With Contemporary Language

By Ahsen Utku, *Dance ‘icon’ Ziya Azazi whirls on İstanbul stage* - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey
Saturday, November 7, 2009

“I'm just listening to my heart, and I believe that it is telling the truth,” says Ziya Azazi, regarding both the praise and criticism directed at his style of dancing.

The innovative Turkish dancer of international acclaim, best known for his original modern choreographies based on the whirling rituals of Sufi dervishes, is this year celebrating not one but three anniversaries: his 40th birthday, the 20th year of his dancing career and the 10th year since he first incorporated Sufi whirling into his choreography.

Azazi's story begins in the south of Turkey, in Antakya, where he was born, then moves to İstanbul for his education and continues in Vienna. While studying engineering at İstanbul Technical University (İTÜ), Azazi was introduced to gymnastics, which laid the foundation of his career in contemporary dance. Working with the İstanbul City Theater from 1990 to 1994 as a dancer and choreographer, Azazi went to Vienna in 1994 and worked with various dance companies until 1999, when he began to research Sufi whirling and incorporating elements of the Sufi ritual into his choreographies.

Azazi is presenting his newest performance, “Icons,” today at İstanbul's Caddebostan Culture Center (CKM) as part of this year's Dance Camera International Film Festival. Azazi will be joined onstage by dancer Su Güneş Mıhladız and French musician Serge Adam during the performance, which will start at 8 p.m. Azazi spoke with Today's Zaman ahead of the performance.

How did your research of Sufi dancing begin?
In fact, everything began coincidentally. I was attending gym classes in university, and after three years, I realized that I was occupied with dance rather than engineering. Ballet, contemporary dance and gymnastics began to dominate my life. In 1994, I was invited to a project abroad. I was intending to return, but then I joined other projects and dance became my life itself. After five years of working with various projects and choreographies, I started to ask myself: Who am I? Why am I dancing? What does dancing mean to me? As I started to ask serious questions like whether I, my place, my position, did these complete each other, were they linked to each other or were they disconnected from other, I saw that what I did was not my dance but another's dance and I was only a means. During this period when I began to pursue my own dance, I received an offer and I decided to produce a solo performance. Many things in my life had come to an end at that time, so the question came to me whether my dance could also be reduced like all other things. … I started to wonder whether I could get power if I could diversify a movement from its variations. After many efforts, I realized that I was in pursuit of the variations of a whirl. This led me to a very important process of questioning. I learned whirling by myself, step by step, by observing myself, mentally and physically. It was difficult to learn by myself, but I was more independent this way. What is this dance for? What did this heritage mean? What should we get from this heritage? I realized my performances considered all these.

What does this style of dancing really mean for you?
Everything is in motion in space. It is what it is, and when a subject observes this, since it observes itself, this object becomes subjective; in other words, it loses its objectivity. For this reason, all subjects should question and refresh themselves continuously in order to gain this objectivity again. This is the way something remains objective, and this is how Sufism has kept its place in world history. I'm not intending to settle down anywhere or to make any interpretation of anything; I'm just listening to my heart. Because what I am concerned with is my own feelings, my perception, to understand where I stand, to understand the contemporary way of thinking, to feel what the heritage is trying to say and to make this understandable with contemporary language.

How were your first solo performances received?
The first performances were in many European countries such as Spain, Germany, England and Austria. Since the audience in these countries is composed of different cultures, religions and classes, the feedback is more objective compared to Turkey and other Muslim societies. Since they see it as an impressive dance and a surprising performance, they are influenced and they watch with enthusiasm. In Turkey, some people feel they must defend themselves, but there's no need for this. I have no intention of mentioning Islam, nor criticizing it. I just do the thing that I want to. And in my symbolism, my intention is to say that while taking this tradition, it should not be repeated as it is, but we should go further by understanding it. The moment you preserve something as it is, you in fact destroy it. Because nothing can stop in this life, a culture, a religion, a nation, everything must be in motion.

What do you think about criticism of your dances?
I don't care anymore. We all grow up; we all get wiser in time. During the past years, my mental outlook has changed along with my physical appearance. I think I consider many things more objectively compared to the past. I organized such a performance, with a huge effort, and after that I receive criticism. That made me a sort of resentful. But maybe I was also immature. Now I believe in what I'm doing, and this is right for me.

What will the audience see in “Icons”?
We put on the premiere of “Icons” in France two years ago, and we have since performed in Spain and Morocco. Since my works are “works-in-progress,” they undergo a certain process of evolution in time. There were some parts of the performance at the beginning which I have laid aside for now. I focused on other parts that should be perfected. And it is now a project of 50 minutes composed of solos, duets and music. In this project, there's a guest dancer for the first time in my whirling projects. Two years ago, when I met Su in a workshop, I saw the enthusiasm she had for whirling, so I decided to add her to this project. She was the ideal person with whom I could show the contradictions and opposite poles. The reason why we called the performance “Icons” is that it is composed of solos, duets and trios, and every one of these has constructed itself in a fictional structure and achieved its perfect and iconized structure. In history, we have always constructed and deconstructed icons.

Does your own personal journey also influence your art?
Certainly it does. For instance, I have started to use electronic music in my shows; I think that's because of a saturation of my European experience. I used to use the music of Mercan Dede in my previous projects, and I still love it. Even in the first version of “Icons,” due to my feelings of my Arabic roots, my experience of reciting the Quran, speaking some Arabic, I used all these themes. There was Esma'ul Husna together with experimental music, but I laid it aside for a time, not because of social, cultural or religious concerns but because it didn't satisfy me in artistic terms. But I want to develop it in the future.

Turkish audiences complain that you perform in Turkey very rarely.
I also complain of the same thing. Regarding all the institutions that organize art events, even the [Culture and Tourism] Ministry, why shouldn't I perform more in my own country? For many years, I've been dreaming of performing in different cities of Turkey without financial concerns. I go everywhere in the world but can't come to my country as frequently as I want because there's no understanding of dance in Turkey. All we understand from dance is belly dance or folk dance in Turkey. There's no common conception of dance.