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His choreography was awarded the gold medal at the Hong Kong Open dance competition in 2004 (performed by Budlet Dance Company) as well as the first prize at the ethnic dance competition in Germany in 2005 (performed by Elvan Dance Company). Since arriving in North America in 1985, he has taught many workshops and camps throughout the United States as well as Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Holland, England, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Norway, Italy and Australia. He has set innumerable suites of dances for the stage working with dance organizations around the world. Some of the notable performing ensembles with whom he has worked include AMAN of Los Angeles, BYU dancers of Provo, BUDLET of Hong Kong, LES SORTILEGES of Montreal, and VINOK of Edmonton. In his native Turkey, he choreographed for HOYTUR, TURHOY and GEHEM of Ankara, ANADOLU UNIVERSITESI of Eskisehir, BUTFOD of Bursa and FOLKTUR of Istanbul. In 1991 Ahmet joined the Artistic Staff of AMAN as resident choreographer. Prior to his departure for the US, Ahmet also served as Director of Dances for HOY-TUR, long considered Turkey's leading dance association. Since the age of eight he has danced with numerous school ensembles and private associations, many of which won outstanding awards in city-wide and National-International competitions. Between 1973 and 2003 he participated in International dance festivals & competitions throughout Europe and North America. In edition, him and his ensembles appeared in more than 60 programs broadcast nationally in countries such as Turkey, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, USA, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan and Germany.
Sherene is a member of the SF Community Arts, Education, and Cultural Equity Committee, SF Arts Providers Alliance, California Arts Advocates, and International Dance Council UNESCO. She designed and directs DANCE OUT! Presidio Performing Arts Foundation's free citywide education program offered in the public schools, funded by the California Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts, which was nominated by the Presidio Trust to receive the President's Commission for Arts & Humanities, Coming Up Taller Award. Trained in classical dance by San Francisco Ballet and Kirov Academy of Ballet, Washington, DC, Sherene performed principal youth roles with both San Francisco Ballet and Kirov Ballet (on its US national tour), and at 16, participated in the Prix de Lausanne international dance competition, one of twelve to represent the USA. Concurrently, she studied character and international folk dance in the style of Igor Moiseyev. After spending two years in Russia as the student of Kirov Ballet Mistress, Gabriella Komleva, Sherene performed as a guest artist with ballet and folk companies in Russia, France, Germany, Sweden, Brazil, and Switzerland. As a Choreographer, she has set pieces for dance companies at home and abroad, and presented for the United Nations, International Red Cross, and PBS. She annually presents Winter and Spring Seasons for Presidio Dance Theatre. 2008 live audiences exceeded 40,000 at major venues and festivals including the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, Marin Center, Palace of Fine Arts, Herbst Theater, Davies Symphony Hall, SF City Hall; Saint Petersburg's famed White Nights Festival at the Catherine Palace; and the 300th Anniversary of Tsarskoye Selo International Festival. Her work has been recognized by the press nationally in Dance Magazine, Dance Teacher, and internationally broadcast. In 2008, Sherene received a national award from Nickelodeon Television for "Best Artsy Program" in the SF Bay Area. Sherene Melania uses her passion for dance to encourage not only an appreciation for the arts and artistic excellence, but also the value of developing "complete artists" who utilize academic and dance education, as a tool for promoting cultural awareness and understanding, leading to a deep compassion for humanity.
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Bikem Akten Bikem is currently working at Harvard. She started folkdancing at the age of 8 but was forced to stop when her father got tired of driving her to dance school. She joined Collage in 2001 and danced with the company for two years. After taking a break to obtain her PhD in neurosciences, she re-joined Collage in 2005 to do what she missed most. She loves to dance with Ahmet Luleci for his endless energy, professional discipline and distinctive creativity. |
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Ilyas El Mejdoub A native of Morocco, Ilyas is a Fulbright fellow who came to Boston looking for knowledge, friendship and adventure. During the 2 years and 2 months he spent in the US, he obtained a Masters degree in Educational Media and Technology from Boston University. Ilyas is now working as an online tutor for Tutor ABC, an instructional Technologist at BU's School of education, and a Spanish language lecturer at BU's College of Arts and Sciences. Ilyas has an incomparable love for dancing. Since high school, he has always had a weakness for artistic dancing: that which would let his body feel and translate the culture that is expressed in surrounding melodies. Now, he thinks he found it ----- Collage.
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Mustafa Bakir is from Kütahya, Turkey. He has a B.A. in Math education. He worked as a Math teacher in Turkey. After he was honored with a scholarship from Turkish Government, he came to US in order to get masters in Math education. |
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Begüm Tasar was born in Ankara, Turkey. Begum's artistic career started at a young age dancing to the jingles of TV commercials; her grandma used to say, "she would dance to a door squeaking". She became interested in Latin dances when she moved to Boston for her postgraduate studies in 1997 and recently completed her MBA at Boston College. She has been working as the controller of an architectural design firm and enjoys the combination of balancing books and perfecting her balance at Collage. |
| Jalpa Patel has a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University and is currently working as software test engineer for Juniper Networks. In addition to dancing, Jalpa enjoys playing tennis and running. She is very excited about being a part of Collage and is looking forward to performing with them for the first time in May 2009. |
Dancers Emeritus
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Auditions
Collage generally holds open auditions at the beginning of If you are interested in being notified of the date of our next audition,
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