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Berrak Yedek

Weekend dance seminars with Berrak Yedek

The Art of the Çengi - Solo dance in the Turkish Style


31.10. - 01.11. 2009
14.11. - 15.11. 2009

Saturdays 10:00 - 12:00, 13:00 - 15:00
Sundays 10:00 - 12:00, 13:00 - 15:00

dance studio NABOSO, Školská 12, Praha 1

Proces in advance payment in CZK:
1.000,-/ day
1.800,-/ weekend
3.500,-/2 weekends

Prices the day of the workshop in CZK:
1100,-/ day
1.900,-/ weekend
3.700,-/2 weekends


Payment in advance: bank account no. 305342001/2400, symbol birthday.

Applications: jana@iam.cz, 602255961, www.iam.cz


General topics of the workshops:

Deep body techniques, exercises and improvisations, relating to the feminine body and movement qualities, energy and dynamics, basic principles of the dance
Introduction to Turkish music and the feeling of the Turkish dance, aesthetics of the ottoman art, rhythms of Istanbul, basic steps and arm movements, communication through the dance
Choreographies, dances in groups and individual improvisations in circle
Talks: questions and answers, thoughts about the Turkish dance and music, comments, the connection of traditional forms and contemporary body, information to share…


Workshop contents:

Saturday Sessions:
Warm-up exercises: working with the spine, spine-shoulders and knees connection, the waves of the torso, isolation of the pelvic joint, activation of the belly and back muscles
Certain notions of the Turkish music and some basic steps and exercises to get in touch with the feeling of the movements and the movement qualities.
Various rhythmical exercises, especially focusing on the pelvis and the shoulders. Various dance steps and arm movements


Sunday Session:
Some time for talks: thoughts about the relationship of music and dance in the Turkish tradition, questions and answers, analysis of what we dance
Study of a choreography: information about the musical composition, the quality of the moods, the style and the structure of the choreography.
Dancing the choreography and practicing the learned techniques in the choreography
Improvisation in circle with the same music as the choreography, working on individual interpretation of the music and the movements.


General Remarks:
The participants are kindly invited to have training trousers (teplaky), socks and a long wide skirt and a shawl. Costumes with beads and noise making accessories are not very practical for these workshops. It would be advisable to bring something warm to wear.
On Saturdays and Sundays there will be lunch break of 1 hour.
A music list can be given upon request, with full names of albums and artists, which can be ordered through itunes or internet.


Berrak Yedek was born in 1974 in Istanbul. At the age of five, she started dancing and learning music in Germany. Then she traveled and lived in Turkey, in Saudi Arabia, in Russia, in England and in France. She studied dancing with ballet masters at the Royal Academy of Dancing in London, then at the Istanbul Conservatory. She had broaden her experience in England with the Rambert Ballet and the Northern Ballet Theatre, as well as with Vakil Usmanov at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow. In 1992, she came back to Turkey to study at the University of Bogazici in Istanbul and started dancing with the Contemporary Ballet of Istanbul. Two years later she started Kumpanya Bale Türk, her own ballet group. In three years, she created 11 productions for her group. As a teacher in two dance Academies of Istanbul, she taught classical and contemporary ballet and dancing improvisation. She has been living in Paris since 1999. As a choreographer and an actress, she has been working with Compagnie Errance for Yerma, by F. G. Lorca. In 2003, she worked as a dancer again in the framework of the productions of Teatri del Vento, Opera de St. Etienne. In co-operation with nomades461 productions, she created her own creations: \\\"Ensemble\\\", ”Masal”. For nomades Laboratory, she is the artistic director in charge of dancing and runs improvisation workshops for amateur and professional musicians, dancers and actors in France, CZ and in Turkey. Since May 2005 Berrak lives in Prague and works as a teacher for modern dance in the Duncan Center Conservatory.