please consider this article about The Iraqi National Folklore Group (the country’s famed national dance troupe).

Here’s the deal:

BAGHDAD, Oct. 29 — … Each turn of the hip and dip at the waist in their choreographed pieces has become weighted with a dangerous new reality … In today’s Iraq, with conservative religious parties and radical militias exerting growing influence over every aspect of life, even dancing is an act of bravery.

“Society is overwhelmed by these religious ideologies,â€� said Tariq Ibrahim, a male dancer in the Baghdad troupe, the Iraqi National Folklore Group. “Now a woman on the street without a head scarf attracts attention. What about a woman onstage dancing?â€�

Together they are a band of 10 women and 15 men from varied religious backgrounds. Once they toured the world together. Today they are simply trying to survive, hoping one day to thrive again as a troupe. But the religiosity sweeping Iraq does not bode well for their future.

It’s just so … basic. Here are some more excerpts from this unusually poetic, sad & groovy article:

Recently one of its members, Bushra Yousif, 21, a petite woman with delicate features who has been with the group for six years, received a note at home warning her to leave within 48 hours. A bullet was included in the envelope.

She was probably singled out because of her profession, she said, but she will continue to attend rehearsals every day. She loves dancing too much, she said describing it as the highest form of art to “deliver a message through your body.â€�

“Dying for this group would be like being martyred,â€� she said, adding that it is a risk she accepts.

And this:

“It should be like this,â€� Liqaa Shukr said, demonstrating with plenty of gyrating flourish. “Instead it is like this,â€� she said, switching to the languid movements they wound up performing.

And this:

Rana Anwar, who successfully auditioned for a spot in the troupe three months ago, has let her neighbors and friends continue to believe that she is still a student at a tourism institute in Baghdad.

“It is very hard with what’s going on to become a dancer,â€� she said. “But my main goal is to show Iraq is not a backward country. Iraqi people like to dance, they like to sing.â€�

So the dancers continue to practice daily in front of empty seats at the National Theater in central Baghdad. The dilapidated hall has become their sanctuary from the country’s tumult.

Can On the Boards please book these people? Now.