Fire of Anatolia to celebrate 25th year at stadium
ISTANBUL
Fire of Anatolia (Anadolu Ateşi), considered Türkiye's pioneer and one of the world's largest dance groups, is preparing to celebrate its 25th anniversary with a special stadium show.
The event will take place at Beşiktaş Stadium on June 2, offering a unique experience to the audience by bringing together the power of dance, Turkish culture and the history of Anatolia.
At a press conference held on April 30, Fire of Anatolia General Art Director Mustafa Erdoğan, said, “We will make an Olympic-sized show with 500 dancers.”
Stating that Fire of Anatolia's 25 years of experience will be brought to the stage in the show, Erdoğan explained that the dancers were preparing for the show by rehearsing in 12 different schools across Türkiye.
“We performed in 110 countries and reached more than 50 million viewers. Currently, one of our groups is performing in Bogota, Colombia and another group is performing in Dezhou, China. One of our groups is performing in Antalya, we are divided into three parts. We are also working on this project. This will not just be a classic Fire of Anatolia show; we will show what we have done so far and what we will do in the future. We will present the classic scenes of Fire of Anatolia, Troy, Istanbul Dreams, Davul, Kıvılcım and the first scenes of the new Silk Road, on which we are recently working. It will be a show full of surprises. We will make an Olympic-sized show with 500 dancers,” Erdoğan said.
Noting that they are working to set up a very special stage for the stadium show, Mustafa Erdoğan said, “Stage techniques that you will see for the first time in Türkiye will be used in the show. We will install a special lighting system with the mirror system that we developed. We are preparing a holographic visual feast made with lasers that create infinite spaces.”
Emphasizing that they have performed in the world's largest organizations for 25 years, Erdoğan said: “We kicked off the cultural program in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. We performed in the Asian Olympics and in Formula 1. We also performed at the Eurovision Song Contest. We were in the Winter Olympics and the European Youth Olympics. We are a very experienced troupe. We performed in the Winter Olympics in Erzurum at minus 30 degrees. It is considered among the best Olympics ever. With this experience and this knowledge, we are looking forward to June 2.”
World stars invited to the show
Stating that they had performed together with world stars in many of their shows in 25 years, Erdoğan said: “Some will come, some will shoot a video to tell their observations about us. We also invited the artists with whom we performed and produced projects in Türkiye, and they will also be with us. It will be a wonderful show.”
Erdogan mentioned that Fire of Anatolia selected its dancers through a newspaper advertisement when it first started in 1999.
“Our groups are working by combining the parts. The group in the Gaziantep school is working on one part, while the one in Ankara has two parts and İzmir school has four parts. The group in China is rehearsing the 25th anniversary show. In the first years of Fire of Anatolia, it took two years day and night to train the amateur dancers we brought together through newspaper advertisements, but now we have a wonderful advantage. There are 12 dance academies. Children starting at the age of 4-5 are now dancing with their elders. This gives us the opportunity to train talented dancers. Moreover, we renew the costumes every day, add new choreography and new music. This is a dynamic troupe that is constantly renewing itself.”
Erdoğan added that they will go to North America after Colombia and their tour will continue in Canada.
