Discipline: Performing arts

caner teker

Year 2025

Discipline Performing arts

caner teker is a survivor, supporter and choreographer. caner’s performances involve the parasitic, transformative and autobiographical worldmaking. through the manipulation of space, time and body, images emerge that contain personal experiences beyond queerness and post-migrant identity. caner studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and at the SNDO – School for New Dance Development, Amsterdam. teker’s performances have been shown at the Gessnerallee Zurich, the Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin, the tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf and the HAU – Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin. In 2022, teker was a danceWEB scholarship holder and performed at the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater, Tanzquartier Wien and Radikal Jung at Munich’s Volkstheater. The work “KIRKPINAR” was purchased for the collection of the Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, and awarded the ars viva prize 2024.

caner teker was a resident at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from February 2025 to May 2025.

Year 2025

Discipline Performing arts

caner teker is a survivor, supporter and choreographer. caner’s performances involve the parasitic, transformative and autobiographical worldmaking. through the manipulation of space, time and body, images emerge that contain personal experiences beyond queerness and post-migrant identity. caner studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and at the SNDO – School for New Dance Development, Amsterdam. teker’s performances have been shown at the Gessnerallee Zurich, the Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin, the tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf and the HAU – Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin. In 2022, teker was a danceWEB scholarship holder and performed at the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater, Tanzquartier Wien and Radikal Jung at Munich’s Volkstheater. The work “KIRKPINAR” was purchased for the collection of the Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, and awarded the ars viva prize 2024.

caner teker was a resident at the Tarabya Cultural Academy from February 2025 to May 2025.

To the scholarship holders

To the projects

Ayşe Polat

Year 2014

Discipline Performing arts

Ayşe Polat is a film director, screenwriter, and producer. After numerous award-winning short films, she made her first feature film, Auslandstournee (Foreign Tour), in 1999. The film was shown in the competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival and at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film En Garde followed in 2003 and received the Silver Leopard in the categories Best Film” and “Best Actress at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2004, and the German Critics’ Prize for the best feature film in 2005. In 2009 she made the comedy Luks Glück (Luk’s Luck), in 2013 Die Erbin (The Heiress), and in 2016, as part of the Tarabya residency, the documentary Die Anderen (2016/17) (The Others), which garnered several awards, including the Ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness. Most recently she directed the Tatort Dortmund (Crime Scene Dortmund) episode Masken (Masks) (2020), and is currently working on a new feature film, Im toten Winkel (Blind Spot), for which she wrote the script and is both director and co-producer. In 2017-18 she was artist-in-residence at the Free University of Berlin/Film Studies as part of the program “Cinepoetics – Poetologies of Audiovisual Images.”

Ayşe Polat was a resident at Tarabya Culture Academy from December 2013 to February 2014, from August to November 2014 and from July to August 2015.

Year 2014

Discipline Performing arts

Ayşe Polat is a film director, screenwriter, and producer. After numerous award-winning short films, she made her first feature film, Auslandstournee (Foreign Tour), in 1999. The film was shown in the competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival and at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film En Garde followed in 2003 and received the Silver Leopard in the categories Best Film” and “Best Actress at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2004, and the German Critics’ Prize for the best feature film in 2005. In 2009 she made the comedy Luks Glück (Luk’s Luck), in 2013 Die Erbin (The Heiress), and in 2016, as part of the Tarabya residency, the documentary Die Anderen (2016/17) (The Others), which garnered several awards, including the Ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness. Most recently she directed the Tatort Dortmund (Crime Scene Dortmund) episode Masken (Masks) (2020), and is currently working on a new feature film, Im toten Winkel (Blind Spot), for which she wrote the script and is both director and co-producer. In 2017-18 she was artist-in-residence at the Free University of Berlin/Film Studies as part of the program “Cinepoetics – Poetologies of Audiovisual Images.”

Ayşe Polat was a resident at Tarabya Culture Academy from December 2013 to February 2014, from August to November 2014 and from July to August 2015.

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Ayat Najafi

Year 2014

Discipline Performing arts

Ayat Najafi is a film and theater director, author, and multi-media artist, born in Tehran, who now lives and works in Berlin. The focus of his work is on interdisciplinary and multimedia theater and experimental and documentary film. His art, film and theatre projects are strongly based on research and address gender equality, human rights, intercultural dialogue, ecological and everyday issues. These themes form an interactive thread running through truth, performativity, and possible reality. Najafi has worked on numerous theater pieces, including at HAU Hebbel Am Ufer, Ballhaus Ost in Berlin and the Iranian Artists’ Forum in Tehran. His two feature documentaries Football Under Cover (2008) and No Land’s Song (2014) have been shown at more than a hundred international film festivals and won numerous awards.

