We are also uploading video from all our events warming up the festival - starting with the party in the park on August 31st and all the dance lessons in our Sofia Dance Week Academy taking place this week.
You can have a look at how our hip-hop, folk dance and street dance and salsa nights went.

So keep checking on regular basis - www.vbox7.com/sofiadanceweek

About Sofia Tango

We are a group of romantic “tangueros” faithful to traditional Buenos Aires milongas, very keen to share our experience with you. We aim at those who love to listen and dance to tango music. This site is also for those who, while in Sofia, far from their homeland, share a tear when they listen to “Quejas de bandoneón” or would like to dance to “La Cumparsita”.

We strive to promote the genuine tango - “elegant and compadrito”, the same tango that throughout the years was consistently danced in the places where experienced tango dancers met, and that is now a complete success in ballrooms worldwide.

Today in our programme we have Street Dancing. The master will be Zachary Nankov-Zee.

Zachary is one of the main choreographers in the first school for street dancing, called The Centre, who led the hip-hop lessons on Monday.

He is also a co-choreographer in DEM IDOLS - one of the best street dance groups in Bulgaria, which was classed 7^th in the world on the last world dancing championship in Bremen, Germany 2008.

Since this year, Zachary has his own dancing centre, called HYPHERS Entertainment. He has worked as a dancer with Rumeneca&Enchev, Santra&Kristo.

Get introduced to dance, make your first steps or show off your best ones.

Anyone can join in!

September 8-14th, every evening at 19h on the open summer stage in the Borisova Garden.

Programme

September 8th (Monday) - HIP-HOP

Dance teacher: Goosh from The Center

September 9th (Tuesday) - BULGARIAN FOLK DANCES

Dance teacher: Ivo from Studio Dance Zone

September 10th (Wednesday) - STREET DANCE

Dance teacher: Zahari Nankov - ZEE from Streetdance Center Hyphers Entertainment.

September 11th (Thursday) - SALSA

Dance teacher: Alfredo Torres from Alfredostyle

September 12th (Friday) - TANGO

Dance teacher: Charlie from Sofia Tango

September 13th (Saturday) - BELLY-DANCING

Dance teacher: Nevyana from Studio Dance Zone

September 14th, (Sunday) - ROCK/SPORTS DANCE

Dance teacher: Milena from dance company Blyasuk

The initiative Sofia Dance Week Academy is a supporting event of Sofia Dance Week.

1) We have an offer you cannot refuse: If you get together with some colleagues or mates and order 10 or more tickets (NB! we count the tickets, not the people) – you get a 10% discount and we bring the tickets to your door.

All you have to do is e-mail us at maria@edno.bg/sofiadanceweek08.com, with subject tickets and with the total number of tickets that you would like to purchase, as well as for which shows and which category of seats you would like them in the body text. Don’t forget to give a contact phone and address. Payment is upon delivery.

2) We still offer festival tickets, but only from categories A and D - at the price of 257.40 BGN and 172.80 BGN respectively. This includes a 10% discount.

3) All kinds of discount however are only valid until September 15th, Monday.

From September 16th, you can purchase tickets at their full price.

Festival tickets and the option to order tickets as a group (and get them delivered) are still available, but without the discount.

Finally: Please note that we won’t be selling tickets at the venues’ box offices until 2 days before the show!

Until then you are welcome to shop at our Sofia Dance Week kiosks on the following spots:
· near Slaveikov square, on the corner of bul. Rakovsky and bul. Graf Ignatiev
· in the garden in front of the National Theater Ivan Vazov
· on Sveta Nedelia Square in front of the metro station and the BulBank building
· in Business Park Sofia
· in Piccadilly supermarkets in the Mall of Sofia and City Center Sofia mall

And of course you can always order online here.

So here is what we suggest: a nice and easy party in the park in the last Sunday of August - to bid farewell to the hollidays and celebrate the arrival in town of a cultural event such as Sofia Dance Week.

Or else said: we’ll bring the wine, you bring your friends and let’s all enjoy an evening with the briliant Sofia Orchestra playing swing and jazz against the background of the lake with the lillies.
What more beautiful way to spend an evening in Sofia than that?

Looking forward to seeing you in the Borisova Garden Park (Borisova Gradina), 18h on August 31st (Sunday).

Аnd you expect to see us every day from September 1st on - all over the town. Sofia Dance Week ticket sales are officially about to begin.

