Bossy boots

I was approached a few weeks ago by one of the teachers at the Conservatoire and he informed me of a Contemporary dance group that wanted me to teach for them. The group seems similar to a society within the university, although the dancers had to audition to gain a place. To begin with there were two groups, Modern Dance and Dance Theatre. This year the two have been merged to create one larger group.
Before teaching all I was told is that some were dancers and some did not have much experience of dance, but they had all been chosen at audition. I created a class of about an hour and a half in length and then thought up a few choreographic tasks to maybe use towards the end of class.
The group was rather big, there must of been around 35/40 students. The studio space was great though and large enough for everyone.
I think I may have set the class at slightly too high a standard, however everyone put it the effort and overall the first class was rather successful. I left a few exercises out as I felt they were too difficult and I also ran out of time so did not work on any choreographic tasks. Last weeks class I continued working on the phrases and exercises from the first class as I wanted the students to get them into their bodies a bit more, enabling them to perform the phrases without me. I also added a couple new phrases in, including a rather difficult traveling phrase which they all seemed to enjoy.
Although I do speak Turkish pretty fluently, teaching dance is completely different. I guess I never realised until now how different dance language is to everyday language that we use! I speak enough Turkish to easily get by day to day but trying to explain that the movement is 'initiated from the hip joint', for example, is another story. This means that teaching contemporary dance here has been more of a challenge than usual, but still just as enjoyable.
Last week, the lovely students had bought me a gift to say thank you (even though I don't feel I have done that much for them yet!). It was a traditional Turkish coffee set which I love. I'm having lots of fun teaching these students and look forward to working with them more during my last couple of weeks here in Izmir.

Traditional Turkish coffee set as a gift from my dance students.

Happy Teachers Day!!

Today all over Turkey Teachers Day is celebrated. Ataturk believed that the 'new generation will be created by teachers', and therefore the 24th November is annually celebrated as Teachers Day. Although the teachers do not get a day off like you might assume, the students show their appreciation is other ways. At The State Turkish Music and Dance Conservatoire, as the teachers entered the classroom all the students clapped and cheered for them.  Then at lunchtime everyone gathered in the theatre. As the teachers walked in everyone created an archway for them to walk through holding sparklers. A short film was played that a few of the students had made, and it included old video footage of the teachers performing in various dance companies along with some photos. Then there was music, cake, drinks and a bit of a dance! 

I think it was such a lovely occasion and I wish it was also celebrated in England. Anyway, just a quick post today but I would like to thank all the teachers I have had over the years, especially the amazing teachers at Roehampton who taught me so much, I am very grateful! X

School Trip, THOF & Film Festival..

So I went on my first compulsory school trip since high school I think!! It was great, as it was a chance for all the students and teachers (who also brought their families along), to get together outside of university hours and in a different environment. We went to watch Izmir Devlet Opera ve Balesi (Izmir State Opera and Ballet) perform Don Kişot. I haven't been to watch a ballet since I was introduced to contemporary dance about 8 years ago. No offense intended to ballet/ballet lovers but I would always much rather spend my time and money watching contemporary dance and choreographers. It was good to watch and obviously the dancers physique and technical ability can only be admired, but 30 minutes in to the two and a half hour show, I felt like I had seen it all. From then onwards it was just like watching the movements on repeat. It made me realise just how much I love contemporary dance and how much I have missed it whilst being in Turkey! However, what was great is that the tickets were really cheap which made it accessible to everyone. It cost 10 Turkish Lira which is about £3.50, and this was standard price. Maybe if it was this cheap back in the UK, I would go more often, but for now I think I will stick to what I know best! 

Izmir Devlet Opera ve Balesi Performing Don Kisot.

On Sunday night I was invited to the Turkish Folk Dance Federation's 10 year anniversary celebrations. It consisted of a performance, among many others things such as speeches and an awards ceremony. The performance saw several different folk dance companies based in Izmir, present short pieces. One of the pieces was performed by some of The State Turkish Music and Dance Consertavoire's students. The standard was extremely high and a particular highlight for me was one of the groups performing Kafkas dance. Kafkas is very technical and requires an enourmous amount of strength. Kafkas dancers also really over-perform the movement (if thats even possible), and the performance element alongside the highly technical movement makes for a very exciting piece of dance. For example, the dancers perform long series of continuous turns and also pike jumps landing straight onto their knees. I find it fascinating how they can train at such a high standard and perform pretty dangerous movements, yet still try to avoid injury. I am definitely going to look into Kafkas a little more and hopefully learn some before I leave Turkey. Here is a little example of the movement material.. 

From 16th-20th November, Izmir hosted the International Short Film Festival. Films were shown each day from 11am until 2am the next morning. Although there were no dance films, it was a really exciting event and a great opportunity to watch films from new, up and coming directors as well as more established ones. The films all ranged from around 3 minutes to 35 minutes. My personal favourite was Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing. I am familiar with Tan's work and illustrations and have read The Lost Thing in the past, so it was great to see the animated film version. The narrator was comedian Tim Minchin which seemed rather fitting. The Lost Thing has such a simple yet lovely story to it and is definitely worth a watch! The trailer is here..

Sari Zeybek

Although in my previous post, Bayram Cancelled, I spoke about the dance performance not going ahead, it actually did end up being performed on 10th November, the anniversary of Ataturk's death. Ataturk was the first President of Turkey and is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey. For that reason he is completely idolised and worshiped all over Turkey. It is hard to go anywhere without seeing his photo, statue or any other form of memorabilia.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

The show mainly consisted of third and fourth year students with a couple of first and second year dancers. It was so good to go along and be a part of it although I was not dancing, and Roarke was also asked to film the performance for the University. A coach picked everyone up from the University and took us to the theatre in which the performance was due to take place. Then food was ordered for everyone and we all sat and ate together. This made it really feel like a dance company on tour together and there was a great atmosphere and sense of excitement all day!

