performances

Repeat as Necessary / 2025

In this site-specific performance experience by Operator, choreography is an instruction manual for forgotten circuitry, ancient patterns inscribed in the flesh. Rather than considering technology as something outside ourselves, this work recognizes the body as a formidable instance of technology. Through repetitive movement that borders on obsession, something begins to dissolve: the boundaries between here and elsewhere, self and other, audience and performer, boredom and revelation. The rhythmic architectures of sacred chant and Sufi sema music, rooted in spiritual entrainment through repetition, breath, and modal tension, are reimagined not as doctrine, but as sonic architectures for nervous system attunement. Woven together, movement and sound form a hybrid ritual system: drones and makams, pulse and posture, fabric and form, guiding the body toward trance not through belief, but through sensation. What emerges beyond the terror of staying still is an archaeology of presence, the body’s hidden protocols activated: mirror neuron networks, autonomic regulation, collective neural entrainment.

Choreographer – Ania Catherine

Website

a tangible blue / 2025

Behind the visible, tangible reality lies an ocean, and we can only see its projections. Although symbols and icons play a role in describing the unseen, their meanings shift depending on the time, place, interpreter, and the one who perceives them. Symbols are veiled and complex; yet the aspect behind them is clear and distinct. The path of this inquiry perhaps does not pass through number and form, but through influence and direction. The contemporary dance installation a tangible blue exists within a rhizomatic structure at the transparent boundaries of movement, matter, and sound. It aims to open a space for contemplation by examining the manifestation of symbolism and icons within consciousness.
This expression forms a poetic mechanism and synthesis through five dancers, a 25 m² modular wooden structure, and various components that attach to and detach from the structure during the performance.

Choreographer – Siva Canbazoglu

Website

heartquake / 2024

“heartquake is a choreographic tryout on living on shaky ground; both metaphorically and literally. It is inspired by Turkey’s political and geographical realities and focuses on the idea that “The land shapes the habitants’ way of thinking.

How can you imagine a future for yourself while the big shake is on the way and the shakes constantly change what you’ve dreamed of? In a land where people grow up hearing about ancient cities once they have been all destroyed by earthquakes, how can you build something when you know it’ll eventually be demolished? How can you put trust in an institution which is basically a building made of concrete? When everything keeps falling apart, what is left other than each other’s support and the endless effort of human beings? Maybe to a far extent, this may even explain the so-long-presence of the one political person.

People do not have to have anxieties just because of political situations or maybe all the anxieties are political.

Corinth, the homeland of Sisyphus is one of the most seismically active places in Europe.”

heartquake performed in Stockholm [Moderna Dansteatern], Istanbul [Arter, Zorlu PSM, Alan Kadıköy (Fringe Istanbul Festiva)] & Brussels [KaaiStudios (Moussem Cities Istanbul Festival)].

Choreographer – Ekin Tunceli

Website ~ Teaser

Sea Tails / 2024

“On the occasion of Jackie Matisse’s Kite Time exhibition, dance performances will take place at Arter between 22–26 May, with movement design and direction by Polly Motley and video and live image design by Molly Davies. With intuitive processes also used by Jackie Matisse, the performances establish connections with the past and present of the exhibition, which spreads across different areas of the Arter building.” – Arter

Choreographer – Polly Motley (with materials by the dancers)
Video and live mixing – Molly Davies

Website

Crossing Borders / 2023

“Language, culture, social structure, skin color, and physical-skeletal constitution are some of the factors that clearly determine the differences that exist between “groups” residing in different bounded territories. But if we shift our gaze by embracing a border concept of “human migration” and trespassing, we can see how these differences are minimized to the point of tracing us back to common origins that reside within the body itself, that is, in the genetic code.”

Choreographer – Lara Guidetti
Live Music – We Parade!
Sanpapie Dance Company x Improvisation Dance Festival

Yapı Kredi 25th Afife Theatre Awards Opening Performance / 2023

“We prepared a show that intertwines dance, film and theater for the opening of the 25th Yapı Kredi Afife Theater Awards. Using digital screens and inspired by Afife’s story, we shot a film written by Ahmet Sami Özbudak. We combined the text written as a monologue with the choreography prepared by Ekin Bernay and turned it into a film in which Gizem Erdem gave life to Afife Jale.” – Pomus Creative

Choreographer – Ekin Bernay
Creative Director – Murathan Özbek

Website

“heartbeat” – Grace The Stage / 2023

“Dance is the language of the soul, and we speak it fluently in every corner of the world. With three distinct choreographies curated by them, 27 more dancers join to gear up for a high-energy performance. Merve Abedan the founder of Cultform, has curated a distinctive 30-piece collection, exclusively transforming and upcycling Nike products into her design, blending form and function, creating an eye-catching fusion.⁠” – Based Istanbul

Choreographer – Ekin Bernay

Video

Medusa’s Scream / 2023

“Set to take place in the 1,500-year-old Basilica Cistern, one of Istanbul’s most magnificent structures, Medusa’s Scream will offer a 45-minute immersive performance experience where the audience will engage with the water. The performance, which involves moving between stations spread across the cistern’s waters, features Medusa—the mythological figure wronged and punished by Athena by being turned into a snake-headed creature—as the main character. She will rediscover her inner strength. Each performance of Medusa’s Scream is designed with a different ending, offering an alternative narrative.”

Movement Director – Ekin Bernay
Director – Başak Cankes / Bashaques

Website ~ Video

“RESET” – HopeAlkazar / 2023

“Feel good and focus on what benefits your body and mind through the healing power of movement. RESET, supported by Nike at HOPE Alkazar, invites you on a journey to stay present while holistically experiencing fitness through its five elements, promoting both sports and creativity.” – Based Istanbul

Movement Director – Ekin Bernay

Video

“If Theatre Exist”
Yapı Kredi 24th Afife Theatre Awards Opening Performance / 2022

“Being part of the creative process of the Yapı Kredi Afife Theater Awards is an honor, which keeps on exciting us every year. In this ceremony, which was like a reconnection with the audience after the pandemic, we had to find a statement that would symbolize this comeback and express our longing for the theater.” – Pomus Creative

Choreographer – Ekin Bernay
Creative Director – Murathan Özbek

Website ~ Video

ANIMATO / 2022

“Aiming to make the 35th International Izmir Festival “a festival that enables new artistic productions,” IKSEV collaborated with the Martha Graham Dance Company on a joint project. The project, prepared with the goal of introducing the works of young composers from the Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı National Composition Competition to the world, resulted in a collaboration where Martha Graham Dance Company choreographers Lloyd Knight and Xin Ying staged the 1st and 3rd parts of a Piano Concerto by Dogac Isbilen, who was just 20 years old when he won the 10th Dr. Nejat Eczacıbaşı Composition Competition. As part of the project, 19 young dancers worked on Xin Ying’s “Animato” and Lloyd Knight’s “Instantaneous Speed” in a 15-day workshop organized for professional Turkish dancers.”

Choreographer – Xin Ying
Composer – Dogac Isbilen

Press ~ izmir.art / aa.com

When The Children Cry / 2022

“When the Children Cry draws attention to the fact that children in the grip of war lose their innocence as well as their dreams.”

Choreographer – Ozgur Adam Inanc

body switch / 2019

Choreographer – Ruben Reniers

Gel-Git / 2019

Choreographer – Henrietta Horn

unity / 2018

Choreographer – Eldad Ben Sasson