The company

Aterballetto is beyond doubt the pride and the trade mark of Italy in the field of contemporary dance. It is the biggest, the best recognized and the most prominent Italian dance company. It is also the first in many ways - including its origins. Aterballetto was established in the end of the 70s and was the first dance company independent from the opera houses. Their new ideas and techniques caused a small revolution in the 80s. Endless tours and festival performances followed in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. Aterballetto has staged shows with some of the biggest names of choreography: Alvin Ailey, Lusinda Childs, William Forsythe, George Balanchine and many more. Now the company has about 20 full-time dancers. Each year they perform more than 100 shows.

The principal choreographer of Aterballetto is a former soloist of theirs – the brilliant Mauro Bigonzetti, who has also worked with the ballet of La Scala, the Tuscany ballet and the English National Ballet.

No other choreographer – classic or modern – has provoked such attention and excitement, – says about him Dance Magazine.

Bigonzetti had been artistic director of Aterballetto from 1997 to 2007 and brought to Aterballetto his  own taste and style, creating a completely new repertory. He combines the essence of high classical examples with modern vanguard techniques and the result is a dance with an unique depth and elegance, accompanied by the music of various all times classics - from Tchaikovsky and Bach, through Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein to Ian Garbareck, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix.

The artistic director now is Cristina Bozzolini

The show

Aterballetto’s version of Romeo and Juliet will be the closing show of Sofia Dance Week. In this modern interpretation the dancers are wearing helmets and protectors, but the whole equipment turns out to be useless against the power of love, which destroys everything and attacks the heart directly. Romeo and Juliet are not just one couple, there are 3, 6, even 10 of them. They demonstrate aggressive attitudes, even martial techniques. However, the love scenes are an exception - beautifully passionate, they are the only moments of the performance that remind of the classic love story.

The set is also extremely impressing - huge fans, giant blocks forming the gap between the lovers. The music is a montage based on Sergei Prokofiev and the scenography by Fabrizio Plessi.

Duration: 90 min.

Premiere: 2006

Choreography by: Mauro Bigonzetti

Set and Costume Design: Fabrizio Plessi

Musical montage based on: Sergei Prokovieff

Lighting Design: Carlo Cerri

Music Consultant: Bruno Moretti

Technical Gear by: Dainese

Dancers: Saul Daniele Ardillo, Antonios Bougiouris, Hektor Budlla, Vincenzo Capezzuto, Thibaut Cherradi, Charlotte Faillard, Stefania Figliossi, Philippe Kratz, Valerio Longo, Lisa Martini, Beatrice Mille, Kihako Narisawa, Bryna Pascoe, Claudia Piana, Giulio Pighini, Anne Laure Seillan, Giuseppe pota  Andrea Tortosa Vidal, Lucia Vergnano

Artistic Director: Cristina Bozzolini

Photos: A. Anceschi

A co-production of: Aterballetto, Reggio Parma Festival Reggio Emilia Danza, Festspiele Ludwigshafen, Marella Gruppo Max Mara

With the support of: Kuopio Dance Festival (Finland), Lucent Danstheater/Holland Dance Events (Holland), 3sat

Broadcasted by: 3sat ZDF

The press

The contrasting works highlight his musicality, sensuality and mastery of different choreographic styles. In this fine young company the dancers are all soloists in their own right.

Scoop Independent News, Australia

Vigorous, passionate, bold.

Dance Magazine

He is in a league of his own and his signature is unique, say the critics. The words are about Wim Vandekeybus - the Belgium choreographer, director, actor, photographer and cameraman, who founded Ultima Vez in 1986.

Vandekeybus’ signature is indeed hard to copy. His shows are full of aggression, faith in the instincts and physical energy, but also of intimacy, tenderness and poetry. Vandekeybus is not interested in ‘pure’ dance but rather in what can be expressed in dance: the underlying emotions, the theatrical thoughts behind movement, the communication between the performers on stage. He is after the connection of man with the animal and this has its logical explanation: Vandekeybus grew up on the countryside and his father was a veterinary surgeon. As a student Wim began studying psychology, but dropped it. However, he kept his interest in the correlation between body and soul and that lead him to theatre and dancing classes. In 1985 Wim won an audition for Ian Fabre and travelled with his shows for two years. Then he set up a workshop in Madrid and founded Ultima Vez - the rest is now considered history.

