site.btaTransformability Performance Inspired by Philosopher's Article Comes to Sofia

Transformability: Forever [partly musical], a performance choreographed by Willy Prager (Bulgaria) premieres in Sofia on March 14, the organizers said. It was inspired by the eponymous article by the philosopher Boyan Manchev, published in 2006 in the German magazine Theater der Zeit.

The original work premiered in 2012 at the iconic Tanztage festival in Berlin, followed by numerous invitations from other festivals in Europe and rave media reviews.

Transformability: Forever [partly musical] is part of SEEDS, an international educational project. It was launched in 2023 as an academy for dancers and producers at the start of their careers. The aim is to integrate them into professional exchange in Europe through long-term training. That is why Bulgarian choreographer Willy Prager recreated his work with students from the Romanian Dance Centre and young Bulgarian performers.

Boyan Manchev's article "Transformability. Performing Society and Contemporary Conditions of Dance" discusses the relationship between the contemporary consumer society, with its increasingly marked performativity, and dance, in the context of capitalism and the global market economy. From this perspective, Prager translates the key philosophical theses in stage language, turning the philosophical text into a script which follows the structure and rules of the musical.

The performance was created with the participation of choreographers and performers Sonja Pregrad (Croatia) and Tian Rotteveel (The Netherlands), who were joined later by Iva Sveshtarova (Bulgaria). The performers are Eva-Maria Danciu (Romania), Mariana Gavriciuc (Moldova), Nelly Georgieva (Bulgaria), Sergiu Dita (Romania) and Alexander Gochev (Bulgaria).

The SEEDS project is funded by the EU's Creative Europe Programme and the National Culture Fund. It is implemented in partnership with Toplocentrala.