Ankara Modern Dance Team returning to past glory

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

MDT will show new works to the audience of Ankara in the new season. Hürriyet photo

Ankara State Opera and Ballet’s Modern Dance Group (MDT) aims to win the organization’s old audience back with its new season’s program, featuring classic shows such as “Bolero” and “The Rite of Spring.”

MDT once enjoyed an enormous following, but this audience has declined recently. It hopes to regain some of its old popularity with the new program.

In the new season, MDT will be showing new works to the audience, Art Director Yener Turan told Anatolia news agency.

The group has staged “The Beginning” since the beginning of the 2011-12 season, while “Bolero” and “The Rite of Spring” are new additions to the program. The premier of the season was made with the “The Color of the Night.”

“The new shows attract a lot of people,” he said, adding that these shows would be staged until the end of the season.

For a while the theater experienced some hard times and lost its audience, Turan said, adding that the group’s aim was to win its audience back with the new shows. “This season our premier show, ‘The Color of Night,’ was very popular. The audience reacted very well to this show,” he said.

“We have started with the most attractive shows. ‘Bolero,’ ‘The Color of the Night’ and ‘The Rite of Spring’ draw huge attention. Thanks to these three major works, we will win our old audience back,” said Turan.

“Our aim is to reach an even larger audience and we are planning to stage a new premier on March 29,” said Turan. The premiere will be William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with original choreography created by Hans Henning Paar. “This will be the highlight of the season,” said Turan.

Celebrating the 20th year

Turan said the team also had national and international tour dates. “We will visit Bolu, Eskişehir, Kayseri and Sivas. … We are communicating with Germany and the negotiations are still going on, and we are also planning to go on a tour in Italy.” The group is also set to feature in the Sarajevo Winter Festival with “The Color of the Night.”

This year MDT will be celebrating its 20th year, and Turan said he felt 20 years was a long time for Turkey. “We started in 1992 and the active shows started to be staged in 1993. I was a dancer in the first team,” he added.

“In the past we visited universities to try to present modern dance and raise awareness. This was our mission,” Turan said. “After those days, ‘Modern Dance’ departments began to open in the universities and we finally reached what we always dreamt of.”
Now, many young members come from those university departments, he added.
“In our 20th year we would like to thank to our audience and we would also like to give a plaque to those who work in modern dance,” Turan said.
Turan admitted, however, that the Modern Dance Team sometimes experienced problems in the state staff. “This is a common problem of all state opera and ballet dancers. There are many people who are dancing with the visitor staff, but who deserve to be state staff,” he said.