Ayat Najafi was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from November 2014 to May 2015 and from April to June 2018.

Year 2014

Discipline Performing arts

Ayat Najafi is a film and theater director, author, and multi-media artist, born in Tehran, who now lives and works in Berlin. The focus of his work is on interdisciplinary and multimedia theater and experimental and documentary film. His art, film and theatre projects are strongly based on research and address gender equality, human rights, intercultural dialogue, ecological and everyday issues. These themes form an interactive thread running through truth, performativity, and possible reality. Najafi has worked on numerous theater pieces, including at HAU Hebbel Am Ufer, Ballhaus Ost in Berlin and the Iranian Artists’ Forum in Tehran. His two feature documentaries Football Under Cover (2008) and No Land’s Song (2014) have been shown at more than a hundred international film festivals and won numerous awards.

Ayat Najafi was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from November 2014 to May 2015 and from April to June 2018.

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Hans-Werner Kroesinger

Year 2014

Discipline Performing arts

Hans-Werner Kroesinger, born in 1962 in Bonn, studied applied theater studies at the University of Gießen from 1983 to 1988. During this time he began to work for Robert Wilson with Hamletmachine in New York, and The Forest in Berlin. In 1989 he was Heiner Müller’s artistic collaborator in the production of Hamlet/Hamletmaschine at Deutsches Theater Berlin. In 1992-93 he received a grant from Akademie Schloss Solitude. Since 1993 he has directed drama and music theater at many venues, including the Berliner Ensemble, Schauspiel Leipzig, Staatsoper Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, and HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin. In 1997 he took part in documenta X with Don’t Look Now. Since 2000, he has been working with Regine Dura. Their works have been selected for festivals such as Politics in Independent Theater, Impulse, De Internationale Keuze, Cultura Nova, Kunstfest Weimar and the Berlin Theater Meeting. In 2007, Kroesinger received the Brothers Grimm Prize of the State of Berlin for Kindertransporte (Children’s Transport) at Berlin Theater an der Parkaue. In 2012 he was visiting professor in the scenic research course at the University of Bochum. He holds workshops at the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Bern University of the Arts.

Hans-Werner Kroesinger was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy in April and August 2013 and from March to April 2014.

Year 2014

Discipline Performing arts

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Hans-Werner Kroesinger, born in 1962 in Bonn, studied applied theater studies at the University of Gießen from 1983 to 1988. During this time he began to work for Robert Wilson with Hamletmachine in New York, and The Forest in Berlin. In 1989 he was Heiner Müller’s artistic collaborator in the production of Hamlet/Hamletmaschine at Deutsches Theater Berlin. In 1992-93 he received a grant from Akademie Schloss Solitude. Since 1993 he has directed drama and music theater at many venues, including the Berliner Ensemble, Schauspiel Leipzig, Staatsoper Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin, and HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin. In 1997 he took part in documenta X with Don’t Look Now. Since 2000, he has been working with Regine Dura. Their works have been selected for festivals such as Politics in Independent Theater, Impulse, De Internationale Keuze, Cultura Nova, Kunstfest Weimar and the Berlin Theater Meeting. In 2007, Kroesinger received the Brothers Grimm Prize of the State of Berlin for Kindertransporte (Children’s Transport) at Berlin Theater an der Parkaue. In 2012 he was visiting professor in the scenic research course at the University of Bochum. He holds workshops at the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Bern University of the Arts.

Hans-Werner Kroesinger was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy in April and August 2013 and from March to April 2014.

To the scholarship holders

To the projects

Hakan Savaş Mican

Year 2016

Discipline Performing arts

Hakan Savaş Mican was born in 1978 in Berlin and raised in Turkey. He moved back to Berlin in 1997, where he graduated with a degree in architecture in 2004. He then studied directing at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. During these studies he made feature films and documentaries for ARTE and RBB. Two television projects, 24h Berlin and 20xBrandenburg, in which he participated as a director, were awarded the Adolf Grimme Prize. Since 2008 he has also worked in theater and staged productions at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Berlin, Thalia Theater, Hamburg, Mainz State Theater, Volkstheater, Munich and Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin. He has written numerous plays, including Der Besuch (The Visit), Die Schwäne vom Schlachthof (The Swans from the Slaughterhouse), Schnee (Snow), Die Saison der Krabben (The Season of the Crab) and On My Way Home. The Maxim Gorki Theatre opened its 2020-2021 season with Mican’s staging of Berlin Oranienplatz, which he also wrote. Since 2020 he has been a member of the Artistic Advisory Board of the Gorki, which advises general director Shermin Langhoff on artistic direction. Mican lives in Berlin and plays forward in the Authors National Football Team.

