Taksim Square
TAKSIM SQUARE is a poignant piece of dance theatre which came about as an artistic response to the popular protests in Turkey and the unfolding of the Arab Spring. The work draws on personal testimonies, key images, and is told through symbolic movement and patterns. It takes its audience on a moving and often brutal journey through hope and despair, creating an intense portrait of repression and resistance.
TAKSIM SQUARE is programmed as a 15 or 25 minute performance and features different cast sizes and genders (from a male solo performer or a female duet, to an ensemble of 15 performers). TAKSIM SQUARE was devised to allow a community dance group composed of semi-professionals or youth dancers to join the company’s dancers in sections of the performance.
“Autin’s vulnerability and his instinctive, almost feral approach to movement make Taksim Square impressive as an intense physical portrait of someone under duress.” Nicholas Minns (Writing about dance)
Originally choreographed for the London contemporary dance platform, Cloud Dance Festival as a work in progress in July 2013, TAKSIM SQUARE was later performed as a finished solo work in November 2013 in London.
Audience Comments
Show Credits
Artistic Direction and Choreography:
Johnny Autin
Performers:
Donata Kukytė, Johal Lloyd, Charlotte Morewood, Frankie Hickman, Melanie Simpson, Rebecca Namgauds, Tom Tindall, Sheridan Sherrat, Mélanie Quevedo, Jason Boyle, Laura Vanhulle and Johnny Autin
Lighting Design:
Andy Finn
Rehearsal Director:
Rebecca Namgauds
Music:
Claude Chalhoub, “Melancholia”; Daniel Waples & Flavio Lopez, “Cajon”; DJ Krush, “Beyond Raging Waves”; Yann Tiersen, “Preparations for the Last TV Fake”; Ceccal, “Playground”
Costume Designer:
Nicola Moorhouse