Company MEK / Muhammed Kaltuk
Accomplice
Muhammed Kaltuk founded Company MEK in 2017 to provide a strong framework for his art and creativity. The company develops productions that blend Hip-Hop and contemporary dance, cultural, and dance traditions. MEK stands for diversity and has a clear activist as well as artistic voice. Their movement language is strong, powerful, and unique.
FATHER POLITICS – in collaboration with Kaserne Basel and the COLOURS International Dance Festival Stuttgart – explores the powerlessness of politics and is currently on a national and international tour. Kaltuk makes clear statements on issues that concern him and society, addressing themes such as "Toxic Masculinity" at Theater St. Gallen, "Origin" at Luzerner Theater, and "Territories" at Theater Basel.
Choreographer Muhammed Kaltuk was born and raised in Switzerland in a conservative Turkish family. As an effort to break out of his upbringing, Kaltuk made a name for himself in the Swiss Hip Hop scene. At the age of 22 he had his first production experience at a theater and recognized it as a possibility to find his own voice, as a way to artistically deal with the world. At the age of 25 he started his dance education at the “Höhere Fachschule für Zeitgenössischen und Urbanen Bühnentanz” in Zurich. His goal was to further develop his movement from his background in Hip Hop, but also to get to know and use other dance qualities and styles. That is where he discovered his passion for composing and creating material from the movement repertoire of the dancers he works with, expanding the boundaries of these dancers and intertwining it with his own style and aesthetic ideas of dance. This has become his signature way of working as well as the socially critical, political and personal themes in his creations.