Even though Ultima Vez initially gathered inexperienced dancers, its name quickly became a legend and a synonym for one of the bravest and most innovative companies in Europe. Their first show was called What the Body Does Not Remember. The intensive and aggressive performance gained Ultima Vez world recognition and brought the company a Bessie Award in New York. “ Wim Vandekeybus wrote a chapter of history. No one else, excluding Jan Fabre, had ever done that – to bring real danger on stage”, the Belgian newspaper De Morgen says.

The next twenty years were followed by twenty new shows and about twenty short movies and video works. Vandekeybus uses a lot of video and music – mostly vanguard rock. He has worked with the sound of Talking Heads’ lead singer-David Byrne and Frank Zappa amongst others.

The show

At Sofia Dance Week Ultima Vez will perform a new show based on parts of old performances. The show is a reflection on Ultima Vez’s 20 years of history and development. It gathers the seven scenes that made the company a legend. There is the famous controversial scene from What the Body Does Not Remember – someone throws a brick, someone else moves and then a third person catches it. The dancers depend on each other and also on their own instincts. “This is the ideal start for beginners, a good reminder for the veterans and an energetic bomb for the dance lovers,” the Belgian De Standdard says about Mirror.

Duration: 90 min.
Premiere: 2006
Direction, Choreography & Film: Wim Vandekeybus
Performed by: Laura Arís Alvarez, Konstantina Efthimiadou, Elena Fokina, Robert M. Hayden, Piotr Giro, Jorge Jauregui Allue, Ulrike Reinbott, Giovanni Scarcella, Helder Seabra
Originally created with & performed by (2006-2007): Mala Kline, Thi-Mai Nguyen, Manuel Ronda
Music: Arno & Ad Cominotto, David Byrne, Thierry De Mey, Pierre Mertens, Marc Ribot, Peter Vermeersch
Movement Assistant & Rehearsal Director: Iñaki Azpillaga
Dramaturge & Assistant: Wim Vandekeybus Greet Van Poeck
Styling: Isabelle Lhoas assisted by Frédérick Denis
Scenography: Wim Vandekeybus assisted by Isabelle Lhoas, Daniel Huard
Backdrop: Johan Daenen
Lighting Design: Wim Vandekeybus, Francis Gahide, Ralf Nonn
Sound Editing: Benjamin Dandoy
Technical Coordination & Sound Engineering on tour: Ralf Nonn
Stage Manager on tour: Daniel Huard
Lighting Engineering on tour: Alban Rouge
Costume Workshop: Stéphanie Croibien, Heidi Ehrhart
Set Realization: Daniel Huard, Jef Dubois, Atelier Kvs, Isabelle Lhoas, Britt Angé, Heidi Ehrhart, Raphaël Gheerardyn
Actors Film: Iñaki Azpillaga, François Brice, Carmelo Fernandez
Thanks to Eduardo Torroja, Kvs, Louise De Neef, Jef Dubois, Bart Verberckmoes

Spiegel is based on excerpts of: What the Body Does Not Remember (1987), Immer das Selbe gelogen (1991), Bereft of a Blissful Union (1996), 7 for a Secret never to be told (1997), In Spite of Wishing and Wanting (1999) and Inasmuch as Life is Borrowed… (2000)
Production: Ultima Vez
Co-production: KVS (Brussels), PACT Zollverein/Choreographisches Zentrum NRW (Essen), Théâtre de la Ville-Paris
Ultima Vez is supported by the Flemish Government & the Flemish Community Commission of the Brussels Capital Region.

The press

Dubbed the Flemish School (doubters call it “Euro crash”), this is not cool, American-style modern dance that scrupulously avoids emotional content. It emerged from Belgium’s fertile arts laboratory of the 1980s of which Vandekeybus is considered a key proponent and a must-see artist.
La Opinion

What would Spiegel be like? The answer is simple: it’s fantastic. It’s to be seen urgently by all those who have forgotten that Wim Vandekeybus is dance in its pure state, violent, athletic, exhausting, a sensual and warlike combat…Wim Vandekeybus is a bomb in the world of dance.
La Libre Belgique, 2006

This was dance that defied gravity, defied convention, defied expectations. Vandekeybus intended to keep the audience on the edge of its collective seat with startling moments that periodically and unalterably grabbed its attention.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Homepage

It is in many ways like a remixed Greatest Hits from any iconic rock band, hitting us between the eyes with the heaviest metal before bringing it all to a close in the mental chill-out room.
Ballet.co Magazine

The logical Bulgarian participants, they are still the only state-run dance company linked to the idea of contemporary dance here.

