Thread: Who's tops in Turkey?

Hoping to return to glorious Turkey in the summer and doubt I shall be lucky to catch more than a good house dancer in a bar or restaurant but I would be interested to hear who is top of the Turkish pops as a belly dancer these days. It was Asena when I was last there..is she still going strong?

The hottest dancer in Turkey is always the one who dances at Ibrahim Tatlises´s show: at the moment Didem is the latest "Ibo babe". Didem is very cute and has good basic technique but I am not a big fan of hers as I think that she still lacks emotion and is far too busy with her movements and rather shows her flexibility on gymnastic way than really interpretes the music... anyway when she dances Roman Havasi (karsilama) she is just adorable and at her own element as she is Roma herself.

Asena also is still a big name - she has been dancing at Kervansaray with rising star Elcin: both Elcin and Didem have been studied with Sema Yildiz so her influence can be seen much. At nightclub scence Birgül Beray is still unbeatable (she dances at Orient House) but also other dancers of Orient House are usually worth seeing.

Also Tanyeli is the name still to be noticed: her style is much more musical than of other stars and I myself like her better than Asena or Didem... her current "new fame" is mostly based on her being the judge on Oryantal Star competition but surprisingly the dancers of that competition seem to have been more or less disappeared from headlines although they were some quite good dancers (1st winner Reyhan, Busra who was 2nd on both competitions, Kumsal and Semra... 2nd winner was not very good)

Thanks for that , Kahire.

Ooh yessss Didem doing Roma - fabulous.

Has Tulay Karaja retired? Did her daughter take over her classes or something? I wish I could have seen her live in her heyday.

Kathy x

I think that Tülay Karaca retired already at the early 90´s - her niece Zinnur continued dancing some time after that but she never became as famous as her aunt (if Tülay has a daughter she must be very young as to my understanding she did not have children before her retirement)

BTW not all the famous dancers are good ones - one currently hot dancer is Eylül, who IMO is one of the worst dancers I have ever seen (but she is pretty, of course) and also Zümre was quite awful... and then again some dancer like Hale Sultan, who is a fantastic dancer, has never really become a big star .w.:

Ah Yes, Zumre was big last time I went. A guy gave me a copy of her DVD...Looked lovely in her Bella? costumes . Very attractive and not an awful lot going on....

I've seen zumre on youtube -- I avoid her clips now.

I'd like to see Hale Sultan. Where does one get good videos of Turkish dancers?

Originally Posted by kahire

I think that Tülay Karaca retired already at the early 90´s - her niece Zinnur continued dancing some time after that but she never became as famous as her aunt (if Tülay has a daughter she must be very young as to my understanding she did not have children before her retirement)

Thanks for that, I wasn't sure what the situation was, I remembered reading something somewhere.

BTW not all the famous dancers are good ones - one currently hot dancer is Eylül, who IMO is one of the worst dancers I have ever seen (but she is pretty, of course) and also Zümre was quite awful... and then again some dancer like Hale Sultan, who is a fantastic dancer, has never really become a big star .w.:

Yes I made the mistake of buying the first Zumre DVD. Very odd. But good production I suppose.

Kathy

Problem with Turkish videos/VCD:s/DVD:s is that there at first are not too many available and at second they are not very good as they are not really aimed for dance enthusiasts but more for some kind of soft porn market ..c::

Of course some good clips can always be found even on those most terrible of those old collections: Tülay Karaca, Özel Türkbas and Prenses Banu are always Ok (Nesrin Topkapi also would be good but at least I have not managed to find any videos/VCD:s of her) and there are some glimpses of others that are not completely bad - I remember some clips of Firuze Sultan, Burcin Orhon and Nergis that were not awful (of Mezdeke, Zümre and Sibel Baris I recommend mostly to stay as far as possible) ,r:;

Of new dancers Asena has some VCD:s and Tanyeli has instructional DVD which - even it is very basic and in Turkish - is quite nice and her costume in performance part is really lovely.

Originally Posted by kahire

At nightclub scence Birgül Beray is still unbeatable (she dances at Orient House) but also other dancers of Orient House are usually worth seeing.

Unfortunately, the quality of dancers seems to have gone down in Orient House. And Birgül is VERY ahm.... special. If you like a dominatrix personality and silly games with a man from the audience, go for it. If you simply want got dancing, leave it.
Go to Kervansaray instead. Asena, Elcin and Yildizay are good, Özlem is cute and funny.

MEISSOUN

BTW - who of you UK dancers was it that asked me for the Asena interview for a magazine?

MEISSOUN

Originally Posted by meissoun

BTW - who of you UK dancers was it that asked me for the Asena interview for a magazine?

MEISSOUN

It was your tribal item I asked for but I won't say no to one with Asena either!!!!!..g.:

Aaaah! OK. Switched of my brain during my holidays.

So, you will hear from me once I finished the articles.

MEISSOUN

Originally Posted by meissoun

Unfortunately, the quality of dancers seems to have gone down in Orient House. And Birgül is VERY ahm.... special. If you like a dominatrix personality and silly games with a man from the audience, go for it. If you simply want got dancing, leave it.
Go to Kervansaray instead. Asena, Elcin and Yildizay are good, Özlem is cute and funny.

MEISSOUN

Yes, I guess that Birgül really is "acquired taste" but she for sure can dance if she just is more in the mood for that than for the games ..l;,

I still wonder why the quality has gone down as to my understanding same dancers (Birgül, Oya and Gülnihal) have been dancing there a long time and besides Birgül I really like Oya too... they however represent little bit different style (more "old school Turkish") than Asena and Elcin so perhaps that is also a reason that you preferred dancers of Kervansaray (anyway, I really should see both shows next time in Istanbul)

I should check also with Hale (who is now here in Singapore) if she is dancing somewhere regularly - she is also well worth seeing and has beautiful classic style (she also has VCD with title Raks-i Sultan, which is one of the better Turkish VCD:s out there - she is also the model on Legend costumes so probably quite many are at least familiar with her face ,r:; )