Metaphorical perceptions of ballet concept as a recreational event: The case of Izmir province

Main purpose of this research is making comparison between the students that are studying at Ballet Department in Dokuz Eylul University, İzmir and the recreational ballet dancers of the students from private ballet schools that are affiliated with the Ministry of Education. It is thought to this research will contribute to the literature in consequence of bringing allfindings of the research, all researchs done that are intended to the consept of ballet dance into literature and coming accross no studies that explain the metaphorical indicators of the ballet dance concept. Within the scope of the research, metaphoricalperceptions of the 25balletdancerschosen for the purpose of balletdancing Among professional (licensed, competing, competing, high-level, experienced, graded, etc.) and recreation (dancing to enjoy in their free time) balletdancersusingmetaphor technique collected in the light of collected data. For the purpose of revealing the perceptions of the balletdancers of the professional and creativeballetdancers, "Making the ballet ...is similar. Because..............." sentences are required to complete these sentences.Metaphors developed by professional and fortunateballetdancers and their handwrittentexts were collected. These documents were evaluated.Descriptive and content analysis methods were used in the research.The data obtained were analyzed by Nvivo for Windows program. Studentsproduced 17 different metaphors for the concept of ballet.The metaphorsproduced are grouped under 3 different conceptual categories considering their common characteristics.These; Fly, dance and soul.2 different models have been arised as a result of the content analyze. These models are presented as "integrated model related to metaphorical perception of Professional participants" and "integrated model related to metaphorical perception of recreational participants". It is seen that recreational participants have achieved significant acquisitions whether in physical areas or in psychological areas. Thereby, it is advised to all parents to direct their children to ballet dance, especially when they are at young ages. Keywords: Professional ballet dancer, Recreational ballet dancer, Ballet