Baris Dilaver

Beginnings

Born in Zeytinburnu, on the European side of the city of Istanbul, ss a child, he set his sights on a life as a pianist while his twin sister imagined herself a ballerina. After failing their respective auditions, the two swapped professions: she ended up enjoying success as a singer in her homeland while he embarked on a remarkable international career as a ballet dancer.

At the age of 10, Baris began his dance education and training at the National Ballet School of Istanbul, directed by Cem Ertekin. During his studies, he made his galvanizing debut performance in Graduation Ball and became a member of the Cagdas Ballet Company.

At 14, Baris had a dream: to dance for the great ballet companies of Vienna and New York. By a stroke of good fortune, he met dancer Nilay Yesiltepe in Istanbul. After seeing Baris dance, she conspired to make his dreams a reality. With Nilay’s help, Baris landed an audition in Germany and secured the funding he needed for his stint abroad through sponsors Ardic Gursel and Nuray Atabay.

In Stuttgart, Baris studied at the John Cranko School under the tutelage of Alex Ursuliak and Konstantin Rusau. He moved to Vienna in 1994, at the invitation of Anne Wooliams, director of the State Opera Ballet. He went on to dance many of ballet’s greatest roles, including Puck in John Nermeier’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—a role created for him—as well as Mercutio in John Cranko´s Romeo and Juliet. His repertoire also includes choreographies by Kenneth MacMillan, Renato Zanella and William Forsythe. Coached by prominent choreographers including Danish ballet master Egon Madsen, he shared the stage with ballet greats Vladimir Malakhov and Brigitte Stadler. He also danced at the Vienna Dance Theater prior to becoming Solo Dancer at the Volksoper Vienna and taking on roles such as Cupido in Caravaggio as well as dancing in Swan Lake Remixed and Nudo.

Career

From 1993 to 2001, the prolific dancer performed in Germany, France, Ukraine, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Greece and his native Turkey. After this extensive touring, Baris decided to move from classical ballet to contemporary dance in order to widen his artistic horizons. In 2002, he choreographed a presentation for the Swarovski Crystal World, which took him to Germany and Austria. Soon after, he bought a video camera, started filming dancers, and became fascinated with multimedia as a means of expressing through his eye. He was soon to add another string to his artistic bow, when he started making films and documentaries for dance companies and opera houses and pursued two parallel careers – dance and filmmaking. He also founded his own film production company called db Dance Film.

In 2003, Baris created his first choreography at the Odeon Space in Vienna, which included other works by European choreographers and in which he performed in a short duet. He captured this event on film and produced Out There, A Play Through Time, which was later featured at the Vienna Short Film Festival. He went on to create over a dozen dance films and documentaries on dancers and dance venues, including the very first Black Dance Festival in Vienna, featuring performances by New York’s Opus Theater and the Dallas Ballet. He also filmed the International Impulse Dance Festival in Vienna, directed, choreographed and performed by Ismael Ivo (Mapplethorpe).

A few years earlier, Baris had seen Cirque du Soleil’s production Alegría in Vienna and immediately saw himself in one of the company’s shows. After contacting Cirque’s casting department in 2003, he was invited to Berlin a month later to audition for one of three coveted dance roles, and made the cut. He joined Cirque’s Dralion tour a year later.

In 2005, Baris danced in New Opera Vienna's production Seven Deadly Sins, which he captured on film, and later joined Cirque du Soleil’s innovative multimedia touring show Delirium, under the direction of American choreographer Mia Michaels. The show visited more than 150 cities across the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe.

Baris Dilaver currently lives in Vienna, where he is pursuing his work as a choreographer and filmmaker.

Metamorphosis of Turk

Metamorphosis of Turk is a film produced and directed by Barış Dilaver with script edited by Martina Flor, Evelyn Wysoudil, Barış Dilaver and camera assistance by Murat Noyan, Helmut Fisher, Felix Schobert, Willy Wysoudil and Turkish translation by Elif Aksoy.

Synopsis: Born in Istanbul in 1975, He left his home country at a very young age after having completed his training to become a ballet dancer. He spent the following 20 years dancing on stages all over the world, including the Vienna State Opera. In 2007 a serious injury put a sudden end to his career as a professional dancer – a turning point in his life. Convalescent and deprived of his identity as a dancer, he decided to come back to Vienna, where he had found a second home. But his return proved to be disillusioning: The Viennese, who are known for their heart of gold and who welcomed him with open arms when he was still a member of the State Opera’s ballet, were now fearful, disrespectful and, in some cases, even hostile in their reactions to the Turks in Vienna. And that’s when he embarked on his journey in search of his identity and his future and he started by searching for his roots. He shared the fate of his Turkish home country: He had started to feel and act "European" a long time ago but did that mean that he had to deny his Turkish identity? And did he want to be part of a Europe whose right-wing populists tried hard to preserve an image of Turkey characterized by Islamism, women being forced to wear headscarves and forced marriage? His search for what unites us and what separates us made him delve deeper into the history of Europe and Turkey, the Ottoman Empire, the Christian and Islamic religions. Movement, change, being on the road and an open future: these notions characterize his own life and are also reflected in his film. It is an attempt to fight static views and black-and-white judgments which lead to generalizations and tell only half the truth, thus frustrating any chance of fruitful dialogue. But on the other hand there is also an abundance of positive encounters and experience that marked the joint history of two countries and these are also shown in his film. 247,000 Turks live in Austria, many of them in Vienna. Being one of them, it is probably his purpose in life to build a bridge between two cultures, which are full of similarities and diversity, like the bridge across the Bosporus which connects the Orient and the Occident.

Dance education

Filmography and documentaries

Guest performance

Repertoire