Taldans was officially founded in 2002 by Mustafa Kaplan and Filiz Sızanlı. The partners first met and collaborated in 1996 at the Theatre Research Laboratory (TAL) of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theatres. Kaplan’s education in engineering and Sızanlı’s education in architecture significantly shaped the development of their shared artistic language.

The name Taldans originates from the Theatre Research Laboratory (TAL), which, under the artistic leadership of Beklan Algan and Ayla Algan—known for their work in creative acting and theatre anthropology—opened its doors to dance-based researches. Taldans created its first works within this context. This process eventually led to the establishment of ÇATI – Association of Contemporary Dance Artists in 2004, together with former and new collaborators. As founding members of ÇATI, Kaplan and Sızanlı continued their artistic research and production as Taldans within this structure.

For many years, Taldans consisted solely of Kaplan and Sızanlı. Their practice focused on researching what two interacting bodies could generate through mixed mechanisms within an unstructured logic, grounded in careful physical exploration. In its early phases, Kaplan’s engineering background strongly influenced his works, drawing on principles of Newtonian physics—such as reflection, collision, falling, momentum, and force. Within the laboratory-based theatre tradition, concepts such as energy dramaturgy and unstable balance shaped both the form and content of their productions. Over time, Sızanlı’s architectural perspective expanded their choreographic research toward body image, public space, and ritual.

Following the works Dolap (2000) and Sek Sek (2002), which were presented at more than eighty festivals internationally, Taldans gained wide recognition abroad. These pieces focused on the body’s relationship to architecture, gravity, space, and play. Gradually, it became clear that their interest extended beyond physical conditions toward more complex notions of memory and imagination, emerging from the body’s interaction with space and acoustics. This intention led to collaborations with artists such as visual artist and composer Cevdet Erek, and visual artist Erki de Vries, whose practices are closely connected to theatre performance field.

With these collaborations, previously implicit themes in Taldans’ work became more pronounced. In Graf (2006), for example, ordinary causal relationships were overturned: inanimate objects appeared to acquire agency, bodies were fragmented or distorted, and seemingly impossible events unfolded. It was as if a Newtonian understanding of the world had given way to a post-Newtonian one, where space and time could bend in multiple directions—an ironic revisiting of the artists’ scientific backgrounds from a renewed perspective. 

In 2009, Dokuman marked a significant intention as Kaplan and Sızanlı were no longer the sole performers. Alongside De Vries and Erek, two additional dancers joined the work. The piece revolved around the concept of fabric, generated through the dancers’ interactions. Simple gestures were passed between performers in a near-mechanical manner until disruptions and failures emerged, giving rise to new movement structures. Here again, the internal logic of the work appeared to operate independently of both conventional knowledge and the dancers’ individual intentions.

Memory has consistently been a central source of inspiration in Taldans’ practice. Rather than functioning as a simple reproduction of the past, memory actively edits lived experience, often unconsciously, producing images, concepts, and movement material that offer unexpected perspectives on life. Taldans is particularly interested in the body as a container of memory—memories that surface through repeated actions and transform through reenactment. This understanding of memory as a process of reconsideration lies at the core of Eskiyeni, a work built from Kaplan’s and Sızanlı’s memories of their earlier collaborations.

Alongside group works, Kaplan and Sızanlı have also produced solo performances. One of Taldans’ earliest solo projects, Solum (2004), consisted of two solos presented as a duo. In Kaplan’s solo, the statement “my body is my country” emerged from a fictional autobiographical exploration, while in Sızanlı’s solo, the question “how can I lie with my body?” unfolded into an examination of bodily alienation and multiplicity. The Latin meaning of Solum “a path taken alone” resonated with this structure.

The second solo project, İp/Site (2012), explored the body in relation to environment and social context, merging stage space with external locations in a site-specific approach. Concepts such as space/city and social setting were central. Kaplan transformed objects and symbols collected in Casablanca and Copenhagen into performative installations, while Sızanlı focused on hospitality and hostility within domestic and architectural environments in and Antwerp, examining the intersections of art, power, and architecture.

After İp/Site, Taldans increasingly focused on public space and artistic gatherings. In 2013, they collaborated with Portuguese performance artist Vânia Rovisco and Belgian dramaturg Pieter T’Jonck, investigating the relationship between science and art. During this period, they witnessed the Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, an experience that directly influenced their work and led to the project We Need to Move Urgently (2014).

In the same year, upon invitation from the Adam Mickiewicz Institute to mark 600 years of Turkish–Polish relations, Taldans initiated 600 Steps, a collaborative project involving Turkish and Polish artists. The project explored ways for rediscovering a city through 600 different approaches and was presented in Warsaw and Istanbul in 2014.

In 2015, as guest artists of the X-Apartments project at Onassis Foundation, Kaplan and Sızanlı collaborated with a Syrian refugee family living in Athens, sharing stories of displacement and belonging through performative means.

In 2017, Taldans created Victory Over the Sun, inspired by futurist attitudes and driven by a desire for a liberating fiction in language and the body. The work, which explored the relationship between text, rhythm, and movement, premiered at the 21st Istanbul Theatre Festival and was later presented at Théâtre de la Ville in Paris.

In 2018, in collaboration with French choreographer Julie Nioche, Taldans created Ritual for Sensitive Geography, questioning rituals of encounter in a fragmented geopolitical context. The work premiered at Le Bal Gallery in Paris and was later presented at several international venues and festivals.

