Kurdish Tape Dance

Step into the circle: movement meets history! Because dance is not just about letting go of everyday life. Kurdish folk dance, for example, is about community, resistance, and storytelling. A popular occasion for stepping into the circle is the Newroz New Year festival. And we celebrate it on March 21 with a big party concert in the Werkraum of the Kammerspiele (under its Persian name Nowrouz). At our Habibi Kiosk, you can practice dances, have fun, and learn about the background. Because our dance teacher Suzan Çakar makes it clear to everyone: beginners, advanced dancers, wheelchair dancers, people with cognitive impairments, world champions — everyone is welcome at our barrier-free kiosk.

Here we dance to rarely seen Kurdish music cassettes. To this day, they are only sold under the counter in Turkey. Before YouTube and music streaming, the vast majority of Kurdish music production had to resort to the handy cassette format due to the ban on the Kurdish language.