The Maral Music and Dance Ensemble celebrated the 35th anniversary of its foundation with a magnificinet show.
The event that was held on 14 December 2014, Sunday, at the Istanbul Congress Centre hosted 2500 viewers. This great interest that stretched the physical limits of the newest and largest congress centre of Istanbul made for one of the historical nights of the hall. Attending the show as part of the 300-strong protocol invitees were the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos, Deputy Patriarch Ateşyan, Leader of Armenian Catholics Kerabaydzar Zekiyan, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic clergy, and senior officials from the Beşiktaş, Sarıyer and Şişli Municipalities, leading figures of the Armenian community, and media figures such as Etyen Mahçupyan and Hıncal Uluç.
Following the opening speech, a plaque was presented by Kerabaydzar Zekiyan to Aram Kuran, who accepted on behalf of Luys Magazine, the media and communication sponsor of the 35th Anniversary Events.
The Maral Music and Dance Ensemble was founded by Benon Kuzubaş and his friends in 1980, a time when all association activities had been halted because of the military coup. The ensemble staged many important shows until Kuzubaş’s passing in 1986, and managed to create a cultural revival in the Armenian community. With the couple Garbis and İris Çapkan taking the helm of the ensemble in 1990, the foundation of Maral’s current structure was laid. Sarem Külegeç Şeşetyan, who has danced with Maral since the 1990s, later joined the Çapkan couple.
With a history of three generations of dancers, the Maral Music and Dance Ensemble has now proven that, with its organizational capability, it has the potential to establish a dance school, and raise its own professional dancers.
The show, which was accompanied by a 12-piece orchestra conducted by Hayk Krikoryan, will be repeated on January 25 due to the great interest.
View photographs from the show by Berge Arabian in our photo gallery.