20th Turkish Folk Dances Contest
20th Turkish Folk Dances Contest
| Winner | : | Yedirenk Folk Dances, Youth and Sports Club / Kirklareli Region |
| Runner-up | : | Cankaya Municipality Hoy-Tur Folk Dances Group Youth and Sports Club / Skopje Region |
| Second Runner-up | : | Yalova Tourism and Folklore Research and Development Association / Fethiye Region |
| Fourth | : | Tuana Art, Youth and Sports Club / Trabzon Region |
| Fifth | : | Bursa Culture Arts and Tourism Foundation Karagoz Folk Dances Ensemble / Bursa Region |
| Honorable Mention | : |
Anadolu Folklore Foundation Folk Dances Ensemble / Kirsehir Region Izmir Cigli Community Education Center and Evening Art School / Izmir Region Kartal Folklore Association / Bitlis Region Kutahya Central Community Education Center and Evening Art School Directorate / Kutahya Region |
Held with the cooperation of the Sabanci Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Turkish Folk Dances Contest hosted a special get-together in its 20th anniversary. The event that features the most exquisite examples of folk dances from around Turkey staging a visual feast to spectators each year, hosted a competition among the “Winners of the past 20 years” this year.
The finals and award ceremony took place on May 15, 2012 at the Sabanci University Perfoming Arts Center with the attendance of Turkan Sabanci; Abdurrahman Arici, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism; Husnu Pacacioglu, Vice Chairman of the Sabanci Foundation; Zerrin Koyunsagan, General Manager of the Sabanci Foundation, and more than 500 distinguished guests.
The winners of the last 20 years, who are still active today, competed during the final. The message of Guler Sabanci, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sabanci Foundation was, “The Turkish Folk Dances Contest that upkeeps the cultural values of our country has left behind 20 years. Folk dances, rhythms, colors, drums, kemanchas, the local dances of zeybek, halay and horon, and many other elements have congregated at the Turkish Folk Dances Contest throughout 20 years. Representing the multiplicity of colors, the ensembles did not only compete but made us feel the affluence of Anatolia running in our veins. The winners have served as a window of our cultural wealth opening up to the world, representing Turkey abroad. We are utterly pleased and proud to convey the cultural identity of Turkey in folk dances to future generations by means of this contest which we have been organizing for the past 20 years.”
Turkish Folk Music celebrity Sumer Ezgu performed a mini concert at the finals, offering enjoyable time to the spectators and the competing teams.
More than 20.000 Dancers Competed in 400 Ensembles in 20 Years
The contest featured the most delicate examples of folk dances representing the Anatolian culture for the last 20 years. The screening and rehearsals to identify the best ensembles around Turkey took a total of 960 hours and more than 165.000 km distance was covered along the way. Hosting more than 400 ensembles and 20.000 dancers, the contest has distributed approximately 200 awards so far.
