Bodrum Ballet Festival begins with Hürrem Sultan show

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

The festival will open with Hürrem Sultan Ballet, which is about Sultan Süleyman’s taking the crown and his love Hürrem. The show will be performed by Istanbul State Opera and Ballet artists. AA photo

Starting from Aug. 7, ballet will reign on Bodrum Castle stage. The 11th International Bodrum Ballet Festival will stage Spartacus, Amazons and Hürrem Sultan shows. The festival will continue until Aug. 21.

The festival will open with Hürrem Sultan Ballet, which is about Sultan Süleyman’s taking the crown and his love Hürrem. The show will be performed by Istanbul State Opera and Ballet artists. The Samsun State Opera and Ballet will present “Bach Alla Turca” on Aug. 10 and 11. The festival will host the Ankara State Opera and Ballet on Aug. 14 with the show “The Amazons.”

One of the foreign ballet troupes at the festival will be the South Korean Universal Ballet, which will present the show “Black Cake, Floresta Tango” on Aug. 17. The festival will end on Aug. 20 and 21 with the Siberian State Ballet’s show “Spartacus.”

Spartacus will be on stage accompanied by composer Aram Haçaturyan’s music. The ballet is about the gladiators and the slaves. Bodrum Mayor Mehmet Kocadon said the town had been presenting itself in recent years through various culture and art events, festivals and concerts. “This is why the International Bodrum Ballet Festival is eagerly awaited by both Turkish and foreign tourists. The municipality did its best to host the best examples of Turkish and international ballet in the town. The festival, organized in one of Turkey’s most popular tourism spots, is the favorite event of Bodrum’s art lovers. We expect that some 20,000 people will attend the festival this year.”

The ballet show “Amazons” is the work of chorographer Nugzar Magalashvili and will be on stage on Aug. 14.

Akbar on the paino

The South Korean Universal Ballet team’s choreographers Hans van Manen, Nacho Duato and Young Soon Hue will be staging the show “Black Cake, Duende, Tango” trio, which tackles the problems facing the society.

Bach Alla Turca, which takes a different approqach to the works of J. Sebastian Bach, will be on stage with Marco Cantalupo and Katarzyna Gdaniec’s choreography and costumes. The musical arrangements will be done by Anjelika Akbar. “Bach La Orientale” is another event that will be on stage. Çağla Şikel will be taking the stage with Mehmet Akatay. Speaking about the festival, Mayor Kocadon said the municipality would bring the best examples of world-renowned ballet repertoires and unique works of Turkish ballet to the town.

State Opera and Ballet General Director Rengim Gökmen said that art lovers found the depiction of the life stories of legendary figures from their own history in opera and ballet fascinating, adding, “Such works enable us to appeal to other audiences besides the classical ballet audiences.”

“For the first time in Turkey, a ballet festival’s tickets have been sold out,” he added.