SAAL Biennaal 2025 | Sepideh Khodarahmi´s workshop: The Erotic Clown
Friday 22. August at 15:00 - Saturday 23. August at 18:00
The two-day workshop takes place at 15-18 on both days
Kanuti Guild Hall, Tallinn
The Erotic Clown is a movement-based workshop for exploring choreographies of erotica through the lenses of destruction, sensuality, comedy and disgust. The participants receive tools and methods departing from Sepideh Khodarahmi’s artistic practices within rhythm-based movement from club dance styles, “Sex-Siren” and hyper-gendered drag-practices.
During the workshop we play with tools of destruction, seduction and hapticality in order to expand what ‘the erotic’ may be.
We explore gazing and being gazed at in relation to inanimate objects.
We grind, shake and wind our hips.
We move sensually to silly songs.
We invent and create rituals as a gateway into what a queer articulation of pleasure could be.
We explore destruction as a gateway to reconstruction.
We dive deep into the choreography of erotica to see if there are any jokes there.
The two-day workshop is aimed at participants who have an artistic practice, although it doesn’t necessarily need to be in the performing arts.
Sepideh Khodarahmi (b. 1992) is an iranian actor, dancer, choreographer, and video artist whose work interrogates themes of eroticism, queerness, power, and embodied transformation Combining rhythm-based movement, club dance styles, and hyper-gendered drag practices, they create performances that are kitschy, sexy, and trashy—while also deeply poetic and intimate. Their practice navigates the complexities of self-objectification, power dynamics, and absurdity, while questioning the limits of embodiment and spectatorship. At the heart of Khodarahmi’s work is an exploration of intimacy—not just as love or connection, but as a space where grief, seduction, and joy collide, especially in the context of queer bodies finding new ways to express vulnerability, desire, and loss.
Khodarahmi holds a BA in Acting from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg and has studied at the Department of Mathematics at Stockholm University, Broadway Dance Center, and the Mime School at the Amsterdam Academy of Theatre and Dance. Drawing from this diverse background, they approach performance as a site for both physical and intellectual inquiry.
Throughout their career, Sepideh has collaborated with influential figures such as Hooman Sharifi, Marina Abramović, and Meg Stuart. Their performances have been featured on renowned stages including Sophiensaele (Berlin), The National Royal Theatre of Sweden, Teatro Nacional D. Maria II (Lisbon), and Kiasma, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki.
Kanuti Guild Hall • Pikk tänav 20, 10133 Tallinn, Harju maakond, Estonia
