The performance Hamamcı Teyze reveals our dormant power in a dance

Dance performance is my thing. I am writing from my dance performance artist’s perspective, being mainly focused on the movement in relation to the surrounding.

The performance Hamamcı Teyze produced by Bubble Gum in collaboration with Soma People was presented at Night Tales Loft in East London on October 12. To me, it was a dance performance, with a participatory component, and an element of immersivity.

The performers Yağmur Taçar and Irini Kattou were gorgeous! Such queens in the way they hold the space and project themselves.

I have been to a nightclub a few times in my life. I missed the dress code, and I felt awkward at first. Yet, I got very comfortable in the space eventually. Everyone around was friendly, and Yağmur made me feel welcomed and included, waving to me when I entered and then talking to me.

Besides, hearing the techno beat that constantly fills the space makes you move with the beat inevitably. You get fully immersed in the performance from the moment you step onto the dance floor. You participate bodily, becoming a part of the organism made of all who are in the space with you.

The venue is charming and the natural (at the moment of performance) lighting was quite divine.

My first impression was even shocking, how powerful it was altogether: the space, the lighting, the live sound, the performers’ presence, movement, and costumes. Yağmur and Irini were dancing on two sides of the DJ, V.40, so stylish all three together. At the start, the performers were on stage, shining in the bright sunlight like popular music stars from the 1970s, reminding me of the female duo Althea & Donna in particular.

Yağmur and Irini were wearing tight dark skin coloured latex miniskirts, sleeveless short tops, and black leather high-heeled boots. The costumes looked DIY and bold, yet inventive and luxurious!

To be honest, I felt that it must be killing to dance for an hour nonstop in this kind of costumes as well as boots. Yet, I am a fan of limitations, and they defined movement, making it a bit more restrained, which created the impression that the performers move with such pride: no extra and no unnecessary movement is involved. We say ‘carrying yourself’ through space, or like floating in some sense, with a big dignity, and it always relates to the female movement in public.

It was so courageous, so wild in a great sense, the participatory moment when the performers entered the public in another type of costume, producing steam and having a prop for washing themselves and others (the loofahs). It was my favourite part, and I greatly enjoyed dancing with stylised traditional music which accompanied the participatory part of the performance. This type of dancing awakens some dormant inner power in the body. It reminds us that each of us has this power inside.

And the culmination was when Yağmur and Irini danced a bit together closer to the floor. It was a peak / highest moment. This little duo dance received a great audience appreciation, yet the performers did not chase success. They mixed with the audience and never came back to the stage during that hour. They got to be among us, to be with us, in solidarity. The performance is about being together. It breaks the division between the stage and the audience. Everyone has power and is a star. Every member of the audience shines and gets visible in this performance.

Thank you so much for your marvellous and audacious performance, for igniting our inner light, ladies! Standing applause.