Saman Mahdavi (Tehran) is a choreographer inspired by the body’s capacity to achieve resistance ,their practice moves between choreography of images , text, movement, and memories . They use the body as a site of transformation, rupture, and return. Navigating with ancient wisdom and contemporary crises, tracing how bodies, landscapes, and histories are continually shaped, undone, and reimagined.

Saman analyzes political urgencies , memories , and the earth as deeply interconnected forces between all living entities . They explore bodily and territorial memory through existential poetics of black gold (oil) fossils and the static of martyrdom. Movement becomes a vessel for dramaturgy of emotions, honouring both what persists and what dissolves.

Their choreography functions as a living archive shaped by friendship, shared histories, and collective transformations .Through performative and collaborative processes, they  learn care, transmission, and communal becoming, revealing how the past remains active within the present .

Mahdavi studied Theatre at the Art University of Tehran and Choreography at SNDO. They work and invest in cultural exchange across the SWANA region and Europe.