The Fire of Anatolia or Anadolu Ateşi is a Turkish dance group consisting of 120 dancers, several choreographers and other technical staff. The group has performed in more than 85 countries from the United States to China and Japan, in front of an audience of approximately 20 million people altogether.Fire of Anatolia – History
Fire of Anatolia holds two

Guinness record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

s, one for fastest dance performance with 241 steps per minute and another for largest audience, 400,000 people in Ereğli, in the Black Sea Region of the country. On 9 February 2013, Fire of Anatolia performed at the

CCTV New Year's Gala The ''CMG New Year's Gala'', formerly known as the ''CCTV New Year's Gala'', also known as the ''Spring Festival Gala'', and commonly abbreviated in Chinese as ''Chunwan'' (), is a Chinese New Year special produced by China Media Group (CMG). I ...

. The head of the group is Mustafa Erdoğan.

History

The concept of a large dance group performing

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

n dances mixed with modern dance and

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

was a long desired dream of Mustafa Erdoğan, who conducted folk dance studies at

Bilkent University Bilkent University () is a private non-profit research university located in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded by İhsan Doğramacı, the first president of the Council of Higher Education and the head of the prominent Doğramacı family, with th ...

. In 1999 he established the foundations of the group then called ''Sultans of the Dance''. There were advertisements published in local newspapers in search of dancers. Out of 750 applicants Mustafa chose 90, who started working on their physical and dance abilities, under strict supervision. The masters of the dance company educate their dancers themselves, teaching them the basics of

, modern dance or folk dance, depending on the dance educational background and the area the dancers need improvements in. The group had its first performances in 2001 and started a world tour a year later, already under the name ''Fire of Anatolia''. The number of dancers now reaches 120, which means that the group is able to perform the same show in two or three locations at the same time. According to Erdoğan, Fire of Anatolia is currently among the three largest dance groups in the world. The dance group has performed so far in more than 40 countries, including the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Romania,

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, Bulgaria, Russia,

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, France, Egypt (just in front of the

Pyramids A pyramid () is a Nonbuilding structure, structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a Pyramid (geometry), pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid ca ...

), the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and Mexico. The programs they currently perform are named ''Fire of Anatolia'' and ''Dawool'', the latter of which is "built on rhythm. It begins with a religious scene, then a romantic duet and continues with drum sessions. We wanted to reflect Istanbul with it, its multiculturalism, the mixture of cultures and religions" (''Oktay Keresteci, ballet choreographer'').

Main staff

Besides the 120 dancers, there are several people working for the project. The main choreographers are Mustafa Erdoğan, who is responsible for

halay Halay is the national dance of Turkey and refers to a broad category for all circular and line dances performed throughout the country. Today, it is danced by Turks, Kurds, and Greeks, among others. Halay and similar dances are parts of multiple a ...

and the dances of the Southern region of Turkey, while Alper Aksoy collects elements from the dances of the

Aegean Region The Aegean region () is one of the 7 Geographical regions of Turkey, geographical regions of Turkey. The largest city in the region is İzmir. Other big cities are Manisa, Aydın, Denizli, Muğla, Afyonkarahisar and Kütahya. Located in w ...

and Oktay Keresteci does the modern dance and ballet choreography. Oktay Keresteci, one of Turkey's most acknowledged ballet dancers and teachers,The member list of the State Opera and Ballet – Ministry of Culture of the Turkish Republic
still performs on stage with Fire of Anatolia, despite his 48 years of age. * General Director and Choreographer: Mustafa Erdoğan * Supervisor:

Yılmaz Erdoğan Yılmaz Erdoğan (born 4 November 1967) is a Turkish filmmaker, actor and poet who is most famous for his box-office record-breaking debut comedy film '' Vizontele'' (2001) and the television series ''Bir Demet Tiyatro'' (1995–2002/2006–2007 ...

* Music: Taner Demiralp, Fuat Saka, Mustafa Erdoğan * Choreography: Oktay Keresteci, Alper Aksoy, Baris Akarsu * Costume: Sultan Gözcü Özel * Makeup Design and Stage Manager: Serkan Aydın

References

External links

* {{Dance Folk dance companies Dance in Turkey 2001 establishments in Turkey