Hakan Savaş Mican was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from January to the end of May 2013 and May 2016.

Year 2016

Discipline Performing arts

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Hakan Savaş Mican was born in 1978 in Berlin and raised in Turkey. He moved back to Berlin in 1997, where he graduated with a degree in architecture in 2004. He then studied directing at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. During these studies he made feature films and documentaries for ARTE and RBB. Two television projects, 24h Berlin and 20xBrandenburg, in which he participated as a director, were awarded the Adolf Grimme Prize. Since 2008 he has also worked in theater and staged productions at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Berlin, Thalia Theater, Hamburg, Mainz State Theater, Volkstheater, Munich and Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin. He has written numerous plays, including Der Besuch (The Visit), Die Schwäne vom Schlachthof (The Swans from the Slaughterhouse), Schnee (Snow), Die Saison der Krabben (The Season of the Crab) and On My Way Home. The Maxim Gorki Theatre opened its 2020-2021 season with Mican’s staging of Berlin Oranienplatz, which he also wrote. Since 2020 he has been a member of the Artistic Advisory Board of the Gorki, which advises general director Shermin Langhoff on artistic direction. Mican lives in Berlin and plays forward in the Authors National Football Team.

Hakan Savaş Mican was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from January to the end of May 2013 and May 2016.

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Nurkan Erpulat

Year 2016

Discipline Performing arts

Nurkan Erpulat, born in 1974 in Ankara, studied acting in Izmir and directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. His directing projects include Jenseits – Bist Du schwul oder bist Du Türke? (Beyond – Are You Gay or Are You Turkish?) (2008) at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin; an adaptation of Kafka’s The Castle (2011) at Deutsches Theater Berlin; and Maxim Gorki’s Children of the Sun (2012) at Volkstheater Vienna. In 2011 he staged the play Verrücktes Blut (Crazy Blood), developed with Jens Hillje, at Ballhaus Naunynstraße in Berlin, which was selected for the Berlin Theater Meeting and the Mülheim Theater Festival in that same year. Theater heute chose Verrücktes Blut as Play of the Year and Erpulat as Young Director of the Year. From 2011 to 2013 he was in-house director at Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. He is currently in-house director at Maxim Gorki Theater, where he has staged several productions, including Olga Grjasnowa’s Die juristische Unschärfe einer Ehe (The Legal Haziness of a Marriage), Tina Müller’s Love It or Leave It!, and Jugend ohne Gott (Youth without God) (based on Ödön von Horvath’s novel). This year he will direct his first opera, Jules Massenet’s Werther, and head the directing department at the Academy for Performing Arts, Bavaria.

Nurkan Erpulat was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from December 2012 to January 2013 and from October 2015 to June 2016.

Year 2016

Discipline Performing arts

Nurkan Erpulat, born in 1974 in Ankara, studied acting in Izmir and directing at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. His directing projects include Jenseits – Bist Du schwul oder bist Du Türke? (Beyond – Are You Gay or Are You Turkish?) (2008) at HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin; an adaptation of Kafka’s The Castle (2011) at Deutsches Theater Berlin; and Maxim Gorki’s Children of the Sun (2012) at Volkstheater Vienna. In 2011 he staged the play Verrücktes Blut (Crazy Blood), developed with Jens Hillje, at Ballhaus Naunynstraße in Berlin, which was selected for the Berlin Theater Meeting and the Mülheim Theater Festival in that same year. Theater heute chose Verrücktes Blut as Play of the Year and Erpulat as Young Director of the Year. From 2011 to 2013 he was in-house director at Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. He is currently in-house director at Maxim Gorki Theater, where he has staged several productions, including Olga Grjasnowa’s Die juristische Unschärfe einer Ehe (The Legal Haziness of a Marriage), Tina Müller’s Love It or Leave It!, and Jugend ohne Gott (Youth without God) (based on Ödön von Horvath’s novel). This year he will direct his first opera, Jules Massenet’s Werther, and head the directing department at the Academy for Performing Arts, Bavaria.

Nurkan Erpulat was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from December 2012 to January 2013 and from October 2015 to June 2016.

