Director and player of Dammam of “Leymer Folk Music and Dance Group of Bushehr” since 1991 is Mr. Mohammad Reza Beladi and he has performed with the Ensemble at famous festivals in many countries such as Germany, Yemen, Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Switzerland, Croatia, South Korea, Qatar, Dubai, Russia and Morocco.
Genres of dance in Iran vary depending on the area, culture, and language of the local people, and can range from sophisticated reconstructions of refined court dances to energetic folk dances. The population of Iran includes many ethnicities, such as Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Turkmen, Jews, Armenian, Georgian peoples, in addition to numerous Iranian tribal groups which can be found within the borders of modern-day Iran. Each group, region, and historical epoch has specific dance styles associated with it.
Iran possesses four categories of dance and these genres are: chain or line dances, solo improvisational dance, war or combat dances and ritual or spiritual dances.
The style of dance found in most cities is called ‘raghs’ (also spelled raqs) or ‘gher dadan’ in Persian. Most Persian dancing is highly individualistic and relies on solo improvisation in the performance. Typically, in raghs dancing, the upper body motion is emphasized, along with hand motions, hip undulations and facial expressions being points of attention. It is often compared to Arabic dance however Persian raghs are very distinct, due to its signature hand movements, and slow circular hip movements as opposed to the rapid hip movements used in Arabic dancing.