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Nike has recently been targeting women with its well-publicized Nike Dance competition. This very effective strategy is being used to market a new "hip-hop" line of products designed for dancers, to help them move easily and stay cool.
Turkey was one of the countries where the competition was held, with the finals taking place in İstanbul. We are proud to announce that the winner in Turkey is Ekin Bernay, a second-year student in the Bilkent Department of COMD.
Ekin's first success came in the Ankara elimination round, which took place at the Bilkent Student Dormitories Sports Hall on March 7. She qualified to go on to the national finals in İstanbul, which included 30 participants. For the finals, Ekin performed Nike Dance choreography and also her own 30-second freestyle dance.
She said that although she had believed that her performance had been good enough to make her one of the top five finalists, she was very surprised and excited when she was announced the winner. She now has the opportunity to go to the United States and participate in Nike Dance Training for two weeks in Los Angeles with Jamie King, the choreographer behind Nike Dance.
Ekin is no newcomer to dance. She has been studying jazz dance for eight years with Tan Sağtürk. However, she noted that there are some differences between jazz dance and the hip-hop style featured in Nike Dance. Hip-hop, she said, needs more athletic movement, and therefore she is thinking of increasing her training schedule to prepare for the trip to Los Angeles.
When asked which she plans to choose for her career, dance or communication and design, Ekin indicated that she loves both of them and isn't considering giving up either one. Her dream is to create and stage her own musical. With her fantastic energy, she just may achieve that dream in the near future!
Pınar Kefeli (COMD/III)
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