Although I had seen rehearsals and a full run through of the 50 minute dance show, it was truely amazing to watch it in full traditional costume. I was not really expecting to be blown away as I felt I knew the show quite well by the time it came to the actual performance. But the costumes were so elaborate and the combination of the costumes and lights really brought the dance alive! Not to mention the atmosphere in the audience. Abdurrahim, the dance teacher I spoke about in the Muğla blog post, danced as Ataturk and after a long time in make-up the resemblance was uncanny. Every time he came on stage the audience would cheer and applaud. After he danced he got  standing ovation and at the end, he had many people coming up and asking for photos. 


Here is a tiny snippet of the show until the main film has been captured and edited. Unfortunately it is a little wobbly as the tripod was being used for the main camera. At least you can still get an idea..

Zeybek Videos

Here are two of the dances I have learnt in the year 1 Zeybek classes. The first is called Somali and the second is Hazelii. These two dances are fairly contrasting which is unusual for Zeybek as many of the dances have many similarities in the movement material, but also the movement quality and performance. We usually spend about three quarters of the lesson learning a dance and then we practice each dance once at the beginning of every class. We are then expected to rehearse and practice the dances in our own time to perfect them all. As this was filmed during class you can hear the teachers speaking over the music giving corrections.

Ethnography Museum

Dance Costumes in the Ethnography Museum.

Last week whilst my family were visiting, Ocal kindly took us to visit Ege University's Ethnography Museum. I believe it is a fairly new part of the University. Prof. Dr. Cengiz Aydin, Chairman of the Ege University Turkish State Conservatoire, Folk Dance Department, pioneered the research project named, 'The Museum and Archive of Folkloric Musical Instruments, Folk Dance, Traditional Attire and Folk Songs in the Balkans and Anatolia Project', which commenced in 2004. The project aimed to collect samples of folk costumes and musical instruments from past to present.

In the main room of the Museum Traditional Anatolian folk costumes are displayed, as well as weapons and jewellery that were used for dance. All of the costumes have so much intricate detail and it is clear that a huge amount of time and work has gone into each and every one of them. Although in modern day a lot of the costumes are remade for folk dance, they are not nearly as detailed. For example, with the Zeybek costumes, (all male costumes pictured above), in the past the black design on the blue fabric was all hand embroidered. However nowadays the black design is often just cut from one piece of fabric to save time and money. Although many modern replicas are extremely similar to the traditional costumes, its little details like this that make the past outfits even more fascinating to look at.

Folk Dance Costume Shop.

Boots, Headdresses etc.

A few days before visiting the Ethnographic Museum, I accidentally stumbled across a little Folk Dance Costume shop in Izmir. Although it was not open, when I explained to the owner my reason for being in Izmir, he was more than happy to show me around. The shop had all the different folk dance costumes, as well as accessories and shoes. The shoes were all amazing and my sister actually bought a pair of the boots just for everyday wear. They cost 100 Turkish Lira which is about £35. But seeing as the boots are real leather and hand-made, I think they are very reasonable. Obviously all these costumes were the modern day replicas but they were of a fantastic quality.

I am currently writing during my coach journey down south. I am visiting my family in Fethiye as tomorrow is another Bayram. It is a religious festival named Kurban Bayram, or Sacrifice Bayram. Tomorrow many sheep all over Turkey will be slaughtered as a sacrifice to God. Then everyone gets together and has a massive feast eating the meat from the sacrificed animals. Hopefully there will be some dancing too!

Muğla

Every Monday morning after an intense Ballet class, I take Muğla lessons with the third year dance students. Muğla is a southern province of Turkey, and the area I am most familiar with as I have a lot of family there. One of the teachers for Muğla is the oldest teacher at the Conservatoire. I wouldn't like to guess his age but it is clear he is much older than the others. However, he has so much energy and is such a fantastic dancer. He has such high stamina and can out dance all the young students. Also what I like about his classes is often at the end, he will show us videos of some of his own research that he has collected over the years, of dancers and musicians out in the villages. It's great to experience the dance and music first hand and find out where it originates from, and how it is traditionally performed. In this class we have learnt Fethiye and Ölüdeniz dances, which is the town in which I lived for a year and a half when I was seven, and I still visit family there every year. I really enjoyed learning these dances as I felt like I already had some kind of connection with them. 

Ruins in the mountain, Fethiye.

Fethiye harbour by night.

Ölüdeniz beach, Fethiye.

In yesterdays lesson one of the third year male students had received his notice for military service. In Turkey, military service is compulsory for all male citizens, with a few exceptions. The duration has recently been lowered from 18 months to 14 months. Usually if you are in undergraduate study you can postpone it until you have finished, unless you are 29 years or older. Unfortunately this student is 29, and although he tried to appeal, he has been told he must complete his military service now. I could tell he was so distraught at having this news and you can't blame him. He is in the middle of his third year of studying a four year dance course and he now has to leave. Even if he was to return he wouldn't be able to graduate for another four years, with 14 months military service and then third and fourth year to complete. I'm not even sure if this is an option for him. I feel so bad for him and as a dancer I can't imagine anything worse than being told you have to leave your course and you won't be able to dance for 14 months. And there isn't even anything that can be done to prevent it. I'm sure anyone with that much passion for their art form would feel the same!