An engineer by profession, Turkish-born Ziya Azazi has been dancing professionally for almost 25 years now. “I loved gymnastics, took to dancing and dedicated all my time to it. I moved to Austria from Turkey for a dance project and stayed back,” he recalls over the phone lines from Turkey. His dance productions are based on experimental whirling and repetition. “My dance is a mix of Contemporary Western and Middle Eastern Sufi dancing, merged with spinning. In 1991, I asked myself what dance meant to me. My lineage was oriental but I was performing Western choreographies. This wasn’t me. So, I wanted to find my movement. I realised then that I simplified movements, and I liked repetition,” he shares.

Pics COURTESY/Gianfranco Rota