BIOGRAPHY
Born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey Seda is the Artistic Director/Choreographer of Kybele Dance Theater, a contemporary company which she founded in 2003 in Los Angeles. She has produced and choreographed multiple works that have won her choreography awards and her pieces have toured and been presented in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Fresno, Concord, San Jose, Palm Desert, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Istanbul, Turkey. With Seda’s choreography, KDT received awards from McCallum Choreography Festival, Front and Main Festival, MAD BAD Festival, Dance Under the Stars Festival, and RAW 2011. KDT is dedicated to building bridges between cultures and genders and creating a global perspective through contemporary dance. The company is comprised of 8 dynamically diverse dancers and 3 apprentices. Seda also impacts young dancers through successful college dance auditions and competitions earning them placement in prestigious programs and companies as well as earning herself the 2017 Outstanding Choreographer Las Vegas Youth America Grand Prix, 2016 Outstanding Choreographer Los Angeles Youth America Grand Prix and the 2015 Elite Original Choreography Awards. Seda also teaches at Santa Monica College, Yuri Grigoriev School of Ballet (both the youth program and open classes) and YNS. Seda’s choreography designs to awaken the audience with accenting forgotten moments of life through fusing contemporary dance with Turkish imagery.
CLASS DESCRIPTION
Seda Aybay's 2-hour contemporary workshop is focused on quick weight shift, use of momentum, alignment, and strengthening through fusing the control release technique with Horton vocabulary. The class begins with a center warm up designed from a classical approach to dance through various exercises, to bring the fundamentals back to body. After an extensive floor stretch, it continues with series of off-centered turns and jumps across the floor. Applying all the class materials, a short combination is taught at the end, emphasizing performance qualities.