Three-ballet medley flits onto IDOB stage
ISTANBUL
The Istanbul State Opera and Ballet (IDOB) will perform a medley of three one-act ballets this season.
Choreographer Orkan Dann’s neoclassical ballet “Spring,” Deniz Özaydın’s modern ballet “Nox” and Uğur Seyrek’s modern ballet “Four Seasons” will be offered as trio for all of May.
Including three ballets allows all of the company’s dancers to appear onstage, Seyrek said in an interview with the state-run Anadolu Agency.
“The advantage of three ballets is that you have opportunity to show the potential” of dancers, he said. “You don’t have this much chance in classical ballets.”
Seyrek’s work depicts the four seasons of love.
“We are telling the best times of love in spring. Then, in summer, trust and dreams are growing. When it comes to autumn, the sweet habits turn into routine, causing little conflicts between man and woman. Finally in winter, lovers break up. The life has a circle and we are telling it,” Seyrek said.
Dann’s ballet, “Spring,” is accompanied by Sergey Rachmaninoff’s String Quartet No: 2.
“When you make your choreography, you have an idea, and it is given shape in parts. Finally, you have a choreography. Imagine that this is like a puzzle. I prepared the pieces at first and then tried to see how they work together,” Dann said.
This is his first time to stage a ballet in Turkey. He complimented the IDOB dancers for being ambitious, optimistic and fast learners. Özaydın’s “Nox” explores how people can coexist happily.
“In the work, we will see how this changes with the ambitions and the idea that possessing is superior to sharing,” Özaydın said.
The three ballets premiered on April 27 and take the stage again on May 3, 4, 7, 21 and 25 at the Kadıköy Süreyya Opera Stage.
The nearly 45-minute ballet is performed by dancers Asena Ökte, Cem Çelik, Hüma Ersel Sökmen, Cem Bezirganoğlu, Deniz Kılınç Tunçeli, Deniz Özaydın, Melike Koper, Çağatay Özmen, Julia Hartman, Olcay Tunçeli, Maia İto, Alican Güçoğlu, İlke Kodal, Berfu Elmas and Mehmet Nuri Arkan.