Dancers
Mehpare Pam Askin (Executive Director)
She is currently coordinator, dancer, instructor, and works on stage improvisation based on authentic steps for Yore Folk Dance Ensemble.
She started her dance career with ballet at an early age and continues Turkish folk dance and folk song chorus throughout the school years. She had a short vocal education from Ruhi Su and joined Dostlar chorus. She completed two years certification course in Turkish Folk Dance Ensemble given by Department of National Education (Milli Egitim Bakanligi Türk Folklor Kurumu). She represented her country in many national and international Folk festivals and auditions. She always wanted to organize a Turkish folk dance production which will be recognized by a wider audience. She graduated with a BS degree from State Academy of Fine Arts as an Architectural Interior Designer. Currently she is focusing on Turkish Folk Dance, and honored to be part of Yöre.
Tolga Telseren (Dance Instructor) 
Tolga started his folk dance carrier at Turkish Radio Television Youth Folk Dance group. He joined Aftud and Hoytur, exceptionally well known Turkish folk dance companies. He instructed Hacettepe University Youth Folk Dance group in Ankara for four years. He represented Turkey in numerous national and international folk dance festivals and productions. He joined Yore in 2006 and is willing to give all his support to make Yore the top Turkish folk dance ensemble in the California.
Emine Ulku Saritas (Stanford Group Coordinator)
Emine joined Yore in 2003 after seeing one of their performances at Stanford, having had no previous dancing experience herself. She enjoyed learning the steps, teaching them to the new dancers, hearing the upbeat music and absorbing more information about ethnic dancing ever since. Emine received her BS degree from Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey in 2002. Currently a Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering at Stanford, Emine also enjoys reading, drawing and traveling.
Deniz Askin
Deniz is currently a UC Davis student and planning to major in Animal Science and Management. She has been Folk dancing ever since she was 7 years old. During her Folk dance years, she attended many auditions, festivals, and performances. She believes that Turkish Folk dancing is one of the most challenging dances because there is a lot to learn and to understand before you begin dancing. Each Regional dance has a story to tell, and you have to understand it to be able to perform this dance truly. She loves to play tennis and equestrian other than Turkish Folk Dance. Due to having her friends far from home and at college, she finds multiple ways to stay connected with them including facebook and myspace. Whenever Deniz has free time she spends time with her close friends and enjoys spending time with her folkdance family as well. She enjoys every aspect of dancing and meeting new people and cultures to gain knowledge from.
Nilden Celebi
Nilden was born in Edmonton Alberta, Canada, and came to U.S. at the age of 4. She is now a high school student pursuing Archeology in Ancient Mediterranean-Near Middle Eastern Studies She has been belly dancing for four years. She has two older brothers. Although she has never been to Turkey, she is very much into her roots and loves to learn more to increase her knowledge of Turkey and its past. Out side of the dance group Nilden loves to play soccer, be with family and friends.
Tolga Cukur
Born in Ankara, Turkey, Tolga is currently pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University. Being a member of the Yore Folk Dance Ensemble since 2004, he has learned and performed numerous traditional Turkish folk dances. His favorite spare-time activity is playing the piano and he is a devoted fan of classical music.
Ozan Demirlioglu
Ozan has been dancing since 1999. He is currently an undergraduate at UC Berkeley.
Ali Ozer Ercan
Ali Ozer Ercan started dancing in 2001 when he co-founded Stanford Folk Dance Ensemble with Erkcan Ozcan. He was with Yore Folk Dance Ensemble since the day it was founded, and had great memorable and pleasant times here. He enjoys performing many dances he learned at Yore very much, and feels priviledged to be a part of the group and the shows. Ali Ercan is currently a post-doctoral fellow at Berkeley Wireless Research Center.
Nevra Kadioglu
Nevra has been a Yore dancer since the group's foundation. She works as a Software Engineer in a high-tech firm in Silicon Valley. Nevra was born in Gaziantep, Turkey but has grown up in various parts of the US including Mobile, Alabama.
Ezerhan Kadioglu
Ezerhan, from Rize, Turkey, has been a Yore dancer since February 06. He works as an Automation/Control Engineer and has been involved with various Turkish organizations.
Onur Kilic
Onur was born in 1979 in Ordu/Turkey. He spent the first thirteen years of his life in Germany till his family moved back to their hometown. He is pursuing a PhD degree in the Applied Physics Department of Stanford University. Besides dancing, he enjoys drawing comics and cartoons.
Ferda Mehmet
Ferda began dancing from age four and started off with classical ballet and jazz. She has performed ballet at various festivals, convalescent homes and dance productions for over 15 years. Ferda was raised in California and loves visiting her family in Cyprus as frequently as possible. She joined Yore in Fall 2006 and loves the thrill of performing at ethnic festivals and other venues. In addition to being a dancer with the group, Ferda took on the role as the media contact for Yore in November 2007. She has a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing and loves her career in hi-tech public relations. In her spare time, she enjoys other forms of dances such as salsa, swing and country. She also loves reading, writing and boating.
