Aysun, can you tell me what was it like to train and learn to dance in Turkey?

When I was 8 years old my mother took me to Ankara State Conservatoire’s ballet auditions, I got accepted in the school and that’s how my training began. For the first few years, I had no idea what I was doing.  I didn’t enjoy rehearsing the same movements every single day, over and over again. However, when I turned 12 I started to perform on stage and that changed my perspective on dance, I began to love it. My teachers Molly Lake, Travis Kemp and Angela Bailey were absolutely great, they helped me tremendously in developing my skills as a dancer. They treated us like professionals, making us perform at least one show every single week. I danced in countless pieces during my school years. Back then I knew nothing about dance, let alone choreographing a piece. With help from my teachers, I choreographed my first piece when I was 16 and it got performed in the school for about a year. Even though it was a pretty minor achievement, it made me feel like I was the greatest choreographer in the world. After I graduated with a degree in dance, I joined the Ankara State Ballet Company -founded by Dame Ninette de Valois- before moving to Istanbul State Ballet where I choreographed my first stage performance. At the beginning of my career I just wanted my work to be about dance and so I intentionally didn’t put pressure on myself to stick to a theme as when you are learning I think it can be restricting. Later on however, I got more experience and began to love telling stories through my work. Now, I often allow my dancers to speak in my pieces so the audience can fully understand the intricacies of the narrative.

How has your choreography developed over time?

In my school I was trained in classical ballet but I was always very fond of and intrigued by modern dance. We didn’t get to see much modern dance as companies rarely toured to Turkey, but on one occasion, The Royal Ballet of Flanders came to perform and I watched Kurt Joos’s “Green Table” and that changed my life. It took my breath away. A year after I graduated, I began working with Mrs MacMillan, who had been at my school and then gone to train at The Place in London and had then returned to Turkey.. We were working on contemporary dance every day and then I came over here and took contemporary, jazz and Limon classes at The Place and Pineapple. I was particularly very impressed with Limon technique as I think it translates so well for classically trained dancers. Throughout this time I never quit doing choreography. I started off working in Izzet Oz’s TV shows for TRT 1 and then in Istanbul in 1980 I created my first live show and from then on I have never stopped creating. I always set myself that challenge.

I think that as a choreographer you shouldn’t adore yourself – if you like yourself too much, it stops you. You need to be able to question and challenge yourself. I change the movements during rehearsals a lot, which sometimes I don’t like about myself! Dancers can get bored by this but I think it improves the quality of my work. I think choreographing is something you learn by doing and is an ongoing process throughout your life. You can of course study it, but I think it starts from your childhood and so it won’t just come to you after you’re thirty or forty, unless it has been in your mind subconsciously. If it’s there you will unlock it. You have to work very hard to find your own movement vocabulary and not be afraid to create work that looks a bit ugly now and then. You can’t be beautiful all the time!

Can you share some highlights from your choreographic career?

My first highlight was working in television at the start of my career. The pieces I made were only three or four minutes long but it was exciting as it was all new and a fun experience for me. Next came my first show for Istanbul Ballet, but I think the most prominent highlight was starting my own company in Turkey called “Turkuaz Modern Dance Company”. It was also a huge highlight for Turkey– it was stunning to see dancers come together as there hadn’t been anything like this before. I did many pieces for this company but the most memorable one was called “I Dreamed a Dream”. It was the only private dance company in Turkey so I worked with a number of choreographers as I wanted to share the work with as many people as possible. Ashley Page came and created three pieces and he and Leslie Collier also performed with Turkuaz as guest dancers in one of Ashley’s pieces. We were lucky as all of our shows were always sold out. I don’t think you can be a company who just rehearses – you have to perform regularly if you want to keep it alive.

The last piece I did with Istanbul Ballet was “East Side Story – Agir Roman” in 2002 which I think was my greatest success. It ran for five years in Turkey against all odds and even toured to Los Angeles. The Istanbul Ataturk Cultural Centre housed 1,500 people and we always had a full house for this show as it was based on a famous Turkish novel. It was not possible to translate the name of the novel to English. Just like in the musical West Side Story, the story took place in the slums of Istanbul and focused on similar themes such as love, hate and revenge, so that’s why I found the name East Side Story fitting for an international audience. Unfortunately after this it was cut short as the cultural centre we used was closed down due to the renovation of the building. The Istanbul Ballet company tried to carry on working in other smaller venues. Nowadays, the company is unfortunately facing the risk of closing down.

What are you working on at the moment and what have you done since coming to the UK?

For about two years, I have been involved with Women’s Platform UK, working with disadvantaged women. A lot of them are immobile or reluctant to leave the house, so we try and inspire confidence and new skills in them. I teach movement classes, show them dance films, and lead talks. It is amazing seeing the transformation – at the start their body language is often very closed and negative and they don’t communicate well, but through the course they are really changing. It is very rewarding and I love the work, but as a choreographer it can be hard as ultimately I am not satisfied when not creating work for the stage. I worked in that industry for over 40 years and so I do miss it! I have found it hard to know where to start again in the UK. I still write stories, installations and stage shows and so maybe someday I might be able to stage one. I would love to work with dancers again and create movement. Working with dancers is like nothing else. I never prepare my movements – I know what I am going to do before I get into the studio but then I work with the dancers’ body to complete a piece. Just like a composer who creates for the instruments, I create movement for the body.

What advice would you share with other choreographers?

I am not sure I can give advice as I know I am still learning, so in that sense, I would advise artists to never say “I’m done” – we should all keep on learning. Not loving yourself and your work too much will help you enormously as you can then see when things need to be cut out and not feel too attached to the pieces you create. If you become too attached to your work without cutting out any unnecessary parts, it could be harmful to your sense of creativity. Keep on learning and if you are a young choreographer – don’t feel like you need to focus on a theme or a story. Work on movements and develop your movement language and later it will be much easier to work with themes and stories. This is just my opinion but that is what I did and it worked well for me!

Thank you so much Alice.