Professional Organizations

The two important associations are CATI (Independent Dance Artists Assoc.- www.cati.org, and CGSG/ ACPAI (Assoc. of Contemporary Performing Arts Initiation- www.cgsg-tr.org- ) which is an umbrella association for contemporary dance and theatre artists, along with venues, scholars and cultural managers who are also members of the association. Since 2007 CGSG/ACPAI tries to build an infrastructure for the contemporary performing arts, also focusing on media visibility, developing relations with local authorities and forming intellectual links to other social and artistic disciplines. It also developed projects to connect other cities of Turkey to the scene, since the above mentioned independent companies, artists, university departments and associations are all based either in Istanbul or Ankara.

boDig is an Istanbul based arts initiative focusing mainly on the issues of the body in contemporary and digital culture. Its artistic understanding has a multidisciplinary scope, bringing a variety of fields together, like dance, performance, plastic arts, design, architecture, new media, engineering and medicine, in order to bring forth a reflection and artistic creation around the issues of the body in its contemporary and technological context (www.bodig.org).

BIS – Body Process Arts Association is another Istanbul-based initiative that aims to explore artistic forms of expression at the conjunction of the body and the digital process. It was founded in 2007 as an association by a team of researchers and artists from disciplines such as dance, performance, design, the social sciences and engineering. The founders of Amber came together in order to create a local discussion and production platform on art and technology in a globalized world which in itself is transformed by new technologies (amberPlatform and other Amber projects initiated and run by BIS (www.amberplatform.org).

Bimeras was established by artists and scholars of contemporary dance and performance. It launched IstanbulReconnects with a six hour marathon program presenting more than 20 artists during the IETM plenary meeting in 2006. It also introduced the international contemporary dance festival iDANS to Istanbul (www.bimeras.org). Dans Bulusma was established in 2002 by contemporary dance performer Aytül Hasaltun and graphic artist Kemal Bozkurt. They provide educational opportunities both for adults and children (www.dansbulusma.com). Adding to these initiatives, the creation of mail groups had far reaching effects on the contemporary dance scene. The common mail group of dance artists (danslistesi@yahoogroups.com) had an important impact on the exchange of information and ideas, and also functions as a discussion platform.

As a result of these initiatives and networks one can perhaps argue that despite all the difficulties, in the last five years Turkish choreographers are better connected to the international dance field, hence relatively much more visible than before.