Jen and Tanyeli chat about Taneyeli's new website and their love for Turkish Dance and Culture.
Jen: Hi! So good to talk again. First and most importantly, let me say: I LOVE your new website Turkophile! it's gorgeous, and rich in content: Oriental dance, Romani dance, Ottoman women’s studies, and a blog that covers everything from Turkish dance workshops to food. Quite an ambitious undertaking. Congrats on a job very well done and for providing Turkish dance and culture lovers with a new space. How did you arrive at the look and feel of it? it’s luscious!
Tanyeli: Thanks! Well to be honest... I am a very lazy graphic designer. It's funny... when you do it for a living, you no longer want to do it for yourself. Anyway, it's a Wordpress template with a banner that I came up with. So I can't take credit for anything but the banner & even those images are ones that I got from stock photos. Like I said, lazy lazy.
Jen: Ha! More like modest, modest, modest! Tell us about your Turkish 'studies' in language, history, and especially Ottoman Women's Studies.
Tanyeli: I am self-studying Turkish, and I am enrolled in an Arabic class for the fall. They have a lot of similar words, plus if I get ambitious enough to try to learn Ottoman Turkish, the Arabic will give me a headstart! I am a bit of a language nerd so I am really looking forward to it. I’m currently trying to narrow down the focus of my historical research. There is so little written and studied about Ottoman women and I am such a feminist at heart, I know that's the direction I want to go in. Got any suggestions? :) The last short paper I wrote was about the perception of the Ottoman harem through the early 20th century American media (mostly newspaper articles).
Jen: And you're going to straighten us out, right?
Tanyeli: LOL! Well let's just say clear up misconceptions.
Jen: Definitely! Will you be posting that work on your site? I'd love to read it.
Tanyeli: I promise to either put it on my site or email it to you. I am hoping to help fill in any blanks in Artie's already substantial research. My approach is from court dancing (which would ultimately include Romani).
Jen: I'm already intrigued. What happened initially that turned you on to Turkish dance?
Tanyeli: It was a combination of things: my first dance teacher was Vintage Orientale & very involved with the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). So I got very interested in the history as well as the technique. I looked into lots of Eastern dance cultures, but as soon as I started reading up on Turkish/Ottoman, I knew that I had found my place.
Jen: Aha! What was it about the Turkish Ottoman that drew you in?
Tanyeli: Well that's harder to explain. It just felt familiar to me somehow. Sounds kinda woo woo, but it's true.
Jen: There's a lot of woo woo in this world, especially when you talk about connections, etc. My first dance teacher was also a dance historian. Her students learned as much about the history and culture of the dance as we did about the steps themselves. The two were inseparable. I was soooo disappointed to discover that she was the exception and not the norm. Could you elaborate on the importance of scholarly/cultural knowledge about the dances we perform?
Tanyeli: Absolutely! What's that saying? History is written by the victors? In this case, it is Western Orientalism and it persists to this day. It persists in Oriental performers and instructors who don't bother to learn the history and culture behind this beautiful, rich art form. To be fair, the information is not always easy to find, but if you truly love and respect something, you can put a little effort into finding out more.
I try to rely on primary sources as much as possible which means going to dancers like Artie, Eva, Sema, etc. Spending a lot of time on library databases looking up previous studies to see who/what they used as a primary source. More and more video is becoming available on YouTube (although you are limited to how far back you can travel in time). The problem is that it is time-consuming so you really have to want it.
Ian Hanock ... what an incredible source you have right there! There are some good books out there too. Belly Dance: Orientalism, Transnationalism & Harem Fantasy is a great collections of essays. It is by Anthony Shay and Barbara Sellers-Young and available on Amazon If we are talking specifically Turkish, look for Metin And. His are not always as easy to find.
Jen: Thanks so much for the references...we're always in search of new info...there's still so much to be discovered. All of this underscores the importance of oranizations like Folk Tours...
Tanyeli: Absolutely... Tayyar & all the Folk Tours staff do an excellent job of exposing musicians and dancers to a much wider world! Sema, of course, was an excellent source of information. Lee Ali was also a woman after my own heart with both history and technique to teach us.
Jen: Folk Tours is invaluable. They allow you to experience the culture, completely immerse yourself in it. What you just said about exposing us to a wider world....that is so true...we see men's dances, group dancing, costuming. All of the teachers at Folk Tours aren't simply passers on of steps...you know. Tell us about Sema!
Sema Yildiz
Tanyeli: She taught us a simple Romani choreography that was a lot of fun and really drilled it over and over again to get it into our bodies. It was still a lot of fun & she taught us some gestures that I had not seen before. I loved the fact that she got up each night and danced with all of us during open dancing. You can see that she really just loves to dance.
Jen: Dancing with Sema – it hardly gets better than that. How many classes did you take from her?
Tanyeli: The class descriptions were a bit fluid. What she ended up teaching was Roman, veil and a drum solo. I am kicking myself because I missed the drum solo class. I was taking a zills class with Aszmara though.
Jen: That's a pretty good excuse and a tough choice to make!
Jen: Lee Ali - tell us about her
Tanyeli: Lee Ali... she was a gem! I took her workshop on Rebetika & Greek tsifteteli. I knew next to nothing about it beforehand. She sat us down & talked to us, showing pics, before she got us up to dance. There's that history lesson! She really inspired me to learn more about the Greek blues.
Tanyeli: It was a lot of fun. She also specializes in Moroccan, trance, etc. I highly recommend her.
Jen: Great - we've gotten a lot of good recommendations from you! Anything else you'd like to say about your Folk Tours experience this year?
Tanyeli: Tayyar & company really need the support of those who love Folk Tours. I'm sure that it is a labor of love for him, but labor has got to be the operative word. Unfortunately I don't think there is much on the new DVD front. We were hoping that Sema would have something, but she didn't. I hope we can get enough people interested in Turkish so Tayyar will be inspired to continue Folk Tours.
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