Project Rau @Boston Conservatory
Turkish Choreographer Korhan Basaran worked with Prometheus Dance, guest artists from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and members of the Boston community in a creative Winter Intensive process. The result of this week long residency had a performance on:
Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 3:00 p.m. 4th floor studio theatre 401 at thenBoston Conservatory at Berklee Campus Map
“A contemporary artist is responsible for being aware of what has been accomplished before him and what is being experienced at the moment, creating impact on what the next step in the arts should be, and directly effecting where humanity goes. The more inspiring you become as an artist, the more you can affect peace and beauty therefore affecting what humanity will be able to embrace.”
Korhan Basaran, December 25, 2012 / New York, NY
New Music USA Profile
Project RAu focuses on the sensitive and political subject matter of displaced people throughout the world. The final work will reflect on the problem of the international refugee crisis and forced human migration through a message of action, re-calculation, and caring.
Project RAu/Korhan Basaran (Turkish American Exchange Project)
RAu / Turkish – American Exchange Project
Prometheus Dance continues its commitment to create work that reflects the current political, social, and cultural climate. As artists, our aim, at a minimum, is to provoke thought and discussion, and, at a maximum, to be a catalyst for change. To this end, Prometheus has entered into a collaboration with Turkish choreographer Korhan Basaran. Project RAu, whose name – a takeoff on “Raw” – reflects an emphasis on spontaneity, change, growth, and “the process of becoming.”
Project RAu (Phase One)
Plans for the first phase of this project will be to create residencies and workshops in the Metrowest and in Boston followed by informal performances of the work in progress. The project will unfold over a period of two years, providing multiple creative opportunities for directors, choreographers, company members and community dancers. This phase will occur simultaneously in Istanbul with Ensemble RAu. The two companies will develop sections separately and then together under Mr. Basaran’s direction in order to integrate movement language and the philosophy that will drive the work. Project RAU has received a grant from New Music USA to support the collaboration and to partially fund the creation of music by Syrian composer Kinan Azmeh for the project. New Music USA Profile Project RAu focuses on the sensitive and political subject matter of displaced people throughout the world. The final work will reflect on the problem of the international refugee crisis and forced human migration through a message of action, re-calculation, and caring.
Korhan Basaran holds a BA from Bilkent University’s theater department and an MBA in art management from Yeditepe University, and began his dance career with Binnaz Dorkip, choreographer of the Turkish State Opera and Ballet. He subsequently danced with Modern Dance Turkey. Basaran has taught contemporary dance in New York at Steps on Broadway, Peridance, and DNA. His work has been commissioned by Nimbus Dance Works, MMDC, Akbank Sanat of Istanbul, and Project 44.
As the Artistic Directors of Prometheus Dance, it is part of our mission to provoke thought and often create dance that functions on some level as an agent of change in the world. In 2002, with the assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Boston Center for the Arts Spotlight on Dance Series, we created Apokalypsis, a full evening length piece inspired by the Kosovo war and the displacement of refugees world wide. It made reference to the migration and denegration of Jewish and immigrant populations during World War II, and the issue remains as relevant today as it did then. The critical nature of this issue has surfaced again in the Middle East, affecting the entire world in a time of fear and overpopulation. We as artists have the opportunity to engage the public on a larger and more immediate scale. Therefore the company will be working with Korhan Basaran and Basaran’s company in Turkey on a project of Korhan’s creation addressing the Syrian refugee crisis happening in the world right now. Since the projects inception Turkey itself has come under extreme political strain. The world can turn on a dime these days and no one is excluded from the possibility of losing home, family and culture. We will work to speak as one.