Press Highlights
On April 21, 2025, Kineo Dergi published an interview-article by Öykü Demirci titled “Opening Space for Dance and the Body: An Institutional Look at Performance Arts and Hara,” spotlighting choreographer Canan Yücel Pekiçten’s site-specific and collaborative works at Hara—including Chora, Yansıyan Senfoni, and Kim Bu Kızlar—as powerful examples of how embodied performance can reshape institutional discourse and spatial imagination in contemporary art. The piece is also available in English via SAHA’s website.
You can access the PDF version of the original Turkish publication in Kineo here, and the English translation as featured by SAHA here.
On June 2, 2022, Artful Living published a review by Tuğçe Arslan titled “Three Women Characters in the Deadlock of Class, Aesthetic Judgment, and Cultural Identity,” focusing on Canan Yücel Pekiçten’s work All About the Heart, and highlighting how she reimagines three historically objectified female opera figures through contemporary dance — reclaiming female embodiment to challenge the politics of position, gaze, and desire across class, gender, and cultural boundaries.
You can access the PDF version of the interview here
Canan Yücel Pekiçten’s contemporary dance performance How To Enjoy Ceylon Tea had its Turkey premiere at Beykoz Kundura Stage in April 2022. The work was introduced in an article published by Artful Living on April 21, 2022, and its conceptual framework was explored in greater depth in a piece featured in Tiyatro Dergisi on April 22, 2022.
You can access the PDF versions of the related articles here: Artful Living, Tiyatro Dergisi
Canan Yücel Pekiçten’s performance titled How To Enjoy Ceylon Tea was the subject of an interview conducted by Ayşe Draz and Mehmet Kerem Özel, published on the Unlimited platform on April 19, 2022, just before its Turkey premiere.
You can access the PDF version of the interview here
On January 2, 2018, theMagger published an in-depth interview titled “On Contemporary Dance: A Conversation with Canan Yücel Pekiçten,” where the artist reflects on her choreographic process, transnational practice, and her work All About the Heart—exploring dance as a space of feminist transformation, embodied memory, and political critique.
You can access the PDF version of the interview here
In a 2018 review published in the Şalom Newspaper, Erdoğan Mitrani praised Canan Yücel Pekiçten’s solo work All About the Heart, describing it as “breathtaking” and “thrillingly inventive.” Highlighting its layered choreography and reinterpretation of iconic operatic female figures, the piece was lauded for its visceral physicality and bold dramaturgy. Earlier, in a 2017 article for Mimesis, critic Mehmet Kerem Özel had already called the work “one of the most exciting and compelling pieces to emerge from Istanbul’s dance scene in recent memory,” emphasizing its compositional precision, inventive object use, and haunting emotional tone. Both writers drew attention to how All About the Heart invites viewers to confront unsettling narratives through the transformation of the dancer’s body—an experience described as “hypnotic,” “courageous,” and “deeply affecting.”
You can access the PDF versions of the related articles here: Şalom Newspaper, Mimesis
A 2017 review on the Flemish performing arts platform Etcetera (www.e-tcetera.be) interprets Canan Yücel Pekiçten’s All About the Heart as a bold and unsettling solo in which the performer critically engages with operatic female archetypes—portraying them through deliberate awkwardness, irony, and emotional friction. The article observes that she “wears the models of self-sacrificing, hypersensitive, or self-tormenting women like ill-fitting costumes that provoke intense unease—even outright anger,” ultimately framing the piece as a raw and complex act of resistance against inherited roles and aesthetic expectations.
You can access the PDF version of the interview here
A 2017 review on the Swedish dance platform Dansportalen.se highlights Canan Yücel Pekiçten’s emotionally charged solo performance All About the Heart—staged at Gothenburg’s 3:e Våningen, an ambitious dance and art venue known for intimate and experimental performances—as follows: “In her emotionally charged solo performance All About the Heart at Gothenburg’s 3:e Våningen, Canan Yücel Pekiçten captivated audiences with nuanced portrayals of vulnerable female figures—from Schubert’s ‘The Dwarf’ to Finland’s Kalevala myth—culminating in a powerful reimagining of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, all delivered with striking depth, empathy, and interpretive clarity.”
You can access the PDF version of the interview here
A 2016 article on Gaia Dergi (gaiadergi.com) celebrates Canan Yücel Pekiçten’s triumph at the 8th Gdansk Dance Festival in Poland, where she won first prize in the Solo Dance Contest with her piece Der Zwerg. The report emphasizes how her work invited audiences into her inner world, offering a compelling and introspective embodiment of the dwarf archetype inspired by Schubert’s song and Lagerkvist’s novel.
You can access the PDF version of the interview here