The Boy Who Danced On Air is a modern-day love story set in rural Afghanistan. Paiman and Feda have spent their young lives as dancers in the world of bacha bazi, where wealthy men take in boys from poor families, train them to dance at parties, and often abuse them. The two boys’ chance meeting changes the course of their lives and sets them on a journey to find their independence in this musical fable about love, tradition, morality and the strength of the human spirit.

In The Boy Who Danced on Air Jonathan Raviv and Troy Iwata play unlikely lovers, given their characters are bound by an ancient tradition that combines slavery, dance and pedophilia. Raviv plays Jahandar, an Afghan man who practices bacha bazi, which sees him procure the services of teenaged Paiman (played by Iwata) who dances for him and fulfills the sexual needs forbidden for men to have with unmarried women, in exchange for dance training and a life of limited “privilege” within the rules of their society. Rather than shock us with sensationalism, the show’s creators, Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne, have crafted a complex piece which forces us to deal with cultural differences without the “benefit” of having a white savior to guide us through. The musical challenges audience members without forgoing the parameters of the medium, meaning it works perfectly as a musical, and as an anthropological study. Given the characters in the play see the world in a unique way, notions of homosexuality and love have nothing to do with anything we associate them with, giving the actors the opportunity to explore a relationship between two men in which eroticism and brutality live side by side. R …Read more