Once again Istanbul's most established modern dance (or contemporary dance) choreographer brings one of her works to the stage. For those who knows Ms. Teker's work, the irony in the last statement must be all too apparent, for Ms. Teker rarely uses a conventional stage for her performances. Instead, she seeks out spaces with an interesting ort unique physical or architectural character in which to place her performances.

For her latest work, "Dance Exhibition," the choreographer, who recently gave performances in the old mint (Darphane, just outside of Topkapı Palace Museum) and on the grounds of Bosphorus University in Bebek, invaded Claire Bucci's recently opened gallery, Dulcinea, located below the popular Beyoğlu bistro of the same name.

Ms. Teker's latest performance work, or dance (such distinctions are never clear, or even necessary with Ms. Teker's choreography), mimics in design the idea of an exhibition for the visual arts. Some of Istanbul's best contemporary dancers appear in "Dance Exhibition." Little technical or spectacular movement can be found in the work. We are asked instead to closely examine the bodies on display. In an attempt to replicate the experience of visiting a gallery, dances arranged as living tableaus, unconnected, in the choreographer's mind, by a narrative, appear and disappear before the standing crowd of viewers.

In a remarkable parallelism to Teker's work "Squeeze," according to the choreographer, completely unintentional, "Dance Exhibition" unfolds a series of movement tableaus highlighting different regions of the body. Teker has used the gallery's architectural features to mold her kinetic exhibits into a linear performance. While I am not criticizing her choice, I am not alone in questioning her use of the linear temporality in her choreography. It is true that the final moments of the performance, which vary in duration for each spectator, allow for a simultaneity and choice in perspective. But we are only seeing a refrain of what we have previously seen in the earlier controlled sequences. Out departure from the gallery and the length of our viewing of the final tableaus also limits the audiences' choices, as we are escorted out of the gallery by attendants at their pace.

Enthusiasm for Ms. Teker's work obviously has not abated, with each performance selling out well in advance of the opening on Feb. 25. Fifty spaces were allotted for each exhibition. Ms. Teker has never been one for crowds. Perhaps she prefers the immediacy of smaller groups, even finds it necessary concerning the minimalism of her pieces.

The mobility of the audience stands in stark contrast to the lack of mobility of the performers. Each dancer was allowed a tiny space to work within. And yet, much to the choreographer's credit, I never found the movement too static or stifling. Unfortunately, taken as a whole the piece does feel immobile. This indeed may be her intention, but my experience left me wanting either more movement or greater freedom to organize the choreography for myself. As with so much of Ms. Teker's work I have seen over the last two years, a sparseness of action, though not necessarily a paucity of ideas, pervades her choreographic landscapes. Perhaps, given the choreographer's preference for performance spaces, which require the audience to follow the work by readjusting their physical perspectives, such a description serves her work better than the traditional narrative descriptions normally employed in critiques. As in "Squeeze," spectators follow a prescribed path to glimpse the next tableau motion under examination. I find it difficult to describe "Dance Exhibition" as a site-specific work, as I did with the earlier "Squeeze" choreography.

"Dance Exhibition" opens with a solo without musical accompaniment for face and neck. Lying on her head back with only face and neck exposed, Ms. Teker performs a series of facial gestures. Few people noticed, including myself, that a woman sat about our heads motionless, as we focused on the bulging veins and sinewy muscles of Aydın Teker's face and neck. In a direct line from floor to ceiling, we next focus on music perched above Teker and the voice of the sitting woman, Sema, overhead. Those readers familiar with the performance "Squeeze," or my review of it (TDN, Oct. 4, 1998), I am sure immediate recognize the similarities. We were similarly surprised with the screams of a squatting woman in the Darphane performance.

Two dancers standing in the audience, Mustafa Kaplan and Filiz Sızanlı, suddenly fall to the floor. (In the preview evening I attended, only one dancer could be present.) They cautiously move through the audience contacting legs, thighs, arms, shoulders and torsos in the process. Some members of the audience were quite disturbed by this intrusion, while others welcomed the gentle embraces and casual brushes of body against body.

The next tableau on display presents three figures in white cotton tubes - Rebecca Lazier, Bahar Vidinlioğlu and Serap Meriç - only partially visible through wide rectangles cut out of a huge boxlike structure extending into the center of the gallery.

On top Jim Pywel played various instruments in counterpoint to the actions taking place. The performers worm about wiggling and undulating as Pywell accosts the audience with a crescendo of drumming. In the rafters we find out our next tableau featuring a solo by Tuğçe Ulugün.

It is hard for me to imagine a performance of Ms. Teker's without Tuğçe Ulugün. Her role of slithering and squirming in a vat of flour and water mulch in "Squeeze" transforms in "Dance Exhibition" into a twisting balance of steps and small turns between the support beams in the ceiling. Ulugün continues her solo as assistants gently guide on person at a time through a black curtain. One first encounters the nude body of a woman, Rebecca Lazier, swathing behind smoked glass. Her breasts streak across the glass with her face, still, almost expressionless, in stark contrast to Ms. Teker's solo. As we silently pass he, a him appears inside the box structure that one enters on the way out of the gallery. Vahit Tuna slowly rotates his nude body as the audience leaves.

As with many of Ms. Teker's other performances, I am uncertain of the relationships among the performers as well as their relationships with the audience. We are left with images that, are quite startling, even provocative, but with few keys to help unravel these living tableaus. While I can readily recognize the structure of the work, I cannot let go of the exposed and isolated bodies that remain dangling, or trapped in their confinement, nor a possibility for their escape. Use of gender or costuming eludes my full comprehension as well. As moving sculpture the work

fascinates me, but I want the freedom to touch them or view them at my own rhythm.

Brevity mixed with intense concentration on a single thematic marks the performance compositions of Ms. Teker. "Dance Exhibition," at 45 minutes, the longest performance I have ever seen by the choreographer, follows this dictum. The pace allows for viewers to concentrate on limited movements by specific regions of performers' bodies. The placement of performers above, below or in some other manner obscured from our usual perspective reinforces the compositional intentions of the choreographer. We, as spectators, must exert some effort at least to experience the dance. Often we are purposely placed into a position of discomfort spatially, physically or emotionally - our perspective for viewing their movement.

Aydın Teker has progressed far from her early days with the Ankara State Ballet. Her work may be difficult for some at first, but she consistently challenges the safety and complacency of the more traditional Western theatrical forms that have taken hold in Turkey since 1948. Besides being responsible for presenting alternative performance events in New York, Copenhagen, Assos and Istanbul, Teker can be credited among with Şebnem Aksan for establishing the first modern dance program and dance degree in Turkey. She currently teaches at the Mimar Sinan University National Conservatory. Teker will be in residency in London this summer working under sponsorship of the British Council.