One of the leading contemporary dance companies on Türkiye’s performance scene, Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası is appearing with two performances in April at Beykoz Kundura’s new stage, Kundura Sahne. Ahead of “Hiçbir Şey Yerinde Değil” (Nothing Is in Its Place), to be staged this weekend, we talked with one of the company’s choreographers and dancers, Mihran Tomasyan, about their performance, which invites us to understand the feelings of loss and migration.

‘Hiçbir Şey Yerinde Değil’ came about, you say, sometimes from an improvisation and sometimes from feelings laid out on the table coming into contact with one another. Could you tell us how the production process took shape?

Dr. Ulrike M. Vieten, an educator at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast, invited our company to work on the theme of “loss and displacement.” The fact that the subject reflects an ongoing reality, and that the invitation came to us through a university, made focusing on and thinking about this theme very compelling for us. The production process took place in our studio over a period of about two months. During this process, we can say that we approached the concept of migration from many angles and spent hours at the kitchen table in our studio. Demirtaş’s book, newly published at the time; songs and folk songs in different languages; Nesrin Uçarlar’s book “Hiçbir Şey Yerinde Değil,” which inspired our performance; our own family stories; and even the phone conversations between officials and migrant boats stranded on the open sea, which we listened to and were deeply affected by: we can say that many things inspired our improvisations.

Drawing on both human history and your personal experiences, ‘Hiçbir Şey Yerinde Değil’ offers an interpretation of the concept of migration. What does it have to say, especially today, when displacement and forced migration have become an inseparable reality of our lives and a painful knowledge we carry?

Displacement is always ongoing. Wars, climate crises, dictatorships, political oppression, deep-state murders and many other causes constantly force people to move. While we were talking about and working on these themes, we personally witnessed many of our friends moving abroad, and it was impossible for this new wave of migration not to permeate the work. Our piece begins with a search for a way forward and, in the end, continues with that same search. If we as humanity cannot find common ground, this search looks set to go on for centuries to come.

How do you feel about the direction the world is heading in? Are you pessimistic, like many people, or can you say that everything we are going through is a transition and that we will come out into the light?

As the banner greeting those who come in through our studio window says: “Don’t Get Used to Hopelessness.”

Çıplak Ayaklar Kumpanyası at Kundura Sahne throughout April…

https://youtu.be/yiFGDT8l1DY