Mehmet Sander

Biography

Mehmet Sander was born in Germany in 1967. He started dancing with Geyvan Mcmillen in Istanbul in 1984. Sander continued his dance education at the London Contemporary Dance School, California State University (Long Beach), Harvard University and American Dance Festival. Sander founded the Mehmet Sander Dance Company in 1990. In the United States, Sander and his company have performed in Highways (Santa Monica), Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), Los Angeles Festival (1993), Japan-American Theater and Alaska Performing Arts Center (Anchorage) and elsewhere. The company has participated in numerous events and festivals such as the Holland Dance Festival, New Moves (Scotland), ICA's National Look at Live Arts (UK), Klapstuk Festival (Belgium), Munich Dance Festival (Germany), Szene Festival Salzburg (Austria), Belluard Bolwerk International Festival (Sweden), Transform Copenhagen (Denmark), Istanbul Music Festival (Turkey) and Festival International de Danza (Brazil). Sander′s Inner Space was presented by the Joffrey Ballet, one of the most important American dance companies to date, at prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center and the Smithsonian Institution. The Joffrey Ballet will present this piece again for its 50th year anniversary.

Residency

Mehmet Sander will lead a five day workshop followed by a live public performance. Uncomfort Zone will explore dance as a premise to refuse comfort, emotion and music in favour of collision, maximum velocity and gravity as enhancements of – rather than inhibitions to – performance. Sander will lead tasks that challenge the participants physically, mentally and intellectually, culminating in a new performance in the Great Hall at Queen Mary, University of London on the 15 and 16 March 2011.

Mehmet Sander

Biography

Residency

Other work and links