Photo: Simon Ellis.
Dancer: Kimberley Collins in 'White Wash (2011)', Choreographed by Ceyda Tanc.
Photo: Robyn Cabaret.
So here goes my first post... My name is Ceyda Tanc. I recently graduated with a BA (Hons) in Dance Studies from Roehampton University. I am trained in contemporary dance, particularly Limón, Graham, Cunningham and Release techniques. I had an amazing time at Roehampton and feel like I learnt so so much. During my third year I was lucky enough to gain places on the Performance & Repertory course as well as Third Row Dance Company. This gave me the opportunity to perform in works by many professional choreographers such as, Jack Webb, Rachel Birch-Lawson, Renaud Wiser, Joe Moran and Jia-Yu Corti (Photo above).
Also during my third year I Choreographed White Wash (2011) as part of my undergraduate dissertation. I wanted to carry out an investigation into creating a contemporary dance piece with influence of traditional Turkish folk dance, in particular, Zeybek Dance. I have always trained in contemporary dance and being half Turkish, I was keen to bring my contemporary dance training and Turkish heritage together, and challenge myself to approach traditional folk dance movement material as a contemporary choreographer. Although I did not set out with any future intentions, I soon found that this process was extremely interesting to me and I wanted to continue exploring the way in which Zeybek dance can enrich contemporary movement vocabulary.
So that brings me me to where I am now... In Turkey to be precise! Luckily during my dissertation Mehmet Öcal Özbilgin was visiting Roehampton University from Turkey. Öcal is a professor in the Turkish Folk Dance Department at the State Turkish Music Conservatory, University of Ege, in Izmir, and he specialises in Zeybek dance. Not only did Öcal give me guidance for my dissertation, he also, knowing that I was keen to continue my research, invited my to spend a term studying traditional Turkish folk dance at the Conservatoire.
