Ziya Azazi
Ziya Azazi was born in 1969 in Antakya, Turkey. He graduated in Mining Engineering from Istanbul Technical University and trained in gymnastics at intervals.
Between 1990 and 1994 he performed as a dancer at the Istanbul City Theatres, where he made his first choreographic works. From 1994 to 2000 he worked with various dance companies in Vienna.
In 1999 he was awarded the Dance Weber grant and named “Austria's Most Outstanding Dancer of the Year” by Ballet International magazine.
Whirling and DIP
Experiencing whirling — one of the fundamental dances of Sufism — since 1999, the artist has interpreted it through many different choreographies over the years. While enriching, through his research, the dance terminology and teaching he came to call Dervish In Progress (DIP), he has also continued to interact with other disciplines.
Among the artists he has created work with over the years:
- Sebastian Prantl
- Ismael Ivo
- Marcia Haydee
- Yoshi Oida
- Jan Fabre
- Thierry Smits
- Kayhan Kalhor
- Parastou Forouhar
- Thimios Atzakas
- Miguel Angel Berna
- Claudio Bettinelli
- Serge Adams
- Zad Moultaka
- Mercan Dede
- Sertab Erener
- Sabri Tuluğ Tırpan
- Mehmet Balkan
- Burhan Öcal
- Yılmaz Erdoğan
- Baba Zula
By the Numbers
Years on stage
Countries performed in
Countries with workshops
Countries in DIPTEP
Workshops
Stage Works
By giving space in his projects to other art forms, to unconventional ideas and to mechanical and technological possibilities, he created the performances Dervish In Progress, Azab, Dervish, Icons, Enerji, Ember, Bolero, Neo Dervish and Kısmet.
Based in Vienna, and through a performance language entirely his own, the artist has brought numerous projects and collaborations to audiences in 50 countries over a thirty-year career. Within the framework of special events he has also performed in the presence of members of the royal families of Denmark, Morocco, the Netherlands, Thailand and the United Kingdom.
The Journey
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1969
Antakya
Ziya Azazi was born in Antakya; he studied Mining Engineering at Istanbul Technical University and trained in gymnastics at intervals.
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1990-1994
Istanbul City Theatres
He performed as a dancer and created his first choreographic works.
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1994-2000
Vienna
He worked with various dance companies; Vienna became his permanent base.
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1999
Dance Weber and Dancer of the Year
Awarded the Dance Weber grant and named “Austria's Most Outstanding Dancer of the Year” by Ballet International magazine. In the same year he began to experience whirling.
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2018
DIPTEP
The two-year Dervish In Progress Teacher Training Programme began, welcoming participants from 15 different countries.
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Today
Stage, workshops and retreats
He continues to perform, to lead retreats and workshops and to teach in various formats within international projects.
Teaching and Training
He has shared the dance terminology and teaching that took shape over the years through workshops and retreats in 35 countries to date. DIPTEP, the two-year Dervish In Progress Teacher Training Programme he launched in 2018, has welcomed participants from 15 different countries.
So far DIPTEP has trained teachers who have completed more than 30 Fundamentals and 15 Formation courses; despite the pause caused by the pandemic, preparations continue for the third and fourth generations.
For some ten years Azazi has also given presentations, at intervals, to academic and institutional audiences such as Goldsmiths London, Istanbul Kültür University, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, TEDx Istanbul and Joyology Talks.
In the fifteen years leading up to the start of the pandemic he averaged 35 journeys to 15 countries each year, with 45 performances, 10 workshops, 2 collaborations, 1 project and 1 presentation; he continues to perform, to lead retreats and workshops and to teach in various formats within international projects.
Dervish In Progress
Dervish In Progress (DIP) is a contemporary dance terminology and teaching that speaks to the mind, the body and the emotions, holds many disciplines within it, and is grounded in the practice of whirling as experienced above all in Sufism.
DIP creates space and time for individuals who believe in free thought and understanding, giving them the chance to move, to act and to feel freely while whirling.
Science cannot make room in its world for an intuition it is unable to prove; belief, in turn, wanders the world of intuition without needing proof. Yet moving freely between intuition and knowledge is what allows us to undergo emotional, cognitive and bodily transformations we might call organic and authentic.
Whirling as Transformation
Whirling offers precisely the chance to live such a transformation. Contrary to what is assumed in Anatolia, whirling has for centuries been experienced in many different forms across many geographies.
As a 52-year-old tailor's son from the provinces, an urban engineer who has danced for 32 years and a global artist who has whirled for 22, Ziya Azazi — nourished by the pleasure of uniting intuitive wandering with knowledge — offers the DIP terminology and teaching, founded on whirling, as an instrument that can be used in everyday life.
While whirling, shifts in perception occur: the eyes can no longer form images, the vestibular system cannot hold balance, the sense of direction blurs, sound itself begins to turn. These shifts arise from the physical acceleration experienced and the centrifugal force it produces. Intensified circulation and breathing raise the body's temperature, increasing activity in organs, glands, fibres and muscles. In short, the extraordinary electrical currents in the nervous system and the increased production of biochemicals that result from all this have always fascinated people.
What Does DIP Offer?
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Courage to step into the unknown
It nurtures the courage to step, consciously and intuitively, into the unknown, the not-yet-lived, the forgotten and the undiscovered.
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Constructive, healing, joyful
It lets us see ways of being constructive, healing and joyful in personal, family, social and universal frames.
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Intuition and knowledge together
Moving freely between intuition and knowledge, it opens space for organic and authentic emotional, cognitive and bodily transformation.
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35 countries, 200+ workshops
Led by Ziya Azazi, it has reached thousands of participants in more than 200 workshops across 35 countries.
Gallery
Join the workshops and trainings
To experience whirling in your own body, join the workshops, retreats and teacher training programmes; and find whirling skirts and other products in the DIP SHOP.
