site.bta17th Antistatic Festival Mottoed "More than a Dance" Opens on May 14

The 17th Antistatic Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance will take place in Sofia between May 14 and 23 under the motto "More than a Dance".

"Radical, eclectic, erotic and politically committed, the Festival transcends the limits of dance by an exclusive international selection," the organizers said. "In the world of Antistatic, dance is not just an act of self-expression but also a quantum leap that transforms not only the space around us but every internal world."

TWO COMEBACKS

The opening performances of this year's Antistatic brings back choreographers who are familiar to Bulgarian audiences from previous editions of the Festival. On May 14 in Toplocentrala, Zufit Simon of Germany will stage her latest production, Radical Cheerleading, nominated for the 2023 DER FAUST German Theater Award 2023. The project transforms the peaceful form of protest known as "radical cheerleading" into an unconventional dance performance full of humour and depth.

On May 15 at the same location, Hip Piece by German duo Verena Billinger and Sebastian Schulz will focus on the body's core, the centre of desire and lust, the motor of dance: the waist and the hops.  On stage, a group of hip swingers will demonstrate what they have learnt from experts in Afro dance, Afro house, belly dance, dancehall, various hip-hop styles (popping, locking, etc.), salsa and twerking. The performance places itself right in the thick of the current cultural debate on appropriation and ownership, eroticisation and exoticisation, sexualities and gender, identity politics and universalism.

THREE SEEDS PERFORMANCES

For May 20, 21 and 22, the Antistatic programme features three performances that are part of South-East European Dance Stations (SEEDS), a European project co-funded by the EU Creative Europe Programme. SEEDS takes care of intergenerational continuity of modern dance and the long-term training of young dancers and producers. With this intentions, three choreographers from Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania have put together young international teams for their productions. 

On May 20, Toplocentrala will host the Bulgarian premiere of Bodies in the Line, choreographed by Ioana Marchidan of Romania. It sheds light on independent artists' sense of belonging and how they cope with the gruelling slalom of overlapping projects, burn-out and the fear of invisibility. On May 21, Serbian choreographer Igor Koruga will explore new ways of combating capitalism through the ideas of fluid identities in a performance titled Unstable Comrades. On May 22, Willy Prager (co-founder, organizer and curator of the Antistatic Festival with Iva Sveshtarova and Stephan A. Shtereff) will present his Transformability: Forever (Partly Musical), a performance provoked and inspired by an article by philosopher Boyan Manchev titled "Transformability. Performing Society and Contemporary Conditions of Dance", which was published in 2006. The original dance production premiered in 2012 at the Tanztage Festival in Berlin. 

JUMPING FINALE

The closing performance of the 2024 Antistatic, on May 23, will be Tanzanweisungen, by Moritz Ostruschnjak of Germany. In it, dancer Daniel Conant transitions effortlessly from a Schuhplattler (dance instructions) to a grand jeté, from boxing footwork to break dance moves and from a référence to the jump rope; the common element is the sound, the pounding, clapping, breathing, jumping, bouncing that fills the space as a consistent rhythm.

ON THE SIDELINES

As part of the 17th Antistatic Festival, the 4th biennial Bulgarian Dance Platform will take place between May 16 and 19, presenting numerous artistic achievements in the field of contemporary dance and performance. This year's platform includes Rossen Mihailov's Virtual Bodies, Iskra Prodanova's Reflections, Anna Dankova's Oratoria, Silvia Cherneva's Critical Mass, Iva Sveshtarova's and Willy Prager's Euphoria of Sickness, Ivo Dimchev's Metch, Galina Borissova's Esmeralda and Raymonda, Stephanie Handjiiska's 84 Dials, Jivko Jeliazkov Pas Bouger, Christian Bakalov's one two, Violeta Vitanova's and Stanislav Genadiev's Saline Nebula, and Marion Darova's Code Red.

Another parallel event is No Distance, an educational programme which is part of a project called "Life Long Burning - Future Lost and Found (LLB 3)". Taking place between May 7 and 23, it is implemented with the financial support of the EU Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the National Culture Fund in partnership with Goethe-Institut Bulgaria. The programme includes lectures by Boyan Manchev, Margarita Dobrovska and Angelina Georgieva and a workshop with Jason Respilieux.