WEBVTT

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(Tap dancing)

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(Tap dancing)

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(Child calls)

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(Environmental sounds)

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(Tap dancing)

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(Man sings on cue with tap dancing)

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(Man joins in clapping hands)

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(People join in, calling)

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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This was a little -- the begining part 
of my new movie "One Million Steps".

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It's not finished yet.
We're still working really hard on it.

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I've been doing a lot of steps 
for you, just now

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-- also in the movie.

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And they are poetic steps,

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creative steps.

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I don't move from A to B.

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I just stay in A

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and really have --

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-- fun there.

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And when I look at what happens

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when I'm tap dancing,

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I realize

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the sounds is what you hear,

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what actually communicates
the rhythm and the music.

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But all my activity

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happens in between the sounds.

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In between the beats.

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In the silence.

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(Tap dancing)

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All my impulses, 
my movements,

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it happens before, 
in the silence.

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And it was funny, but

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when started tap dancing,
I didn't notice I was fixated on the beat.

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Really doing it.
Putting the sound there.

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And when I realized
it happens in the silence,

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this was a real breakthrough for me.

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To learn that you throw 
the beat in front of you

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and then ... (Tap)

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... it happens there.

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We all take a lot of steps in our lives.

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Someone actually 
took the trouble to count them

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and came to this incredible number

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of 1.825.000 steps in a year

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for every average human being.

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So, you all do this. 
Well done!

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(Applause)

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Big steps, small steps,
you don't really give them much thought.

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They just take you from A to B

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where you need to go.

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And when you do them, 
when you're walking

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your body automatically 
falls in a rhythm.

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A pulse... (Clicks fingers)

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And this saves you energy
and makes you go a long way

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without having to think about every step.

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(Walks)

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I don't really have to take care

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or think about what I'm doing right now.

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But something happens when
you start playing with the silences

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and the breaks, the pauses 
in between your steps.

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(Tap dances)

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Suddenly this very normal thing of walking

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becomes music and rhythm,

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and for me

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tap dancing in this way becomes walking poetry

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You take the breaks, the silences
you make them very small or very large

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and this is how you get this playful mode.

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And somehow underneath - (Clicks fingers)
there's still the pulse.

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But because I'm playing with these pauses

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and stopping sometimes...

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(Tap dances)

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...and then I riff on this pulse of normality,

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it becomes playful and
generates a lot of ideas.

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So, this was a thing 
that I was intrigued by:

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silence... 
pause...

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... and how it becomes poetry.

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And I was intrigued, together with my friend
Eva Stotz, from Berlin, a film maker,

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and we thought: wouldn't it be great
to put these poetically walking feet

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and confront them with
functionally walking feet in the big city,

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just to see what happens when they meet.

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These two modes, 
can they inspire each other?

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Maybe the poetic feet 
can bring something loose

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to the functionally, hastily 
walking steps of normal life.

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So we went to Istanbul

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because we thought intuitively: 
this is a great place,

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lots of things are happening there
-- let's do it there.

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And this would become the movie
"One Million Steps".

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Something incredible happened, though.

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The second time we were in Istanbul to film

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was in June 2013.

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And I don't know if you remember, but

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Istanbul exploded at that moment.

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Thousands of people stopped their daily lives,

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their daily routines,

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and went into the streets and just said "No.

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Not any longer.

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We need to create a break, a pause.

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Because this machine
of the city, of the government

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is just rolling too fast

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and it's breaking us."

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The incredible energy that happened there,
we were in the middle of it --

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-- is very intense.
All these people just couldn't go on.

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And what they did was very symbolic
and beautiful to me.

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They built a barricade 
around Taksim Square.

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And "Taksim", by the way, 
means "improvisation",

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so it was strangely fitting.

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Around Taksim Square, 
where Gezi Park is --

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this was the park that was threatened,

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it was the issue that made everything explode --

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they cordoned off this space.

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And inside was a safe space,

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a space outside of normality and functionality.

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And there life was different.

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They were not busy making ten points
for a new political program

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or choosing a leader
that would speak for everyone. No.

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They we using this space
as a silence, as a pause.

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There was music, dancing...
and most importantly

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-- sorry, I shouldn't say music is not important --

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most importantly, people were talking.

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And generating seeds for new ideas

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because it was a place outside of normality,
outside of functionality.

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I would like to show you 
a fragment of the film.

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We filmed in Gezi park.

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It was one of the most intense moments
for me, on the barricades.

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One side is protesters
the other side is police,

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and we were in the middle, making music.

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(Percussion)

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(Joins in with tap dancing)

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(People join in, clapping)

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(Rhythm picks up)

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(Whistles join in)

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(Applause)

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(Applause and cheering)

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(Clapping and trumpet)

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(Tap dancing cues in)

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(People join in, singing 'Bella ciao')

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(Applause, percussion and whistling)

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Crowd chanting: 
"Everywhere Taksim, everywhere resistance"

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(Percussion, whistling and shouting 
continue in background)

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(Applause)

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It was so incredible...

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I always go back to this moment
when I see the movie, this part.

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Silence. Pause. Poetry.

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It's what happened in Gezi Park.

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It's what's happening in my feet.

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And with this talk

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I would like to inspire you

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to do this at home.

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This was the theme [of the TEDx conference]
-- how to do it at home.

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I see you in your kitchen tables,
making pauses and breaks...

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But how do we do it?

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I think the only thing I want to say about it,
because it's different for every person,

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is the attention that you can put
on the silence, on the break.

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It's not just relaxing, turning on
your television, and doing nothing.

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It's actually a very powerful, full moment

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when you're allowed to be 
outside of functional steps.

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The only thing I would like to make a case for

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is to use these moments and value them.

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Play, make music,
make poetry of your steps.

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(Applause)