Rikki Nicolae (nee Weaver)
Rikki began her dance career in the Naslada Performance Ensemble in Portland, OR. In 1998, She received a 1 year Watson Fellowship to study folkdancing in Bulgaria and Romania, where she studied with ensembles Trakia (Plovdiv), Ratchenitza (Plovdiv), and Somosul-Napoca (Cluj). In 2001 Rikki joined Ahmet Luleci's performance ensemble Collage in Boston, MA. She proudly danced with Collage for 4 years, serving not only as performer but also as drill sergeant/dance instructor for new Collage recruits. Rikki relocated to the Bay Area in 2004, performed in the Ethnic Dance Festival 2006 with Westwind International Folkdance Ensemble under the artistic directorship of Norma Adjmi, and happily joined Yore in January 2007.
Uygar Sumbul
Uygar, born in 1981, is a PhD Student at the department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University. He loves playing soccer.
Demet Ulusen
Demet is a member of Stanford Yore since 2003 and currently a PhD student in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford University.
Ozge Isleyen
Ozge is from Izmir, Turkey. She joined the Stanford community to earn a PhD degree in Business Administration in 2005 after having her BS degree in Industrial Engineering at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. She took part in international folk dance festivals in France and Hungary in 1999 and 2001. Currently, she is pursuing her interest in Turkish folk dance in Yore.
Gurer Kiratli
Born in Istanbul, Gurer is as colorful a person as the city is itself. Working as an IT Engineer, he has a M.S degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering. He has been involved in many international/domestic organizations and is currently enjoying the journey back to his roots with a mist of rhythm at YORE.
Alex Gorbenko
Alexander was born in Zaporozhye, Ukraine in 1981. He received his MS degree in applied physics and mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 2004 and MS degree in economics from New Economic School, Moscow in 2005. Alexander is currently pursuing a PhD in Finance at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He joined the Yore group in 2007. Besides dancing, he practices taekwondo and plays soccer
Ozlem Bilginer
Ozlem was born in Turkey, in 1981. She is currently working towards her
PhD degree at Management Science and Engineering department of Stanford University. She is a member of Stanford Yore since 2007.
Defne Gun
Gun She was born in 1994 and, unlike the other dancers, hasn't even graduated middle school. She has newly begun dancing with Yore, but loves it already. Her favorite region of Turkey is the Agean region. Defne loves Turkey, its language, music and most of all, its cuisine.
Sevki Serhat Dincer
Rookie of the year; realized it is some serious exercise and -more importantly- very fun. Plays baglama little bit; favorite region for folk music/dance is Ege (Aegean). Programmer, long-time Foss user/supporter.
Ayse Turker
Ayse was born in Istanbul in 1981. She has a law degree from Marmara University. She is a member of Stanford Yore since 2007.Besides dancing, she loves swimming and playing KING.
2007 YORE Dancers
Turev Acar
Deniz Askin
Mehpare Askin
Merter Bozkurt
Nilden Celebi
Yasar Cinkilic
Tolga Cukur
Ozan Demirlioglu
Aytul Diril
Utku Diril
Ali Ozer Ercan
Husamettin Erciyas
Funda Erdin
Abdullah Gedik
Alex Gorbenko
Ozge Islegen
Ezerhan Kadioglu
Nevra Kadioglu
Onur Kilic
Gurer Kiratli
Ferda Mehmet
Erica Rikki Nicolae
Nevran Ozguven
Senem Ozer
Emine Ulku Saritas
Dilek Seren
Gul Shukry
Uygar Sumbul
Tolga Telseren
Demet Ulusen
Bumin Yenmez
2006 YORE Dancers:
Turev Acar
Nevra Akkoc
Deniz Askin
Mehpare Askin
Amanda Baer
Erdinc Basci
Eralp Bellibas
Tolga Cukur
Ozan Demirlioglu
Aytul Diril
Utku Diril
Ali Ozer Ercan
Onur Fidaner
Abdullah Gedik
Hatice Genc
Cengiz Gulek
Pinar Hacikoylu
Ozge Islegen
Basak Kalkanci
Ozgen Karaer
Murat Kaya
Onur Kilic
Sarah Kinaci
Tolgay Kizilelma
Haluk Konuk
Cagla Meral
Eda Ozbay
Senem Ozer
Nevran Ozguven
Esin Ozturk
Ali Pinar
Ozgur Sahin
Ali Fatih Sarioglu
Afsin Saritas
Emine Ulku Saritas
Uygar Sumbul
Cenk Temizel
Tugsan Topcuoglu
Demet Ulusen
Berrin Yilmaz |
