Kadir “Amigo” Memiş is a choreographer and performance artist who has worked in Hip Hop movement and letters culture since 1986. Amigo first came to Berlin in 1984 as a young child to join his parents, who had migrated from Turkey as guest workers (Gastarbeiter). There he encountered the youth culture of 1980s Berlin and breaking became his passport through the city. In 1993, he founded the internationally acclaimed Hip Hop dance crew, Flying Steps, with Vartan Bassil, which won several world breaking championships.
Amigo describes himself as an “urban nomad” who collects gestures and sounds everywhere he goes. Tapping into his Anatolian roots, Amigo became the first Berlin Hip Hop artist to combine breaking with other elements and create a fusion style called Zeybreak. This style brings breaking together with Zeybek, a folk dance from western Turkey. Amigo went on to direct Anadolu Break, a film about three dancers who go on a journey to Anatolia to discover regional dances. Although Zeybreak and Anadolu Break were well-received internationally, some folk dancers in Turkey criticized Amigo’s fusion style for threatening the conservation of traditional dances. As an artist, Amigo rejects these kinds of boundaries. His work questions the lines between genres, styles, and identities. Blurring the lines between social categories gives Amigo the freedom to express his own experiences as the child of immigrants.
These days, Amigo also experiments with putting calligraphy and graffiti art into conversation. You can read more about his work here: kadirmemis.com
First Amigo will present his work, and then Danielle Schoon (Assistant Professor of Teaching in Sociology) and Funda Oral (urban rights activist in Istanbul and Berlin) will lead a conversation with Amigo about his life experiences as the child of immigrants in Berlin and how that has impacted his art. Followed by an open Q & A.
Register at go.osu.edu/amigo
Sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures and the Middle East Studies Center
Image: Kadir “Amigo” Memiş. Photo Credit: Enzo Leclercq