ARAZ, inspired by certain East Turkey domestic tragedies, stages bodies surrounded by tiny spaces protruding light, which could suddenly change radically into a dense obscurity.
Zeynep Tanbay invites us to discover her most abstract piece of work, filled with incredible emotional and aesthetical intensity.
The emotions are purged of their context, reading may be carried out in any manner. The author gives the public a free hand to interpret this symphony of bodies in movement. Each person sees a different show, filtered only by his own history and sensitivity.
The subject is totally undefined so that what is considered universal may be better touched upon and the heart of each spectator reached.

Source : Mike Chevreuil

Zeynep Tanbay started her ballet training in Ankara (Turkey) where she was born. In 1981 she went to New York to study at Joffrey Ballet School and continued her training as a scholarship student in School of Cleveland Ballet, San Francisco Ballet School and Alvin Ailey Dance School. In 1983 she joined the Minnesota Dance Theatre as a soloist and a year later became the principal dancer, performing classical repertoire as well as works of Balanchine, Glen Tetley, Loyce Houlton and others. Having a serious surgery from her foot made an end to her classical ballet career and she continued her dancing in bare foot. Returning to New York, she studied on scholarship at the Paul Taylor and Martha Graham Dance Schools. Tanbay joined the Martha Graham Dance Company as a dancer and same time became a faculty member in Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. In 1994 she choreographed her first solo and performed it as a guest artist, with the Elisa Monte Dance Company touring to İstanbul in 1995. In 1998, it was time to return back to her native country to continue to dance her own choreographies in her own company, which she initiated in 2000 under the name Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project.

Source : Zeynep Tanbay Dans Projesi 's website

More information : zeyneptanbay.org

Video artist and reporter, Mike Chevreuil runs the blog “Istanbul - Portraits d'artistes” on the LeMonde.fr website, where this video comes from. 

He is also the Istanbul correspondent for the international cultural and societal news website Mashallah News.
He previously wrote two special supplements on Portugal and Turkey that were published in Paris Match in 2008 and 2009.

In his videos, Mike Chevreuil stands out with his formats that differ from the traditional documentary ones. Through innovational narrative construction, his images reveal the creative work of the artist who strips away the veil of the mystery of artistic creation through the reflection of his own words and concepts.

Source : Maison de la Danse

More information : mikechevreuil.com