Turkey

Since 90% of what I’ve seen in Turkey is fancy hotels, and 90% of the people I’ve met are dancers, the Turkey I currently inhabit is partly borrowed from Lonely Planet and partly inspired by translated conversations. The only fact I can confidently share is- youtube is banned in Turkey. Which spells hell for all my hopes of watching bollywood numbers on youtube and learning the moves for the cultural exchange. Strangely enough, the only video I have is ‘Hava Hawai’ from Mr.India, or ‘hawai hawai’ as Maulvi the Indonesian boy calls it. He has the video on his laptop. You’d be surprised by the random bollywood artifacts people have here. Maulvi, after watching Slumdog, was told that Salaam Bombay is a better film on the same issue. In the film the kids keep on dancing to Sridevi’s antics as Hava Hawai, so curious Maulvi downloaded the video. He can even sing the ‘zum zum zum’ bit.
So I had to dance to hava hawai last night. The only thing I had in common with Sridevi was the big butt. Butt, by the way is called ‘popo’ here. We know that because the dance instructors who speak Turkish stress on the Popo all the time. An apple ‘popo’ is the ideal. And right now I have a watermelon ‘popo’.
The second thing I’ve learnt are numbers from one to ten in Turkish. Very important again, as most dancers count the dance rhythm in Turkish. Both, the choreographers are learning English and we, a bit of Turkish to bridge communication barriers. Third thing I’ve learnt about is the great beef, kebabs and food in general. Like Indians, they love their yoghurt; as a drink, as soup, as salad dressing. But extremely unlike Indians, meat means beef here. I was wondering why the meat tasted so different here.
Turkey is the land of mythic proverbs and nouns. This is the land that was defeated by the Trojan horse. It’s the land where the Gordian knot was dutifully tied up. It was believed that whoever could untie the knot would rule Asia. Along came Alexander the Great, and sliced it with his sword and proceeded to cruise on. I like his attitude; if you can’t solve it, don’t bother. He sounds like he’d make a brash driver, breaking signals and overtaking all the time.
There is ofcourse, the history of the Ottoman Empire and fall of Constantinople etc, but I will reserve that for my blog on Istanbul.
Fire of Anatolia
The founder of the dance troupe ‘Fire of Anatolia’ that I am here part of, Mr. Mustafa Erdogan, is an extremely gracious, scholarly gentleman. He has a deep interest in Turkish legends, history, indigenous dance forms, music etc. He has done a brilliant job incorporating the local, historical flavour into his production, ‘Legend of Troy’. He’s added salt, I’d say, because its the ingredient that brings it alive. Watching ‘Troia’ as they call it, in Turkey is very different from watching it in say, Europe, due to the emotions it evokes.

Legend of Troy and nationalism

The legend of Troy, in my mind suffers from the ‘babyfeed syndrome’. Most great stories worldwide face the danger of being reduced to its powdered skeleton; even worse get adapted into oversimplified children stories or Hollywood/History channel films. So by the time you get a whiff of it in another time, another continent, you think the Trojan Horse is either a computer virus or bizarre tale or something. The Arabian Nights is another story to have suffered from this syndrome.
Before coming here, I knew very little about Turkey and its history. I knew about Mustafa Kemal Ataturk though. Ataturk, I understand was this enigmatic, forward looking young hero who’s responsible for modern day Turkey. He instilled a spirit of nationalism and created a nation. And I can’t help but see parallels between Mr.Erdogan and him, besides their common first name.
Mustafa Erdogan is probably the dancing equivalent of A.R Rahman, the music composer at home, i.e an artist who inspires national pride. He revolutionized the way Turks perceive dancing; folk dances in particular. He brought respect to the profession. Many dancers in his company tell us how before ‘Fire of Anatolia’ dancing wasn’t considered a viable profession. Now, parents, friends take pride in seeing their loved ones on stage, and respect the hard work they put in. Mr.Erdogan’s also gained international recognition, an indicator most countries insecure about their worth hang on to. Take A.R Rahman for example, you didn’t need an Oscar to tell you he’s a genius.
The tagline for ‘Fire of Anatolia’s production on Troia is a ‘Dance show from its native land’. You can already feel the pride in that line. It’s the pride of knowing where you come from, and celebrating it. The musical is also designed to generate a spirit of national unity. It shows how men and women, mothers and female warriors alike, leave their newborns and distant homes to come to Troy’s defence. Which is why watching it in Turkey makes these subtle emotions palpable. Everyone speaks of ‘Fire of Anatolia’ with a sense of pride here.

Similarities in mythology

What I also found really interesting were its similarities between Troy and many Hindu mythologies. But more on that in the blog on mythologies as this one’s getting too long.