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To the projects

Judith Rosmair

Year 2018

Discipline Performing arts

Judith Rosmair, actress, director and author, lives in Berlin. She works freelance in theater, film, TV, radio drama and opera, in Germany and at international festivals. She has worked in the ensemble of Schauspielhaus Bochum, Thalia Theater Hamburg, and Schaubühne Berlin. She has played the protagonist for well-known directors such as Wajdi Mouawad, Torsten Fischer, Falk Richter, Dimiter Gotscheff, Nicolas Stemann, Thomas Ostermeier, Gesine Dankwart, Martin Kušej, Wilfried Minks, Helene Hegemann, Jürgen Kruse, Frank Castorf, and Jürgen Gosch, and she has collaborated with the video artist Theo Eshetu. She writes and produces her own performances, such as her theater play Curtain Call! and her virtual reality project Bye Bye Bühne (Bye-bye Stage), which will be premiered at the Kunstfest Weimar in 2021. In 2007 she was named Actress of the Year by the theater journal Theater heute.

Judith Rosmair was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from June to August 2018.

Year 2018

Discipline Performing arts

Judith Rosmair, actress, director and author, lives in Berlin. She works freelance in theater, film, TV, radio drama and opera, in Germany and at international festivals. She has worked in the ensemble of Schauspielhaus Bochum, Thalia Theater Hamburg, and Schaubühne Berlin. She has played the protagonist for well-known directors such as Wajdi Mouawad, Torsten Fischer, Falk Richter, Dimiter Gotscheff, Nicolas Stemann, Thomas Ostermeier, Gesine Dankwart, Martin Kušej, Wilfried Minks, Helene Hegemann, Jürgen Kruse, Frank Castorf, and Jürgen Gosch, and she has collaborated with the video artist Theo Eshetu. She writes and produces her own performances, such as her theater play Curtain Call! and her virtual reality project Bye Bye Bühne (Bye-bye Stage), which will be premiered at the Kunstfest Weimar in 2021. In 2007 she was named Actress of the Year by the theater journal Theater heute.

Judith Rosmair was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from June to August 2018.

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Jasmin Ihraç

Year 2018

Discipline Performing arts

Jasmin İhraç is a choreographer, dancer, and sociologist who lives and works in Berlin. Her interdisciplinary approach combines contemporary dance with sociopolitical themes. Her works have been performed in venues such as the Volksbühne (Roter Salon), the Maxim Gorki Theater (Studio Я), the Ballhaus Naunynstraße, and the HAU Hebbel am Ufer, all in Berlin, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and at the Ringlokschuppen Ruhr in Mühlheim an der Ruhr. Her solo dance project Sahman-Grenze-Kuş and the film Constant Changes, Silent Witnesses – which she developed with the support of artist-in-residence fellowships at the Kunststiftung NRW and the Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul – have been performed and shown in various contexts, festivals, galleries, museums, and theatres. She has collaborated with deufert&plischke, Alexandra Pirici, Isabelle Schad, Taldans, Irena Haiduk, and andcompany&Co. İhraç previously worked as a research associate at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Music and Performing Arts Conservatory in Leipzig and the HZT Inter-University Centre for Dance in Berlin. In 2024, her solo project deep eye sea premiered in Berlin, and she was selected by Uferstudios for the “Creative Crossroads Artists” program of the European dance network Life Long Burning. Her new choreographic work Liquid Border of Solid Hope will premiere at Radialsystem in Berlin in 2026.

Jasmin İhraç was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from September to December 2018 and was again on site from October to November 2025.

Year 2018

Discipline Performing arts

© Linda Rosa Saal

Jasmin İhraç is a choreographer, dancer, and sociologist who lives and works in Berlin. Her interdisciplinary approach combines contemporary dance with sociopolitical themes. Her works have been performed in venues such as the Volksbühne (Roter Salon), the Maxim Gorki Theater (Studio Я), the Ballhaus Naunynstraße, and the HAU Hebbel am Ufer, all in Berlin, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and at the Ringlokschuppen Ruhr in Mühlheim an der Ruhr. Her solo dance project Sahman-Grenze-Kuş and the film Constant Changes, Silent Witnesses – which she developed with the support of artist-in-residence fellowships at the Kunststiftung NRW and the Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul – have been performed and shown in various contexts, festivals, galleries, museums, and theatres. She has collaborated with deufert&plischke, Alexandra Pirici, Isabelle Schad, Taldans, Irena Haiduk, and andcompany&Co. İhraç previously worked as a research associate at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Music and Performing Arts Conservatory in Leipzig and the HZT Inter-University Centre for Dance in Berlin. In 2024, her solo project deep eye sea premiered in Berlin, and she was selected by Uferstudios for the “Creative Crossroads Artists” program of the European dance network Life Long Burning. Her new choreographic work Liquid Border of Solid Hope will premiere at Radialsystem in Berlin in 2026.

Jasmin İhraç was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from September to December 2018 and was again on site from October to November 2025.

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Mürtüz Yolcu

Year 2019

Discipline Performing arts

Mürtüz Yolcu, born in 1961in Iğdır, is an actor, curator and screenwriter and has lived in Berlin since 1978. From 1995 to 2010, he organized the International DiyalogTheaterFest Berlin, and from 1979 to 1984 he was part of the Berliner Darsteller Ensemble. After that he has performed at various theatres, including Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Munich Kammerspiele, and Berliner Ensemble. Between 2007 and 2013, he coordinated the Turkish Film Week Berlin; in 2009 he took over the project coordination of the BeyondBelonging ALMANCI! Festival in Istanbul. As an actor, he is known mainly for his roles in series and television movies, like Evet, ich will! (Evet, I Do!) (2009), Nur eine Frau (Just a Woman) (2018), and the Netflix series Dogs of Berlin (2018). He is co-founder of Tara, an artist initiative between Istanbul and Berlin (2017). Yolcu has written an unpublished screenplay and two youth plays.

Mürtüz Yolcu was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from January to April 2019.

Year 2019

Discipline Performing arts

Mürtüz Yolcu, born in 1961in Iğdır, is an actor, curator and screenwriter and has lived in Berlin since 1978. From 1995 to 2010, he organized the International DiyalogTheaterFest Berlin, and from 1979 to 1984 he was part of the Berliner Darsteller Ensemble. After that he has performed at various theatres, including Ballhaus Naunynstrasse, Berlin, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Munich Kammerspiele, and Berliner Ensemble. Between 2007 and 2013, he coordinated the Turkish Film Week Berlin; in 2009 he took over the project coordination of the BeyondBelonging ALMANCI! Festival in Istanbul. As an actor, he is known mainly for his roles in series and television movies, like Evet, ich will! (Evet, I Do!) (2009), Nur eine Frau (Just a Woman) (2018), and the Netflix series Dogs of Berlin (2018). He is co-founder of Tara, an artist initiative between Istanbul and Berlin (2017). Yolcu has written an unpublished screenplay and two youth plays.

Mürtüz Yolcu was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from January to April 2019.

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Turgay Doğan

Year 2020

Discipline Performing arts

Turgay Doğan, born in 1974 in Gelsenkirchen, decided to become a freelance artist after an “incomplete” degree in physics. Since then he has been commuting between the Ruhr area and Istanbul and working as an actor, director and playwright. In Istanbul he founded the acting collective Gnlev, was its artistic director and staged his own texts. Doğan’s writing activities include numerous translations from German (Richter, Brecht, Schimmelpfennig) into Turkish. In 2015 he was voted Best Playwright by the Turkish magazine Yeni Tiyatro, and he can be seen as an actor in various cinema and film productions (including the ARD series Mordkommission Istanbul). He also works regularly as a lecturer for the Goethe-Institut Istanbul. Doğan has received many international short film awards for his work as a screenwriter. His production of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children was shown at the Gera/Landestheater Altenburg (Theater and Philharmonic Thuringia) in the 2016/17 season in the main house.

Turgay Doğan was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2020 to January 2021.

Year 2020

Discipline Performing arts

Turgay Doğan, born in 1974 in Gelsenkirchen, decided to become a freelance artist after an “incomplete” degree in physics. Since then he has been commuting between the Ruhr area and Istanbul and working as an actor, director and playwright. In Istanbul he founded the acting collective Gnlev, was its artistic director and staged his own texts. Doğan’s writing activities include numerous translations from German (Richter, Brecht, Schimmelpfennig) into Turkish. In 2015 he was voted Best Playwright by the Turkish magazine Yeni Tiyatro, and he can be seen as an actor in various cinema and film productions (including the ARD series Mordkommission Istanbul). He also works regularly as a lecturer for the Goethe-Institut Istanbul. Doğan has received many international short film awards for his work as a screenwriter. His production of Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children was shown at the Gera/Landestheater Altenburg (Theater and Philharmonic Thuringia) in the 2016/17 season in the main house.

Turgay Doğan was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from October 2020 to January 2021.

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To the projects