User:Artists of the World

Barıș Dilaver was born in 1975, in Istanbul, Turkey. As a child, he set his sights on a life as a pianist while his twin sister imagined herself a ballerina. After failing their respective auditions, the two swapped professions: she ended up                                                    enjoying success as a singer in her homeland while he embarked on a                                                              remarkable international career as a ballet dancer. At the age of 10, Baris began his dance education and training at the National Ballet School of Istanbul, directed by Cem Ertekin. During his studies, he made his galvanizing debut performance in L’après-midi d’un faune and became a member of the Cagdas Ballet Company. At 14, Baris had a dream: to dance for the great ballet companies of Vienna and New York. By a stroke of good fortune, he met dancer Nilay Yesiltepe in Istanbul, who had just arrived form the Opéra national de Paris where she performed in Blue Bird alongside Rudolf Nureyev. After seeing Baris dance, she conspired to make his dreams a reality. With Nilay’s help, Baris landed an audition in Germany and secured the funding he needed for his stint abroad through sponsors Ardic Gursel of The Marmara Hotel and Nuray Atabay. In Stuttgart, Baris studied at the John Cranko School under the tutelage of Alex Ursuliak and Konstantin Rusau. He moved to Vienna in 1994, at the invitation of Anne Wooliams, director of the '''State Opera Ballet.''' He went on to dance many of ballet’s greatest roles, including Puck in John Nermeier’s A Mid Summer Nights Dream role created for him—as well as Mercutio in John Cranko´s Romeo and Juliet. His repertoire also includes choreographies by Kenneth MacMillan, Renato Zanella and William Forsythe. Coached by prominent choreographers including Danish ballet master Egon Madsen, he shared the stage with ballet greats '''Vladimir Malakhov and Brigitte Stadler'''. He also danced at the Vienna Dance Theater prior to becoming Solo Dancer at the Volksoper Vienna and taking on roles such as Cupido in Caravaggio as well as dancing in Swan Lake Remixed and Nudo. From 1993 to 2001, the prolific dancer performed in Germany, France, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Greece and his native Turkey. After this extensive touring, Baris decided to move from classical ballet to contemporary dance in order to widen his artistic horizons. In 2002, he choreographed a presentation for the Swarovski Crystal World, which took him to Germany and Austria. Soon after, he bought a video camera, started filming dancers, and became fascinated with multimedia as a means of expressing through his eye. He was soon to add another string to his artistic bow, when he started making films and documentaries for dance companies and opera houses and pursued two parallel careers – dance and filmmaking. He also founded his own film production company called db Dance Film. In 2003, Baris created his first choreography at the Odeon Space in Vienna, which included other works by European choreographers and in which he performed in a short duet. He captured this event on film and produced Out There, A Play Through Time, which was later featured at the Vienna Short Film Festival. He went on to create over a dozen dance films and documentaries on dancers and dance venues, including the very first Black Dance Festival in Vienna, featuring performances by New York’s Opus Theater and the Dallas Ballet. He also filmed the International Impulse Dance Festival in Vienna, directed, choreographed and performed by Ismael Ivo (Mapplethorpe). A few years earlier, Baris had seen Cirque du Soleil’s production Alegría in Vienna and immediately saw himself in one of the company’s shows. After contacting Cirque’s casting department in 2003, he was invited to Berlin a month later to audition for one of three coveted dance roles, and made the cut. He joined Cirque’s Dralion tour a year later. In 2005, Baris danced in '''New Opera Vienna's production Seven Deadly Sins,''' which he captured on film, and later joined Cirque du Soleil’s innovative multimedia touring show Delirium, under the direction of American choreographer Mia Michaels. The show visited more than 150 cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Baris Dilaver currently lives in Vienna, where he is pursuing his work as a choreographer and filmmaker.  Coming SOON METAMORPHOSIS of Turk - Film by Barış Dilaver http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pIM9bqvd5w

Dance education: 1992 – 1994               John Cranko Schule, Stuttgart, Germany 1984 – 1989               Staatliche Ballettschule, Istanbul Engagements: 2005                           Cirque du Soleil 2005                           Neue Oper Wien 2004                           Cirque Du Soleil 2004                           Volksoper,Wien 2002                           Landestheatre,Linz 1999 – 2002               Volksoper,Wien 1994 – 1997               Staatsoper,Wien 1985 – 1989               Cagdas Ballett, Istanbul Coaching/ Workshop: Vienna Volks Oper Tanz TheaterWien Move On Dance Center John Harris MQ Wien Video dance workshop Delirium Tour / Cirque du Soleil

Films and Documentaries: Black Dance Festival Neue Oper Wien                 7 DEADLY SINS, Ismael Ivo, Impulstanz        MAPPLETHORPE Dallas Ballet Opus Theater New York Tanz Theater-Vienna          FAKE SPACE Joe Alegado                       SMOKE Russell Adams NUD'EAU Air Pas de deux Donald Duck’s Sins Mask Out there a play through time... Video dance workshop with Baris Dilaver Cirque du Soleil / DELIRIUM Through the eye of the Artist 1207

Guest performance: 2005                            Cirque du Soleil 2004                            Cirque du Soleil 2003                            Odeon Theater 2002                            Akropolis, Athen2002 2002                            Landestheater, Linz 2001                            Tanzsommer, Innsbruck 2001                            Musical Theatre Basel 2001                            Istanbul State Opera 2001                            Baden Baden 2001                            Prinzregententheater, Munich 1998                            Tanztheater Wien, Vienna 1998                            Dance Festival Week Impuls, Vienna 1996                            Budapest Opera House 1996                            State Opera Kiew 1994                            Conservatoir National Superieur de Musique, Lyon 1993                            Rencontres lnternational de la Dance, La Baule, 1993                            International Dance Project, Bonn

Repertoire:

Choreography / Choreographer / role

Midsummernights Dream / John Neumeier / as Puck Romeo and Juliet / John Cranko / as Mercutio Das Lied von der Erde / Kenneth MacMillan / as Junge Caravaggio / Liz King, Mani Obeya & Esther Balfe / as Cupido Swanlake / Rudolf Nurejew Sleeping Beauty/Petipa Nutcracker / Petipa / as Spanish Dance Merry Widow / Ronald Hynd / as Chrorus Manon/Kenneth MacMillan / as Bettlerkönig Giselle/Petipa / Bauer, Pas de deux Love songs / William Forsythe Apollo / Renato Zanella Sacre du Printemps / Renato Zanella Tryptichon / Renato Zanella Mata Hari / Renato Zanella Empty Place / Renato Zanella Those I have forgot / Marco Santi The doors / Marco Santi Nudo / Giorgo Madia 7 Deadly Sins / Neue Oper Wien Dralion / Cirque du Soleil Delirium / Cirque du Soleil

METAMORPHOSIS of a TURK Film by Baris Dilaver

PRODUCED, DIRECTED AND EDITED by  Barış Dilaver SCRIPT EDITED by                                  Martina Flor, Evelyn Wysoudil, Barış Dilaver CAMERA ASSISTANTS by                        Murat Noyan, Helmut Fisher, Felix Schobert, Willy Wysoudil Turkish Translation by                          Elif Aksoy

Synopsis: Born in Istanbul in 1974, I left my home country at a very young age after having completed my training to become a ballet dancer. I spent the following 20 years dancing on stages all over the world, including the Vienna State Opera. In 2007 a serious injury put a sudden end to my career as a professional dancer – a turning point in my life. Convalescent and deprived of my identity as a dancer, I decided to come back to Vienna where I had found a second home. But my return proved to be disillusioning: The Viennese, who are known for their heart of gold and who welcomed me with open arms when I was still a member of the State Opera’s ballet, were now fearful, disrespectful and, in some cases, even hostile in their reactions to the Turk in Vienna. And that’s when I embarked on my journey in search of my identity and my future and I started by searching for my roots. I shared the fate of my Turkish home country: I had started to feel and act “European” a long time ago but did that mean that I had to deny my Turkish identity? And did I want to be part of a Europe whose right-wing populists tried hard to preserve an image of Turkey characterized by Islamism, women being forced to wear headscarves and forced marriage? My search for what unites us and what separates us made me delve deeper into the history of Europe and Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, the Christian and Islamic religions. Movement, change, being on the road and an open future: these notions characterize my own life and are also reflected in my film. It is an attempt to fight static views and black-and-white judgments which lead to generalizations and tell only half the truth, thus frustrating any chance of fruitful dialogue. But on the other hand there is also an abundance of positive encounters and experience that marked the joint history of our countries and these are also shown in my film. 247,000 Turks live in Austria, many of them in Vienna. Being one of them, it is probably my purpose in life to build a bridge between our cultures, which are full of similarities and diversity, like the bridge across the Bosporus which connects the Orient and the Occident.