“Being part of the ‘Young Musicians on the World Stage’ project gave me the opportunity to study classical ballet at the Accademia alla Scala, the world’s most prestigious school, and brought me one step closer to my goals.”

Born in 1996, Duygu Eliz Erkut began her classical ballet training at the Art Academy Ballet School in Istanbul under Oksana Dinçer.

In 2004, she was accepted into Ömer İnanç’s class at the Ankara State Opera and Ballet, and continued her classical ballet training at the Istanbul State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts and the International Ballet Academy in Varna, Bulgaria. In 2011, she graduated from the Classical Ballet Department of the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts Istanbul State Conservatory and, two years later, was accepted into the ‘Young Musicians on the World Stage’ programme run by Güher and Süher Pekinel.

In 2012, she became the first Turkish ballerina to be selected for the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan, from a pool of 400 applicants. In 2014, she took on leading roles in Jacques Offenbach’s “Gaité Parisienne” (choreographed by Léonide Massine) and August Bournonville’s “ Napoli “, both staged at the Teatro alla Scala, and became the first seventh-year student in the academy’s history to be invited to perform on the theatre’s stage.

In 2015, she attended Patricia Neary’s masterclass and performed at the Teatro alla Scala gala. In the same year, she danced leading roles in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (choreographed by D. Duato) and Chopin’s Les Sylphides at La Scala; in December 2015, she danced as a soloist in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker (choreographed by F. Olivieri) at the Teatro Strehler in Milan.

Having trained with Paola Vismara at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala from 2015 to 2016 and completed her training in 2016, Erkut joined the tour of “Giselle” in China and Japan in September of the same year. Following her graduation from the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, she joined Teatro alla Scala as a professional dancer. She continues her career there to this day.

Duygu Eliz Erkut performed in the Teatro alla Scala’s 2016–2017 season in productions of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Swan Lake (Ratmansky reconstruction), George Balanchine’s Symphony in C, and Marco Bigonzetti’s Progetto Handel.

Duygu Eliz Erkut is a member of the “Young Musicians on World Stages” family since 2013.