination of Beauty lying hidden above, below and within.

Rik began his formal study of raga in 1979, eventually becoming a disciple of master Kirana vocalist Pandit Pran Nath. With his guru's passing, Rik carried on his raga singing training with the late Khalifa (hereditary head) of the Kirana Gharana, Ustad Hafizullah Khan and pioneering composer and senior disciple of Pandit Pran Nath, Maestro Terry Riley. From 1994 - 2001, Rik traveled to India annually, to further his studies and understanding of Indian music and culture.

Rik has taught and performed on 4 continents with many great Indian classical musicians and contemporary collaborators, including Fear No Music, The Venerable Showers of Beauty Gamelan, Portland OR and the North American premier of pioneering avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausens’, Ylem.
“Music is that fine sense we call ‘God’ ” - Pandit Pran Nath

Hiva Sedaghat is a choreographer, dance artist, and somatic practitioner from Tehran, currently based in the US and South America. She first encountered contemporary dance through the underground scene in Iran, which gave her the opportunity to weave together her personal, social, and political experiences in interdisciplinary pieces.

Her dance works, Through the Skin, Azi Dahaka, The Sound Sleep Has Been Shattered, and Dance of Eternity, have been presented at festivals across Europe, the Middle East, and New York City. Her artistic journey explores the transcendent power of the body through improvisation, imagination, and transformation, examining alternative ways of togetherness through the interconnectivity of all beings, inspired by Eastern philosophies.
Her recent dance projects draw inspiration from Persian myths and the role of rituals in exploring disorientation and ancestral healing through shared embodied knowledge, tradition, and dance practices.
Her current research project, Majaz, investigates the intersections of dance, imagination, and Persian mystic poetry to develop modalities for accessing somatic intelligence and the imaginal realm of mystics. Engaging with poetry as a pathway, it enters transpersonal states to explore alternative ways of somatic coexistence.