The 12th edition of Antistatic International festival for contemporary dance and performance will take place in Sofia from May 9th to May 21st in the form of an artistic election campaign entitled #VoteForDance. Without Distance educational platform of the festival also casts its #VoteForDance with a powerful agenda of 4 exclusive workshops, led by established names on the international dance scene.
Arnd Wesemann (Germany) is one of the most renowned experts in the field of dance and dance critique in Europe. Since 1997 he is an editor-in-chief of the German-speaking dance magazine “tanz”, published in Berlin. He has published a number of books on politics and aesthetics, including “Immer Feste Tanzen” (“The Dancing Feast”, 2006), a German-language collection of essays on the history of dance and dance as an antidote to work. On May 10th and 11th he will lead Wrinting About Danseworkshop, aimed at journalists and critics in the sphere of culture and contemporary arts. Some of the topics that will be discussed are: ways to understand, write and review dance; dual role of dance critics in dance work and review writing; establishment and formation of dance review from historical context.
From May 11th through 14th dance students, professionals and dance lovers with good training are invited to attend the open class The Dots, led by Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld (Croatia/Belgium). She graduated from the School for contemporary dance Ana Maletic in Zagreb and studied dance in Bruges and Lier in Belgium. In 1998 she was a DanceWEB scholarship student in Vienna and in New York she was a scholarship student in The Jennifer Muller Company. In 2012 she completed the postgraduate program a.pass (Advanced Performance and Scenography Study) in Brussels in which she developed “the connector” – a method of work for collective authorship – and is using it within all of her works. And now she is going to present it to the participants in the workshop in Sofia for a first time. