EKIM ZEYNEP AKGÜL

Ankara- Flamenco is an art allowing us to express our feelings; love, anger, pain, joy, It is a very powerful way of self-expression, especially for women. Beyza Gümüş is one of the women expressing her through their passion for Flamenco dance. Flamenco dancing instructor Beyza Gümüş aims to convey her unique flamenco style to the world.

Beyza Gümüş was born in 1981, Sinop. She graduated from the Department of Econometrics at Marmara University, and then from the Department of French Language and Literature at Istanbul University. She is now a French teacher at one of the high schools. She has been interested in dances since her childhood. She heard Flamenco music when I was a secondary school student.  She started to learn Flamenco dance in Istanbul and attended several Flamenco dancing workshops. She took flamenco lessons in Seville for two months in 2015 and 2018. She plans to go there to complete her education after Covid-19 pandemic ends. She is now one of few Flamenco dancing instructors in Turkey.

Dance of love, anger, pain and joy

“Flamenco is not just the dance or the music of pain. It is feeling, emotion, love, anger, pain, joy, and many more. Not all its forms describe pain, death, rebellion. Some Flamenco songs are about work-life, love, or ordinary lives. For me, flamenco is the most sincere and honest way to express our lives; it contains everything about life, people. Everyone can find something for themselves in this art,” says Beyza Gümüş.

Beyza Gümüş doesn’t perform Flamenco dance to make a living because she is also a French teacher. “I can freely focus on what I really want to do because I don’t need to earn money from this art.”

“Women don’t receive equal pay for equal work”

Beyza Gümüş has also faced gendered approaches, “Although I haven’t faced difficulties of being a woman in my career, I have also faced injustices and masculine domination. We see masculine domination in art. For instance, women working in art fields don’t receive equal pay for equal work. They are constantly talked about and criticized over their bodies. Women and LGBTIQ people are ignored in art. We are ignored not only in art fields but also in every field.”

“Authors affect my stance in life”

Büşra Gümüş has been impressed by many authors in her life, “The books and works of many authors, academics, philosophers, sociologists such as Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Judith Butler, Cynthia Enloe, Cynthia Cockburn, Pınar Selek, Vandana Shiva,  Foucault, Sartre, Edward Said, Jacques Derrida, John Berger affect my stance in life. Flamenco dancers such as Manuel Liñán, Rocio Molino, La Lupi and Marco Flores inspire me.”