With her company of 10 dancers the dancer/choreographer Zeynep Tanbay presents her show “4 Ayak”. Her choreography is supported by music by composers such as Philip Glass and poems by the Turkish poet/writer Nazim Hikmet.

Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project developed at the end of a long and hard journey running from Kugu Bale Studio in Ankara to Martha Graham Dance Company in New York. The first performance in 2000 marked the recognition of Zeynep Tanbay not only a magnificent dancer but also as a creative and original choreographer by the dance audience in Turkey. When Zeynep Oral wrote in her column Esintiler at the Milliyet newspaper that “watching Zeynep Tanbay at the stage, I was hearing the “sound” of dance, seeing the “color” of dance... we were not watching only technique, but merely and purely the poetry of the body, a poem unprecedented until now” (April 6, 2000), she was pointing out to the magic of dance.        

Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project has filled an important gap in the field of dance in Turkey  and has been the sole professional modern dance ensemble maintaining its existence independent of the state since 2000. For the first 5 years, carrying on project-based works through bringing together different dancers and choreographers, Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project had repertoire of solos and duets. In 2006 Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project a new stage as a COMPANY of 10 dancers with the sponsorship of Akbank. This new formation will perform a vital function for new talents of modern dance through providing Zeynep Tanbay with the prospect to institutionalize and establish a school of dance of her own.      

Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project received wide interest in Turkey and went on to attend the ‘Şimdi/Now’ Festival in Stuttgart in 2005. The description in the introduction of ‘Şimdi/Now’ Festival by Istanbul Foundation Culture and Arts which states that “as one of the most significant pioneers of modern dance in Turkey, Tanbay’s vision of dance has been an influential force in the shaping of modern dance practice in Turkey” expresses well the achievement of Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project.

As there wasn’t a dance company founded around a single name in Turkey up to now, Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project becomes the first example of internationally recognized structure of modern dance companies. 

AKBANK came together with Zeynep Tanbay, a pioneering artist in her field, to bring 10 young, dynamic, creative, and professional dancers under a single roof. As our mission fills us with pride, we await in excitement, for dance to open onto new formations in Turkey.  

We spend most of our lives on chairs, benches, couches, at tables and in bed. There is very little time for vertical life. 

Zeynep Tanbay’s new project brings both sides together on stage, where the choreography corresponds to our daily rhythms and movements. 

The Magic of the dance that stems from the relationship between 4 legs and 2 legs, takes us beyond the actual and casual, while focusing on the relationship of the body with the objects.

There are ones who fall on four feet and those fail to hold on... ones who stand askew to life and those who remain on the limits... those who decide and about those whom decisions are made ... the crushers and the crushed, shortly all kind of beings and relationships of human, meet the magic of the art of dance.

Following the evolution of the species through life, our search that stretches from 4 legs to 2 legs continues until we finally meet ourselves.

More than anything, 4 LEGS  makes you think about your 2 legs.

There is no intermission during the performance.

CHOREOGRAPHY: Zeynep Tanbay 

MUSIC: Philip Glass - # 2, 3, 5 from String Quartet No: 5

Marlene Dietrich – Lili Marlene
Madredeus – O postor
Burhan Öçal  - # 4 from Sultan Osman
G. B. Pergolesi - # 12 from Stabat Mater
Jerzy Peterburshsky – El sol sueno
Zbigniew Preisner  - # 2, 4, 6, 10, 16 from Blue
Yann Tiersen - # 3, 18 from Goodbye Lenin
Caetano Veloso - # from Habla Con Ella
Kevin Volans - # 1, 3 from White Man Sleep