Melisa Diktas

Govend; is a Kurdish dance style which stands for the abbreviation of “gods” (sound) and “venden” (moment). Sound in the moment. Your voice, your story, your dynamics in motion, an instrument, a song, a book, the wind, you and me. The moment is where you are at that moment. I find myself here. It is necessary for you and yourself to be here, to take steps within ourselves. How do I get you and myself there?

The Kurds say, It is dangerous for us to speak, so we dance. Kurdish dance is a way of fighting and assumes a specific need, engine, strength, resistance and hope. In THE UNTAMABLE CREATURE WITH THE FLOWERED DRESS,

Diktas wants to explore this engine within himself. What comes out of it? Where does it take her? Govend is about the collective, making a fire together while moving repetitively. But each one matters. Diktas wants to create its own basic rhythm, a repetition in the movement rhythm of govend. So that it can grow into a new dance language. Together with her dahul (drums), Melisa will explore the different layers of the timeline to become a true Çîrokbêj (“storyteller”). With goven, by goven but in her own potential.

Melisa Diktas is a mover of Kurdish/Indonesian descent. After graduation, she began working as a dancer on the commercial circuit 7 years ago. Meanwhile, she danced for various events and productions, choreographed TV shows and music videos, and worked in theaters.

These days she is mostly focused on her own research. Although Melisa grew up with folk dancing, she is driven to specialize in core movement. This gives the new dance idiom a fundamental foundation to build on. She took folkloric dance classes in the Netherlands. And in 2022, she went to Istanbul to take govend courses with Erhan Zaza. Followed by a full-time course at Govend Instandbul Arjen Brusk dance school. She traveled through eight cities in northern Kurdistan to research Kurdish dances. She travels back and forth to Istanbul to do research. She participated in a research art program in Amsterdam in collaboration with ART& Amsterdam, Cheroney Pelupessy and Gi Au-Yeung. During her residency in Sweden, she delved further into her research on govend with director Marit Shirin Carolasdotter with whom she co-choreographed the project “No friend but the mountains.