Troupe celebrating a milestone

ANTALYA - Anatolia News Agency

The Fire of Anatolia dance troupe is celebrating the staging of its trailblazing 500th performance, having attracted 1.5 million foreign and local spectators to its portrayals of Black Sea, Aegean, Mediterranean and Southeast Anatolian tales of love, pain and happiness.

The group has developed a great deal in its four years at Gloria Aspendos Arena, Fire of Anatolia lead dancer Perit Kuban Yançatoral recently told Anatolia news agency, adding that the team was also contributing to tourism in Turkey.

Yançatoral said Fire of Anatolia performances gave foreign tourists a reason to leave their hotels and that approximately 100,000 people had already come to the show this season.

The performances will continue until November in the southern province of Antalya, after which the team is expected to tour in China, Belgium and Russia during the winter season, Yançatoral said, adding that the overseas performances would encourage foreigners to learn more about Turkish culture.

The Fire of Anatolia will head to Mexico in summer 2013.

Yançatoral said the team, composed of 250 dancers in three different troupes, wore out 11 sets of costumes each season. Every 16 performances the dancers need new shoes and go through 4,000 pairs of shoes in four years.

In the first act, the team performs moves and motifs of Anatolian peoples. In the second act, the motifs portray Aegean-style folk dances before ending with Thracian dances. A synthesis of 3,000 folkdance moves mixed with modern dance and ballet performed to music from different regions, the Fire of Anatolia is a unique project based on Anatolia’s ancient mythological and cultural history.

Produced by artistic director Mustafa Erdoğan, the group hopes to introduce the world to the fire that arises from the ancient mosaic of love, cultural history and peace in Anatolia.

Dancing motifs of Anatolia

The Fire of Anatolia was the first dance group to perform in the Chinese Parliament building. The group also performed for an audience of 400,000 people, all standing, in the Black Sea city of Ereğli, for which it holds the Guinness World Record for the “largest audience.” They were also the first group to perform in Bodrum’s ancient theater after 2,300 years. The Fire of Anatolia has reached millions in both foreign countries and Turkey since its debut in May 2001.

The group had its first performances in 2001 and started a world tour a year later. With its large number of dancers, the group is able to perform the same show in two or three different locations at the same time. According to Erdoğan, the Fire of Anatolia is currently among the three largest dance groups in the world. The dance group has performed in more than 40 countries, including the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Russia, Qatar, China, Japan, Kazakhstan.