Interviews & Testimonials

I started ballet to do a different sport, and even to merge sports with music. I have experienced that ballet has more impact on the lengthening and thinning of the muscles than any of the sports I have tried before. Besides this, it affects posture, neck and back pains positively. Above all, doing ballet with Ekin is very pleasurable because she is both professional and sincere…

For me, ballet is like the oscillation of leaves dancing and cruising along with the current on the surface of a stream. Unfortunately, a lot of women go on with their lives without being aware of their bodies and what they are capable of. But in order for the movements and the soul to be in harmony and in motion, it is important to set off knowing oneself. At this juncture, ballet made a revolutionary change in my life and in my perspective on life. Age and past do not matter as long as the individual wants to change their tomorrow, and ballet is the turning point in my life at which my physical and spiritual change started.

I didn’t to anything related to dance except for the dance performances at school and dancing at home in my tutu. I swam up to the age of 14, and then started to gain weight because I quit swimming abruptly. I joined a gym close to my home, and I became acquainted with zumba. But this was only a fun thing to do for me, I wanted to do other things. More professional, more dance. I was in search of a ballet school when I was 18, and I met Ekin by this means. I visited most of the art schools on the Asian side of İstanbul. For me, the instructor was important, too. I have never met anyone like Ekin anywhere. She has such a wonderful broad vision. We started with private lessons. There is a huge difference between my first lesson and now. I, with no background in ballet, can do the basic moves with only half an hour classes per week. My movements are getting more conscious each lesson. I am more aware of the muscles in my body.

I am learning both the basic classical ballet moves, and the modernized versions with Ekin’s interpretation. At the end of each class, right after our ballet reverence, hugging Ekin is an indispensable part of our class.

I re-started ballet that I had to quit when I was very little but never left my mind three and a half years ago with Ekin. In these three and a half years, my body disproved the expression “you can’t start ballet as an adult”. You understand that ballet is not only about elegance from the very first lesson; it requires a really strong body and hard work. Knowing this, and striving to be better and to do the moves more confidently showed me that I can really achieve things and continue to improve my body no matter how old I am. According to me, this process is a much more important part of ballet than the result. What we do is exactly this. I get more motivated and proud of myself as I see that I improve bodily and my efforts yield results. Needless to say, Ekin, who really cares for us, and gives her all for us to improve ourselves and to do this fondly, plays a big part in this. Besides the fact that she tries to fit a lot in an hour we spare, and teach us as many things as she can, and that she is a very attentive and good instructor; she also asks why I look unhappy, really cares about us and is always ready to communicate. She is more than just a “dance teacher” to me. It is a great pleasure to learn a dance I love so much from a teacher I admire. For one-two hours a week, I can focus on my body and really feel good.

I started taking adult ballet classes with Ekin Akbaş Arpacı at the beginning of 2013, when I was 15. The last time I had danced ballet was when I was little and I hesitated because I didn’t know what I was going to come across with. But from the first moment on, I felt very comfortable thanks to Ekin’s sincerity and friendliness. I think I have come a long way both in terms of posture in my daily life, and in terms of technique in ballet, due to the lessons I have been following for 4 years now. We not only learn classical ballet techniques in our lessons with Ekin, but we also learn a large variety of techniques along with modern and contemporary moves. This causes the lessons to be fun, and prompts us to break taboos.

After a long break from ballet due to my intense work-life, I noticed that I become very unhappy without dance in my life and re-started ballet with adult ballet. I feel completed when I have ballet in my life, it is a great feeling, especially when you are in safe hands. It is never too late to chase your dreams…

Ballet, a substantial field of art, with which I was acquainted at a very young age upon my mother’s and especially my grandmother’s desire, always had a special place. I ran away from ballet, too, at the times when I was trying to run away from responsibility and discipline. Although I regretted doing so, I kept this to myself as I thought I couldn’t go back. After my grandmother’s death, her lifelong friend, Aunt Azade, told me that an adult ballet class was opened at the ballet school and that I should do my grandmother’s bidding and join. This adult ballet class I attended to turned into a pursuit that steers my life and awakens me. Although I was uneasy about myself, my life, and my choices, I could not change them; but thanks to Ekin, who is the perfect instructor, I entered an awakening period. I started to comprehend what I actually have to do by getting to know myself, my body and my potential. Despite the inflexibility of my body, thanks to my patient and understanding beautiful instructor, I continued ballet classes without being demoralized, but on the contrary, with enthusiasm. Now I spend my days thinking of those valuable hours of ballet and planning about them. I would not continue ballet classes and steer my life in a different direction were it not for Ekin, who is one of a kind with ther care, attention, patience, knowledge, compassion, and kindness. Always making me feel valuable with her high awareness, she enabled me to become a different person with the seeds she planted in my life and with her attitude, glance, and understanding. Although ballet was imposed on us as an art form that places emphasis on flexibility, she proved to us that if we do things correctly and have our energy high, flexibility is of secondary and even tertiary importance. She teaches in such a beautiful and plain language along with technical and practical information that in my daily life, in the subway, at school or while I’m walking around, I remember her teachings and even correct my posture. Sometimes living through bad things in life can lead to other beautiful things. While I was thinking about how I was going to pull myself together and support the people I love after losing my grandmother, a beautiful door opened and I met Ekin. All these beautiful things are but for my unique instructor, whose dance, stance and teaching I adore, and who herself is beautiful.

Working with Ekin Akbaş Arpacı enabled me to build up on my prior dance knowledge. Most importantly, I gained the experience of dancing with ballet techniques. Especially high motivation in class makes the learning process easier and more fun. Also, Ekin’s broad theoretical knowledge of ballet and dance enables you to share things in the field of culture in the course of instructions, too. Her modern dance background brings with it the opportunity for you to look at dance from a freer and broader perspective. In addition to this, her strong dance technique makes you feel that you receive a quality education. As she easily finds a common ground with her students in class and conveys the moves and ballet techniques, everyone in class can progress simultaneously and fast. She creates a cozy classroom environment for learning, practicing, and being productive about dance.

Ballet’s greatest contributions to my body were strengthening my muscle structure and improving my genetical spinal defects remarkably. Of course, other contributions besides these, such as discipline, a fine ear for music, and energy of life had a fairly positive effect on my life. Starting ballet as an adult enabled me to regain all these upsides. It was not easy to take up from where I left off as years passed by, but realizing my dreams with Ekin’s knowledge and energy made me very happy, and means a lot to me.

My family, who noticed my interest in putting on classical music and dancing to it, started to take me to ballet classes regularly. After attending to ballet classes eagerly for four years, I had to give it up due to my health problems at the age of 10. I engaged in other sports branches for many years. With the disappointment caused by the fact that I would never be able to do ballet because of my “old” age, I tried to fulfill my longing through other types of dance. I met Ekin while I was in search of a modern dance class, and as soon as I heard that she taught an “adult ballet” class, I threw myself into her class. For one and a half year, I have been learning and developing new ballet techniques and improving my musical ear with Ekin and my classmates from various age groups. Besides dancing, the lessons function as meditation and a break from my daily life, and also, thanks to the instructor’s interest in human anatomy, they inform me about my own body and help me control my body with more strength and awareness. I gained spiritual values that apply to the other areas in my life as well, by not limiting dancing with Ekin and my classmates with the body.