The fascinating originality of the Turkish Folklore simply comes from a variety of extra-ordinary cultures which have been existing for thousands of years on Anatolia that has often been admitted as the crossroads of continents for different ethnic groups. The Turkish Folklore carries the characteristic of these cultures throughout centuries by means of the traditional features of the cultural heritage. And this is, not suprisingly, why the well-known Turkish Folk Dance, fed by a mosaic of different cultures, still successfully reflects the enthusiasm and sentimentality of Anatolian people, describing their real life-style in artistic manner. Each dance tells something about the way they smile, the way they cry, the way they fight or the way they fall in love, with an impressive rhythm and the old-styled costumes. Yet, Turkish Folk Dance serves as a social function by providing collective entertainment for the community.
In this context, Izmir Folklore Association(IFD) was established with the aim of keeping the beauty and tradition of folk dancing which is a significant part of the rich Anatolian Culture alive in February 2005 by 40 volunteers. We have tried to intorduce this tradition and beauty to as many people as we can and to make it be appreciated as well. Now, we have shared our love, rich Anatolian Culture and our dream, being one of the leading amateur organization of Turkiye, which has been making serious contributions to the Turkish Folklore, with 150 members.
In order to reach our aim, to demonstrate the Turkish Folk Dance as an artistic event without deforming the original features which had been alive until now and are likely to be so even in the future, a lot of volunteers have joined us everyday.
Our dancing group dominantly consists of experienced members who had danced for different folk dance association or group and represented İzmir and Turkiye both national and international festivals and organizations before.
In June 2005, in the forth month of our establishment, we exhibited two unforgettable performance with our 8 different regional dance and 2 enstrumental and culturel shows, for 1500 audience with the wide experiences and amateur spirit of our dancers.
In August 2005, our 43 dancers participated Universiade 2005-Opening Ceremony as a represantative of IFD and they caused to live huge happiness and undefined honour.
In 2005-2006 season, we have keep on our activities in 9 different folkloric region (Izmir, Tokat, Trabzon, Anamur, Denizli, Artvin, Uskup, Diyarbakır, Kuzey Kafkas) and 4 enstrumental and cultural show (Drum Show, Traditional Turkish Weeding and Circumcise Ceremony, War and Salvation) with 150 Dancer, 7 professional Educator and 3 Advisor. Our dancers, who are between 10-60 years old, are classified according to their age and experiences as three different groups: Junior, A Group and Masters.
Tags: Ifd Turkey IFD Folkdance Folklore
