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..
finally!! very good xxx
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