Ballet Arabesque was founded in 1967. Its repertory includes more than 100 performances and participations in festivals in Europe, Africa, Asia and America. The managing director since 2001 is Boryana Sechanova, but the company also works on the principle of the open stage - which gives the opportunity to choreographers from all over the world to stage shows with Arabesque Ballet.

The company also organizes an international competition for choreographers – In Memory of Margarita Arnaudova, director and choreographer of Arabesque Ballet for years.

The show:

At night the statues in the park come alive. They start living their own life, thus crossing path with the life of one man. The Epiphany of the Stone is created by Boryana Sechanova and Olesya Pantikina and it is influenced by the idea of the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Wigeland and his creation the Wigeland Park in Oslo. The sculptor had worked on this project for over four decades and died just a year before it was finished. In the show, the serious mixes with comical; the choreography is accompanied by video and text.
Duration: 62 min.
Premiere: 2008
Choreography: Boryana Sechanova and Olesya Pantikina
Music: Angel Kotev
Set Design: Krasimir Vulkanov
Multimedia: Elena Shopova and Nikolai Nalbantov
Text: Dimitar Kabakov
Photography: …
Dancers: Teodora Stefanova, Daniela Ivanova, Asen Nakov, Ballet Arabesque dancers
The press:

The professional dance of Ballet Arabesque materializes the harmonious connection between text, visuals and dance, taking us across the borders of genres.
Politika Newspaper

…what else is there is art but the re-discovery of banality. In The Epiphany of the Stone our encounter with it is aesthetic, spiritual and talking to our imagination, which makes it exceptional.
Choreographer Mila Iskrenova for Kultura Newspaper

The name of 55-year old Jean-Claude Gallotta is an institution in contemporary dance theatre in France.
Director and choreographer, he has been a key figure in the choreographic centre of Grenoble for more than 20 years now. In 1999 he was included in the British book Fifty Contemporary Choreographers. Gallotta has directed several movies and has written a book. He is particularly fond of Asia and especially Japan, where he was invited to work in the end of the 90’s.

The shows he has directed, the festivals he has attended and the awards he has received are too many to mention. It is enough to say that the festival in Avignon co-produces him; the opera in Lyon invites him to direct ballets; and the TV channel Mezzo broadcasts his shows regularly.

However, this does not mean that he is old school, quite the opposite. Gallotta likes to mix classical with modern. He never fails to surprise working with different plots and techniques. His shows are full of Asian, American and European music, motives and cultural influences. The moves are dynamic and difficult. Another trade mark of his is working with people of different ages - young and older artists can be seen dancing together. In 2004 for example, Gallotta created Three Generations – a performance with the same choreography performed three times - first by children, then by professional dancers and finally by retired dancers and dance teachers.

The shows

L’incessante

L’incessante is a solo performance, created in 1999 for the Avignon Festival and initially danced by Mathilde Altaraz – co-founder of Emile Dubois Group together with Jean-Claude Gallotta. But on stage is Hee-Jin Kim a very beautiful interpreter, who mixes feline side with a great sense of rhythm and improvisation.

Duration: 30 min.
Premiere: 1999
Chorégraphie: Jean-Claude Gallotta
Solo dancer: Hee-Jin Kim
Sur un texte de: Claude-Henri Buffard
Musiques: Pascal Dusapin, Imperio Argentina, Groupe Strigall
Costume: Marion Mercier from Jacques Schiotto
Création au Festival d’ Avignon dans le cadre du Vif du Sujet

Sunset Fratell

Sunset Fratell had its premiere last year. The music is composed by Strigall. It is performed by two dancers. Two brothers are on their way to the airport, rushing to see the girls they are in love with. They feel free and happy, with open shirts and unprotected heads. La vita e bella. Suddenly – a tragic happens; and ironically there is a separation even before the meeting.
Duration: 25 min.
Premiere: 2006
Chorégraphie: Jean-Claude Gallotta
Director: Claude-Henri Buffard
Dancers: Théophile Alexandre, Massimo Fusco
Musique: Strigall
Photos: Guy Delahaye

The press:

He belongs to the pioneering generation of choreographers who redefined contemporary dance in France during the early 1980s. Artists like Jean-Claude Gallotta set the course for many developments in contemporary dance.
Internationales Tanzfest Berlin, 2007

The writing is also revealed as the result of an expertise acquired over the years, since the choreographer and Mathilde Altaraz, his partner, joined forces in 1970 to champion a form of dance that cared little for convention and already enjoyed telling stories without turning them into a novel.
Le Monde, 2006