Lerna Babikyan holds BA degrees in Adult Education, and Modern Dance; afterwards completed her MA on Movement, Mind and Ecology at Schumacher College. She has been facilitating creative dance, improvisation, modern technique and dance composition classes for over 25 years for varied ages in many schools, dance studios and associations.
Lerna Babikyan holds BA degrees in Adult Education, and Modern Dance; afterwards completed her MA on Movement, Mind and Ecology at Schumacher College. She has been facilitating creative dance, improvisation, modern technique and dance composition classes for over 25 years for varied ages in many schools, dance studios and associations.
In 2004 she developed “Conceptual Dance Learning Program” for preschools, in 2008 she presented “Teaching Biology Through Creative Dance” in the European Democratic Education Conference, in the same era she joined the Alternative Education Association in Turkey. In relation to alternative pedagogies’ philosophy she has been pioneering “Creative Dance Teacher Training” programs in Turkey since 2015.
In 1997, she started working as a theatre actress in Istanbul under the direction of Misak Toros. After a while she worked as an assistant director in the same theatre and took part in projects such as tv commercials, experimental video performances and dance films in front of the camera. As an artist and choreographer, she has been part of many local and international dance festivals, danced multi-disciplinary, improvisational performances, she has worked various theatre plays as a choreographer as well. Meanwhile she has been accepted in artist residency programs in Italy, Austria, USA, Hungary, Portugal and did site specific performances, beside the stage.
In 2018 she did her MA researches on “Effect of creative dance on creativity, physical activity and meta memory skills on 10 years old children” and “Increasing Body Awareness and Creativity Though Body Based Movement Education” in Istanbul.
Her book ” Creative Dance – Pedagogy with Movement” has been published on 2022
By minding today’s ethic, ecologic, educational and aesthetic needs; she is designing creative dance and body-based learning programs for students, adults, teachers, physical therapists and similar groups with the purpose of developing body awareness, creativity, holistic and inclusive living, lifelong learning skills, rising self-confidence and identity.
Nowadays she is continuing her research on the nourishing connections of ecology, embodiment, somatic practices and cultural learning; meanwhile keep being part of interdisciplinary performances as a dancer and choreographer, mainly in Istanbul and other locations.
As a lineage; her dance and artistic practices nourished a lot in Çatı Independent Contemporary Dance Artist Association, Istanbul and following trainer’s classes on contemporary dance, improvisation, ballet and somatic trainings left gratitude feelings behind; Anne Green Gilbert, Berrak Yedek, Billie Hanne, Eric Kaile, Gaby Angis, Geyvan McMillan, Loretta Livingstone, Mathew Hopkins, Juan Kruz Diaz Esnaola, Tetsuro Fukuhara, Keith Hannesy, Mustafa Kaplan, Oktay Keresteci, Zeynep Tanbay, Faustin Linyekula Ngoy, Uğur Seyrek, Suprapto Suryodarmo, Susan Bauer, Dr Rachel Sweeney…