In this chapter, I argue that for several reasons dance and movement, as nonverbal forms of expression, can provide insights other fields of research cannot. Dance and other patterned movement practices constitute a nonverbal form of expressions of individual and group identities that can be investigated with intellectual profit to provide a deeper understanding of Iranian society. In this chapter, I analyze several genres of dance and other patterned movement practices because the body and the systematic movement patterns it performs, both dance and non-dance patterned movement practices, like those performed in the zur-khaneh, constitute a unique symbolic system with profound cultural meanings in Iranian society. I argue that in public performances, dance forms a field of representation deeply saturated with cultural meaning, whether valorizing the nation state by embodying idealized gender behavior in Iranian society in performances of the former state-sponsored Mahalli Dancers ensemble and the Iranian National Ballet, or performing society’s “lower” other, such as performances of female dancers in scanty clothing seen in Pahlavi-era filmfarsi cinema, beginning in the 1950s, ru-howzi performances of the dancing black-face clown, or the historic performances of boy dancers (bacheh raqqas) that were common until the end of the Qajar period and beyond, and which generated both desire and powerful choreophobic reactions. Each of these genres provide important aspects of human behavior that dance and other movement systems can elucidate that written sources cannot.