index
serkantutar
agenda
webstore
links
contact
gallery
Serkan Tutar
Interview with Nafoura Magazine
by Kristina West
Photographer Goats in Trees
More pictures and articles
click the magazine
Serkan Tutar “Sultan of Belly Dance”
By: Kristina West

Serkan Tutar is a truly international ambassador of bellydance.
Turkish born, and now living in Belgium, via Saudi Arabia, he has just
completed a gruelling tour that started with An Evening with Bozenka in Brussels,
and finished, literally, with his trademark “crazy drum solo” in Singapore.

On the Asian leg of the tour, Serkan hosted more than 30 hours of workshops and
private classes in both Hong Kong and Singapore to sell out audiences, as well as assembling troupes
of local
dancers from each location to perform in his two shows -
Fantasy Hafla (Hong Kong) and Sultan of Bellydance show (Singapore).
Despite this busy schedule, and accolades which include Male Bellydancer of the Year (2008),
Serkan is a man who seems to have abundant grace and humility, as I found when I caught him between
classes at the Belly Dance Discovery school in Singapore’s China Town.

Nafoura: What have you been teaching in Asia?
Serkan: I have been running private and group workshops including veils, Turkish gypsy, and crazy drum solos
that fuse hip-hop, flamenco with oriental movements. Every class has been oversubscribed and we have had
to put in additional classes. It’s so important to keep learning technique. Even if you are an advanced dancer
you really need to keep practicing every figure, every movement. It doesn’t matter how good you are,
there is always something new to learn.

Nafoura: You are somewhat unique in this part of the world. How have the students responded to a male teacher?
Serkan: There really aren’t any male dancers coming forward in Asia. I know they are there but we are just not
seeing them come forward to perform yet. So when I teach my classes here I can tell the students are a bit
shy at first to have a man teaching the class but then as the time goes by they just see the dancer and not the
gender. This dance is not about being male or female. It is about sharing your passion with like minded people.

Nafoura: How did you get them to overcome their shyness then?
Serkan: I make a lot of jokes in my classes. For example when I teach snake arms I tell them to pretend they
are painting walls. And I have another little trick I use in all my classes to improve performance. I tell my
students that there are three handsome men in the audience – Johnny Depp in the front, George Clooney on the
left side and Brad Pitt on the right side and they have to dance a different move for all of them.
We dance a lot for Johnny Depp in my classes! He’s always the most popular. But we can’t forget the other two.
Everyone in the audience needs to be included in a performance.

Nafoura: You choreographed some tough routines for the dancers who performed in your Singapore shows.
How have they handled it?
Serkan: I had two days in Singapore before I went to Hong Kong and just two days to teach 9 girls the
choreographies. And when I came back they had all learned it perfectly. They are such talented, clever girls
to learn it all in such a short time.

Nafoura: You have been on the road for a while now. What have been the highlights?
Serkan: It has to be meeting so many people with the same passion for bellydance and sharing that passion
with each other.

Nafoura: You have won so many new fans in Asia so when will they get a chance to see you again?
Serkan: I am already planning my next tour of Asia – hopefully next August to September and I will take
my workshops and show to Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Brunei. People have been so kind
to me here. I am really looking forward to coming back to see everyone again.
© 2010 NAFOURA Magazine, all rights reserved, copying is not permitted.
Tuesday , 4 January 2011

Copyright© 2000 - 2010 by Serkan Tutar
Serkan Tutar ® is a registred trademark. All rights reserve