New Skin for the Old Ceremony

In New Skin for the Old Ceremony, choreography transforms into a ritual—a fantasy, a funeral, and a graceful celebration of life and death. This performance intertwines personal history with artistic expression, offering a meditation on themes of impermanence: fading bodies, aging, nostalgia, passing, forgetting, and preservation.  

Rooted in a singular memory unearthed late in life, Melih Kıraç and Kamola Rashidova integrate memories and words directly into the choreography, making them tangible and dynamic.  

Drawing from the profound physical and mental transformations observed in his grandmother during her final days, Melih Kıraç delves into the story of her adoption in central Anatolia in the 1930s. The choreography is further inspired by Kamola Rashidova, an immigrant dancer, and her estrangement from her native language, evoking a poetic and abstract kinaesthetic language that bridges personal narratives and collective history.  

Through this delicate interplay, New Skin for the Old Ceremony becomes a moving homage to memory, identity, and the stories we carry within our bodies.  

• Melih Kıraç is a dancer, independent choreographer and academic based in Istanbul. Before studying at the Department of Contemporary Dance at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, he was a folk dancer. His choreographies including WELCOME (2015), HÂL (2016), Data Shadow (2020), Sunset Melodrama (2023) and every night we are haunted by a dream (2024) have been performed on stages such as Sale Docks (IT), Les Brigittines (BE), Salt Galata (TR), sub (TR), ARTER (TR), Alan Kadıköy (TR), Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts (TR), Sakıp Sabancı Museum (TR) and Kundura Sahne (TR). In addition, he has made video works such as pureland (2018) and twinning theatres -1 (2022). He is also a research assistant at the Department of Contemporary Dance at the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan University.   

• Kamola Rashidova studied ballet at the Tashkent State National School of Dance and Choreography. After completing her associate degree at the Contemporary Dance Department of the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan University, she continued her training at P.A.R.T.S. Rashidova has worked with choreographers such as Camilla Monga, Eszter Salamon, David Zambrano and Yoko Ando. Since 2016, she has been a member of MDTIstanbul of Istanbul State Opera and Ballet and also works independently.