Ziya Azazi - WORKSHOP (Dervish in Progress 2013, Vienna, Austria)

DERVISH IN PROGRESS (Body Economy & Awareness)


Aims and Objectives:

This workshop suggests a space for the participants where they can challenge their limits through whirling, stimulate their ability for the thrift of bodily energy, and through these abilities reach their goal movement within their own genre, spending less energy, with a higher level of awareness.

Whirling is not the main objective of this workshop. The greater goal is to improve one's physical, emotional and mental awareness through whirling and the exercises prior to that. It leads the participants to perceive and accept what is befalling throughout whirling, and reach an innovative movement by means of whirling.

Methodology:

The workshop consists of following steps:

• Warm up: stretching and breathing in order to enhance concentration preparing the body and mind to gain strength to push mental and physical limits.

• Awareness: This step includes floor work, body part & upside down exercises, basic acrobatics and improvisation in various levels. It aims to strength the awareness of senses and systems in preparation for meeting the unknown arrangements to be encountered while whirling.

• Whirling: Further developments of physical, emotional and mental awareness are to be obtained in this step. Whirling first starts at the vertical level. At the further steps repetitive movements are to be experienced at both vertical and horizontal levels. This step helps the participants to feel and record the conditions of their perception of space and body; thus the awareness improves. This is a step where the participants in various aspects confront conditions that are not usual or accustomed. By accepting the unknown, the knowledge concerning awareness and ability for the thrift of bodily energy will expand.

Ziya Azazi shared his experiences and knowledge with public in academic and non-academic settings. He has given workshops in over 20 countries: Vienna (A); Brussels (BE); Balchik (BG); Sao Paolo (BR); Toronto (CA); St. Gallen (CH); Bogotá (COL); Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg (D); Arhus (DK); Quito (ECU); Cairo (EG); Arles, Avignon, Clermont Ferrand, Crolles, Draguignan, Dunkerque, Le Creusot, Paris, Toulon, Aix en Provence, Roubaix, Brive le G, La Roche sY, Bretigny, La Rochelle, Nice (FR); Mondovi, Venice, Terni (IT); Beirut (LB); Klaipeda (LT); Amsterdam, Utrecht (NL); Portimao (PT); Galica, Manresa (SP); Istanbul, Samsun, Antalya, Mardin (TR); Caracas, Cumana (VEN); London (UK); Harare (ZW); Cape Town (ZA).

Ziya Azazi gave workshops at the International Choreographic Training Programme titled "Choreographic Collision" leaded by Ismael Ivo, within the framework of Venice Dance Biennale, to the students of Modern Dance Department of Mimar Sinan University, Istanbul (TR) and lately at Impulstanz Festival Vienna (A). He also gave lectures to the postgraduate students of Performance Making Programme at Goldsmiths University, London (UK); in Dvoreca, Balchik (BG) and at Culture University Istanbul (TR).