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Cyrus is majoring in Biology with hopes of one day practicing medicine in the service of the LGBTQ community. He entered into the world of dance as a freshman on Common Origins, a non-audition Hip hop team on campus, and quickly fell in love. Since then he has trained with several on and off campus teams, culminating in serving as the Artistic Director of Dv8 over the last year. He is a strong believer that dance is not only infectious, but a universal language, capable of communicating anything from the mundane to the profound. There is no time he lives more for the present moment than while dancing, an experience he can most closely describe as spiritual.

Cyrus Mirzazadeh

Perspective

Altering our consciousness has been part of human existence since the beginning of time. This is evidenced by prehistoric art found in Guatemala, Egypt, and Greece, to name a few. In fact, some communities did and do regard drugs like tobacco, ayahuasca, MDMA, and psychedelics as sacred. These communities often report experiencing spiritual revelations, establishing more genuine connections with others, undergoing personal growth, and reaching enlightenment as a result of their drug use. However, today’s Western cultural standpoint dictates that drug use is deviant, dangerous, and indicative of weak moral character.

As with most widely held cultural beliefs, this rhetoric is not necessarily unfounded. When abused, drugs can lead to disconnecting with reality, avoidance of one’s problems, loss of agency, brain damage, and even death.

This piece broaches the taboo topic of drug use at Stanford through dance. Specifically, it aims to explore students’ motivations behind using drugs. The movement is inspired by a series of interviews with current students, and informed by research on the neurochemical mechanism of action behind the drugs mentioned. Perspective calls for the audience to do away with pre-conceived thoughts about the topic. Approaching the work with a clean slate will enable the viewer to re-form a viewpoint on drug use, whether positive, negative, or a mix of both, independent of polarized rhetoric.

While watching, I encourage the viewer to reflect on who dictates societal perceptions of drug use, who benefits from the system, and what its ultimate goal is. I invite them to openly question both the piece and their own beliefs, in the hopes of walking away with a nuanced perspective.

Special thank you to Erich Peske and Phil Delrosario for their help creating the mix for and shooting the piece. Thank you to Sue, Andrew and all of TSR for being there from day one to now. Lastly, this project would not be possible without my respondents, who will remain unnamed, and the dancers: Sharleen Tu, Elijah Williams, LQ Lee, and Mia Diawara. THANK YOU!

You can watch the film online here.