Know Us

Born in Istanbul, Celil grew up as a licensed athlete at Fenerbahçe Sports Club and joined the Turkish National Rowing Team at the age of 17. It was there that he first learned to listen to the body with discipline and to move in relationship with nature.

His relationship with the performing arts began with acting and directing at the Theatre Club of Istanbul University’s Faculty of Political Sciences. He went on to study ballet and contemporary dance, exploring the possibilities of movement and the body, and took courses in stage and lighting design at Mimar Sinan University. Moving between acting, directing, dance and design, he began to see the stage not simply as something to be watched, but as a living experience shaped by the body, space, light and sound.

For many years, Celil worked with the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), contributing to international events including the Theatre, Music and Jazz Festivals and the Istanbul Biennial. During this period, he worked on stage productions by Tadashi Suzuki, Maurice Béjart and Pina Bausch. As part of the Istanbul Theatre Festival, he took part in Peter Brook’s rehearsals and performed as an actor in his production. At İKSV Salon, he designed lighting for hundreds of performances and worked on concerts by artists including Metallica, Deep Purple, Leonard Cohen, Joan Baez, Loreena McKennitt and Marcus Miller. He has collaborated with numerous theatre, dance and music groups in Turkey and across Europe, creating designs, directing performances and leading workshops.

Over the years, he deepened his experience in lighting and sound design, dance and movement practices, textual analysis and dramaturgy through studies in philosophy, psychology, sociology and science. Working across different disciplines led him to a simple but increasingly clear understanding: we do not understand things only by talking about them. Experiencing something through the body, playing, creating and being in relationship with others can also be ways of thinking and learning.

Elementalite grew out of this accumulated experience. It creates spaces where people can explore themselves, one another and the world they live in through body awareness, play and art. Rather than offering ready-made answers, Elementalite makes room for curiosity, experience and thinking together.

For Celil, the stage is not simply a place where a performance takes place. It is a space where we can see our relationship with ourselves, with others and with the world from a different perspective.