site.btaNew Rector of National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts on Continuity, Language and Change

Prof Miroslav Dachev, who was elected Rector of the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (NATFA) on February 13, talked to BTA about the importance of continuity. "It is not a good sign when you take office and start changing everything," he said.

Prof Dachev said the Academy has a great reputation. It is Bulgaria's first higher school of theatre art (since 1948), of puppet theatre art (since 1953) and of film art (since 1973). It must uphold the excellence of these traditions and, at the same time, keep abreast of all that is new. There is innovation at various levels of education and research, international collaborative programme. There is also AI, which is leaving its mark on writing, on the screen and on the stage.  He believes that "the challenges are different now and we have to meet them; the market is different and we must find a niche in this market".

He also talked about the need for teamwork. One of his first decisions was about a change in the Academy's structure. For many years there were no deputy rectors at NATFA. On his proposal, the Academic Board has already appointed two deputy rectors.

Prof Dachev stressed the importance for an artist to have mastered not just the language of creation, but also the language that can explain it. He talked about the need for competence in the Bulgarian language: "It is then that it will be heard - and I am not saying better or worse - from stage and screen. The attitude towards the language will be heard better."

Asked to finish the sentence "I am a man who loves...," he said: "The moment one can name only one thing, one consciously gives up on breadth and flights of imagination.

Miroslav Dachev was born in 1962. He has been a Professor of the Semiotics of Art at NATFA since 2010 (guest professor since 2006). He graduated from the St Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. His interests include cultural semiotics, Mount Athos studies, Byzantine and Post-Byzantine icons and frescoes, and the literary study of the Bible. He was elected Corresponding Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 2021.

He teaches in an interdisciplinary field where semiotics meets culture, literature, art, mythologies and religions - with an emphasis on sign, gesture, meaning, symbol, interpretation; the dialogue between word and image.