Biography
Ülkü Çağlayan is one of the pioneering practitioners of intimacy coordination in Turkey and an artist working in the field of social choreography. Her practice is shaped through performance, participatory processes, facilitation and embodied research.
Her work focuses on the choreographic, psychological, and social dimensions of desire, care, touch and the intimate ways people enter each other's worlds.
Through performances and workshops, she explores how trust-building creates the conditions for connection and intimacy, and how boundaries and censorship shift across different contexts.
Bringing this background into intimacy coordination, Çağlayan aims to create processes that support performers' freedom of choice, bodily autonomy and nuanced storytelling.
Areas of Focus
I am particularly interested in stories that explore the conditions under which intimacy and desire become possible, are constrained, or remain unrealised and how these conditions shape who we become.
- Intimacy beyond sexuality — including vulnerability, touch, nudity, birth, death, care, and other forms of embodied intimacy
- Desire and forms of intimacy that are suppressed, forbidden, or unrealised
- Non-normative forms of intimacy, communication, and relating
- Power, vulnerability, consent, and relational boundaries
- Identity, liminal states, and processes of becoming
Selected Roles & Contexts
Founder, Circuit, 2012-2018
An interdisciplinary gathering practice bringing together artists, facilitators, and researchers around embodied inquiry and collective learning.
Social Dreaming Matrix Facilitator, 2021-present
Facilitating Social Dreaming Matrix processes in Turkish and contributing to the development of the practice within Turkey.
Movement Facilitator — European School of Politics, 2025-present
Designing and facilitating embodied learning processes within political and civic education contexts.
Education
MA Contemporary Art Practice, Performance, 2023
Royal College of Art, London
BA Business Administration, 2005-2010
Koç University, Istanbul
Training & Certifications
SAG-AFTRA Accredited Certified Intimacy Coordinator, 2025-2026
Intimacy Directors and Coordinators (IDC)
Trauma-Informed Movement & Yoga Teacher Training, 2025-2026
Yoga Alliance Accredited
Death Doula Training, 2025
Site Specific Performance Research Program, 2020
Performance Art Studies
Additional Studies, 2021
Cognitive Science, Psychology, and Physical Theatre — Koç University, Istanbul
Facilitation & Practice
Delicate Lodge Practice, 2023-2026
A long-term mindfulness practice drawing on Indigenous-informed teachings centred on earth wisdom and the interconnected nature of life.
Independent Movement & Breathwork Facilitation, 2012-present
Designing and facilitating individual and group processes integrating movement, breath, embodiment, and relational inquiry.
For artistic projects, performances and research-based work, visit my artist website.