Information: Sevi Bayraktar, teacher of Balkan, Turkish, and Roma dance.

Sevi Bayraktar is an accomplished dancer specializing in the art of the Roma (Gypsy) culture. She also is an ethnographer, writer, and traveler.

She is an international graduate student at University of California, Los Angeles. She began studying dance in Turkey, where she was born and raised. Her interest is Balkan and Turkish folk dances with a particular focus on Romani (Gypsy) cultures. Sevi has traveled from India to Spain exploring cultural attitudes and styling in various local dances. She has participated in artist residency programs in Canada and the United States, and she taught and performed in several countries including the Americas, Belgium, France, Spain, and Turkey. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Culture and Performance at UCLA.

Sevi received her BA degree in Political Science in 2005 and her MA degree in Sociology in 2009 from the Boğaziçi University in Turkey.

Her performance interests are in artistic and methodological investigation of Romani routes including Kalbeliya, Thracian Romani, Eastern European Romani styles, and Flamenco.

Sevi's research interests include performance studies, dance studies, corporeality, ethnography, sociology,and choreographies of social movements.