TR + NL collaborations

In the last three years, we witnessed that Turkish contemporary dance and theatre works begin to travel in large numbers to the Netherlands. This is largely due to IKSV’s “Turkey Now” project, which is held approximately every two years in Holland. In 2007, the Taldans Company performed Solum and the Ankara State Ballet, Spring Tango (along with theater companies DOT and Dostlar Company) in De Baile. In 2008, Garajistanbul’s several productions of dance and theater travelled through the cities of Rasa, Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Den Haag (www.garajistanbul.com.tr). In 2009, ZTDP performed in Amsterdam in the context of “Turkey Now” project and Taldans visited Rotterdam again with their latest work doKUMAN. In 2010, IDT+ (Istanbul Dance Theater) is collaborating with Jack Gallagher, (it is a work in progress started in 2008) to premiere BeHold in the context of Dance Platform Istanbul in September, Dutch tour to follow. (Further info: www.bodiesanonymous.nl).

Apart from the above there are recent performances of Turkish dance students studying in dance academies in Netherlands. Gizem Bilgen is one of them, graduated from Codarts-Rotterdam Dance Academy. In 2008, she worked in Guerilla Project Dansweek, De NWE VORST, Tilburg, s.p.a.c.i.n.g (solo), De NWE VORST, Tilburg and ParkDans Festival Eindhoven. In 2009, she was in zeropoint (group piece), Akademietheater, Fontys Dansacademie, in femella (site-specific), ParkDans Festival Eindhoven, Eindhoven, in toss (group piece), Akademietheater, Rotterdam Dansacademie and U-Theatre Studio T, Universiteit Utrecht. In 2010, she worked in Ingress / Blind Date Project, Rotterdamse Dansacademie, the Utrecht School of Music and Technology, Utrecht School of the Arts and the Academie of fine Arts Minerva, Groningen and in Body Building / Instillation Performance Corporation with visual artist Henrik Vibskov, Museum Night, NAI, Architecture Museum of Rotterdam. Gonca Gümüşayak, a graduate of Artez Dance Academy in 2008, performed in various dance pieces in Netherlands. ayak-ta monoloG (on foot- monoLOGUE) created in Amsterdam, performed in Istanbul, 2006. Home-logue, in Arnhem Artez Dance Academy in 2006-07 andTurn A-round… SOONer or LATEr in 2007, Arnhem. Sezi Yamac is a student at Fontys Dansacademie and works in some mainstream projects and pop events (www.sezita.com).

Unfortunately there isn’t any visibility in Turkey about Turkish folk dance practitioners who live and perform extensively in Netherlands. This may also due to the separation of folk dance field from the contemporary performing arts in general.