Turkish and Armenian dancers meet on Istanbul stage

Turkish and Armenian dancers will take to the stage together to present various dances combining Turkish and Armenian dance traditions. Ninety dancers from Turkey’s well-known dance theater Shaman and the Armenian group “Maral” (gazelle) will present verses by Turkish and Armenian poets with magic rhythms of dance and colorful costumes.

Shaman’s General Art Director Murat Uygun spoke to the Hürriyet Daily News. He said they did not want to highlight the identities. "Two groups of friends will take the stage together. The songs, actions and figures are so similar that it is not possible to tell the love for humanity in the poetry of Armenian Sayat Nova and Turkish Yunus Emre with a different language. This is why we try to do something beyond identities.|

Maral’s General Art Director Garbis Çapkan agreed with Uygun, saying: |Rumi says ‘Come, come, whoever you are.’ Beyond this, all words are meaningless."

Shaman Dance Theater and Maral Music Dance Group will be on stage Tuesday at Cevahir Hotel and Congress Center in Istanbul’s Şişli district. The show is titled "Istanbulluys" (Istanbul-light).


According to information provided by Çapkan, Maral was formed in 1976 as an amateur group with opportunities of Istanbul’s Armenian society. Although it has a history of 34 years, Maral still sees itself as an amateur group. It has 60 dancers.

Shaman was founded in 1999 and now has 40 dancers. It is made up of professional dancers with conservatory educations. The group’s General Art Director Uygun was the choreographer of Turkey’s world-renowned dance group, the Fire of Anatolia. He left the group and formed Shaman.

"I don’t accept the distinction between amateur and professional," he said. "Even through Maral defines itself as amateur, it is a very professional group. Otherwise, we would not be able to have a harmony on stage. Also, Maral’s solo dance on the stage is superior to professionals."

Maral’s Çapkan said he defined Maral as an amateur group because he and his dancers do not have academic educations.


The age of dancers in Maral is between 6 and 25. "We need to accept all applications," Çapkan said. "We are a small community in Istanbul with 50,000 people. We don’t have the luxury to choose people. Also, we survive thanks to the financial resources of the community."

He said the biggest problem for Maral was that especially female dancers left the group when they were married. "It makes us very sorry to lose a dancer after many years of working. It takes a long time to replace him or her. This is a big problem for us."

Çapkan said it was also a problem to find costumes for each choreography. "We have big financial problems and ask the community to help us cover our expenses, but this is a very troublesome process."

A common problem for both dance groups is the lack of a stage, according to Uygun and Çapkın. Uygun said Istanbul did not have a fully equipped stage for professional dancers. "The city needs to a stage urgently."

Çapkan highlighted another problem. "Not only finding a stage but also finding regional costumes unique to Anatolia is very hard. This is why we try to find authentic costumes from Armenia."


/Hurriyet Daily News/