Ankara hosts international dance event

ANKARA

Turkish capital Ankara will host an international dance festival this weekend, welcoming 26 global dancers from 16 countries.

The International Solo Contemporary Dance Festival, which “aims to offer a different perspective on individual movement in the field of contemporary dance,” kicks off June  at the Cermodern open-air stage and will continue until June 30.

The second edition of the three-day event, supported by Culture and Tourism Ministry, will gather 20 dancers from France, Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, Austria, Lithuania, Taiwan, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Guinea, Israel, as well as six dancers from Turkey.

“Our basic goal with this international event is to both contribute to modern dance culture in Ankara and introduce dancing [tradition] in Turkey to the world,” Zihni Tümer, art director of CerModern, told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

Describing the solo dance category as a “reflection of an innovative point of view in dance,” Tümer said, “solo dancers are a kind of historiographers and storytellers of the recent history of their countries.”

SoloDans Ankara has collaborated with Solocoreografico dance festival of Turin, Italy this year, aiming to create an artist-to-artist platform.

Tümer also praised last year’s dance festival. “Not only reactions from Ankara but also from Europe were incredible.”

The first edition of the event invited dancers last year, however, the international organization accepted applications this year, he added.
“We’ve got around 300 applications from across the world, from America to Taiwan, India to Mexico, Africa to Russia and from almost every country of Europe,” the art director said.