RAu in Boston Conservatory with Prometheus Dance ’19
Choreography: Korhan Basaran in collaboration with Prometheus Dance and local guest artists
Music: Kinan Azmeh
Lighting Design: Tuce Yasak
Audiovisuals: Ataman Girisken
Project RAu connects audiences to the idea of cross-cultural oneness through multiple national and international presentations of dance. Scored with the music of Syrian composer Kinan Azmeh, RAu focuses on the sensitive and political subject matter of human migration. Through this collaborative work and the belief that Art is a window to the memory of experience, we shift focus from one of fear to one of understanding through our common sense of humanity. RAu will unfold through residencies in Boston, New York and Istanbul, The final work will reflect on the international refugee crisis through a message of action, re-calculation, and caring. 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 Dance has entered into a collaboration with Korhan Basaran and Kinan Azmeh, Project RAu, whose name – a take off on “Raw” – reflects an emphasis on spontaneity, change, growth, and “the process of becoming.” As the project progresses, RAu has had performances in the Boston, New York and in Turkey as separate componants. The task over the next year is to weave together a work created for the respective companies of dancers into one tapestry. Korhan Basaran will be in residence in Boston in March 2019 to hold master classes and create the final portion of project RAu with Prometheus Dance. With a grant from NEW MUSIC USA, the project ‘s Boston residency will culminate in open rehearsals, conversations about the creative process, art as a means of reconciliation and healing in times of political crisis, and performance. Members of the dance community who are involved in the master classes will have a chance to perform with the company. The final phase of this project will be performed in Boston, Istanbul and Ankara.
Korhan Basaran and RAu will be in residency October 15th-19, March 18-22. The final iteration of RAu will be premiered in full March 24, 2019 at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
Artist Statement
“RAu is when we are in our most vulnerable yet strongest, most determined, most ready state to challenge the self into a shift we can’t foresee. RAu is letting the experience take you to your new self, to the new transformed being, the new you. Therefore, the experience has to be genuine, true, and unique. No one can express another’s cry if they haven’t yet experienced their own scream. One cannot be affectionate to another before experiencing love within the self and for the self. RAu is knowing how you feel before you touch someone, and in order to understand how you feel, you have to take the step, go and touch the other and feel their heartbeat. When hearts beat as one, for the same great human cause we are one. Yet this must come without planning the outcome in advance, just allowing the moment to reshape you. This is when RAu happens, this is when you are RAu.”
RAu and Art:
“Steps, notes, paints, colors, words, even letters mean nothing if you aren’t truthful to your instincts and to your core. As new information for life is being sought out, so is information for the arts. RAu is when you are fool enough, yet dedicated enough to take that burden on yourself. To try and reshape yourself in order to transform what is all around you. The world is shaking again after two decades into the new century. A search for a new order must be a re-creation, Creation often takes the form of a “recreation artificielle”. A conflict for what is true rages. Therefore Art is War, bring it on. “
Korhan Basaran
21 / 06 / 2018