The same year, Dokuman was reimagined as DO KU MAN with an expanded cast and premiered at the 22nd Istanbul Theatre Festival.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Taldans created Less Than No Time (2020), continuing their choreographic research through mathematical scores, sequences, and repetition, exploring the distinctive dynamics of Serialism, which introduced a systematic approach to form through its atonal structures in the twentieth century.

In parallel, Taldans created Audio Choreography – Walk for the Bipod Festival, in collaboration with sound artist Sinan Sair Kestelli and dramaturg Eylül Fidan Akıncı. The work was later adapted as Audio Choreography – Permeable Structures at Hasanpaşa Gazhanesi ‘’Müze Gazhane’’, upon the invitation of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Culture Department. Conceived as an auditory interface, the piece activates choreography through participant engagement—here, choreography is understood in an expanded sense. The project guides participants to engage in movement, action, and sensory exploration within public and semi-public spaces.

In 2022, Taldans collaborated with Portuguese choreographers Sofia Dias & Vítor Roriz on NEVERODDOREVEͶ, with co-production of the Alkantara Festival Lisbon and theThéâtre de la Ville Paris, a work rooted in shared interests in precision, minimalism, language, abstraction, and growing interest in the interactions between spoken word, voice, movement, and gesture.

In 2025, Kaş Theatre Days invited Taldans to present Around the Table (ATT), a piece originally imagined by Anne Kerzerho and Loïc Touzé in 2008. ATT is an interdisciplinary project that investigates the physical relationships individuals establish with their professions through the body, gesture, and movement, by means of the choreographic approach. Within the framework of Kaş Theatre Days—supported by the European Union through the CultureCIVIC: Cultural and Arts Support Program and by Kültür İçin Alan: Co-Production Program—the work was adapted by Taldans to the cultural and geographical characteristics of the region.

During the same period, Taldans participated in the Performing Studies International (PSi) Conference #30 – Cruzo, Cruising, Crossroads with the performance-installation On the Road. In this work, drawing and movement are intertwined, foregrounding the healing potential of ritual and exploring the unifying power of collective action. This audience-participatory performance forms part of the larger project Ritual for a Sensitive Geography, co-authored with Julie Nioche.

Most recently, Taldans has been working on TROYA XX, a project that explores the archive as a performative space for remembrance, forgetting, and selective memory. Drawing on the archival material of Troy 1, a play staged nearly thirty years ago at the Theatre Research Laboratory (TAL), the work researches how history is constructed, remembered, and re-embodied through the body.

On the academic side, Sızanlı completed her MA in Contemporary Dance at the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2020 with the thesis Choreographic Research in Limited Space, and her MFA in 2024 with the thesis The Application of the Body–Mind Centering® (BMC®) Method in Aging and Movement Research and the Production of a Contemporary Dance Work. Kaplan completed his MA in the same department with the thesis The Creation of Interdisciplinary Choreography in the Context of Engineering Discipline. Taldans regularly teaches at Okan University and Çatı Studio in Istanbul.

 

 

Mustafa KAPLAN

Mustafa Kaplan was born in Konya in 1965. In 1984, he took Graham technique lessons from Geyvan McMillan and started dancing. He danced in the Contemporary Ballet Company in 1989-92. He graduated from Yıldız University Electronics and Communication Engineering Department in 1990. He joined the Istanbul City Theater as a dancer in 1991. He danced and choreographed various plays of this theater until 2001. He received theater training from Beklan Algan and Ayla Algan between 1996-2001. He became one of the founders of Yeşil Üzümler Dance Theater, Dans Fabrikası, Taldans group and ÇATI Studio. He danced in Aydın Teker’s choreographies. He played his plays in many theater and dance festivals in Turkey and abroad. For many years, he has been producing joint projects in the Taldans group, which he founded with Filiz Sızanlı. His master’s thesis titled “Interdisciplinary Choreography in the Context of Engineering Discipline” at MSFAU Modern Dance Department was completed in 2023. He has done dance/movement workshops in Turkey and abroad and still gives dance and movement lessons at the ÇATI Studio and the Theater Department of Okan University.

 

Filiz SIZANLI

Filiz Sızanlı is a choreographer, dancer, and educator working in the field of contemporary dance. She graduated from the Department of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University in 1997 and subsequently took part in various projects at the Theatre Research Laboratory of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theatres. She is a founding member of the Çatı Association of Contemporary Dance Artists. Between 2001 and 2005, she worked with Mathilde Monnier at the Centre Chorégraphique National de Montpellier (CCN), and collaborated on various projects with Emmanuelle Huynh, Mustafa Kaplan, Yann Marussich, and Julie Nioche. In 2002, she co-founded Taldans Company with Mustafa Kaplan. Sızanlı completed her MA in Contemporary Dance at the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in 2020 with the dissertation “Choreographic Research in Limited Space”, and her DFA in 2024 with the dissertation “The Application of the Body–Mind Centering®️ (BMC®️) Method in Aging and Movement Research and the Production of a Contemporary Dance Work.” Her work reflects an interdisciplinary approach that explores the relationships between public space, architecture, and performance through the body’s perception, rhythm, and rituals. She currently teaches at ÇATI Studio.