Prof. Eyüp Uzunkaya (President)

The Turkish Folk Dance Department’s purpose is to teach the traditional dances of Turkey and to have interdisciplinary studies that blend this tradition with contemporary trends: from modern dance to dance/movement therapy, from physical theater to body-related performance arts. In addition to being a facet of cultural identity, Turkish Folk Dance attracts significant national and international attention as a performance art and thus requires artistic applications at world standards. The program aims to provide artistic and scientific knowledge that will form a perspective that can integrate the cultural values it represents with the world via technological opportunities at the modern performance art level.The main mission of the Turkish Folk Dance Department is to give students with theoretical and practical knowledge in their fields while acquiring systematic scientific and artistic ways of thinking.

Folk Dances in general have significant importance in the field of performance art worldwide. The advancement of the gains obtained via the universality of the arts, and their association and integration with other disciplines are vital in constituting a resource for new creations. With this in mind, global norms were taken as the basis of evaluation for our training and education process.

E-Mail: turkhalkoyunlari@itu.edu.tr