Art exists even in times of war: Turkish ballet dancer

By Mehmet Kumcagiz

SAMSUN, Turkey (AA) - Art will always exist, Tan Sagturk, Turkish State Opera and Ballet choreographer and a renowned ballet dancer, told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

To work on the choreography of Amor Stelles, a part in the collage work Complex Feelings, the last premier of Samsun State Opera and Ballet this year, Sagturk visited Turkey's Black Sea province of Samsun.

“Should we continue our work at studios or retreat to our homes and wait? We had various thoughts on it, but art is such a [great] thing that it prevails even in times of war. It did even during World War II,” Sagturk said.

Reminding that the novel coronavirus pandemic had adversely affected everyone, he said: “The pandemic affects us too much. We don't know its nature very well, our doctors would know better, but its numbers affect us very much.”

Sagturk stressed he is not able to wear a mask while performing ballet, and that mask-wearing makes it very hard to perform, saying: “Especially due to the pandemic, we are trying to perform art risking ourselves, but choreographies do not come to exist without risks.

"We need to do this for art. All our colleagues here are doing their jobs with this awareness,” he noted.

* Writing by Dilan Pamuk in Ankara.