Özet:

In this article, I will try to understand and examine the HASAD Contemporary Folk Dance Ensemble, also known as Dostlar HASAD, -which is known as the first revolutionist attempt in folk dances-, in the context of cultural theories such as modernism and social identity from a Marxist perspective. In other words, I will try to interpret the relationship between modernism and the founding philosophy of HASAD, the identities that the ensemble created and gave the meaning, in the dialectical and class view of Marxism. HASAD Contemporary Folk Dance Ensemble is founded by the actor and choreographer, Mehmet Akan, within the formation of Dostlar Theater, which was a political theater during the 1970s, when Turkey had been experiencing a surging political atmosphere under the influence of the social movements in Europe. The most important goal of the foundation of the Dostlar Theater was to produce responses through dance for the contemporary social problems of that period. In this regard, besides being a dance theatre, Dostlar HASAD was also a political foundation. Hence, its choreographies composed by contemporary political themes that had not been previously tried within the traditional folk dances in Turkey. I tried to underlie this article in the light of the preliminary research that I have conducted on an oral history project. Therefore, I tried to re-understand the results of my research in the context of aforementioned cultural theories by taking testimonies of seven dancers, actors and actresses (7 person in total) that I interviewed within the scope of that project. The first interviews in this article, which I hope to turn to a monograph, were made with well-known actors, Genco Erkal, Arif Erkin and Levent Yılmaz, the HASAD dancers,; Serdar Türkkan, Şerafettin Güner, Sezai Babakuş, and Sula Bozis, the costume designer of HASAD and Dostlar Theater. Approximately seven hours of these interviews are recorded and deciphered. I value this study for its role in understanding the invisible contribution made to our folk dance field by HASAD, which is a part of the history that has been overlooked by the folk dance society in Turkey.

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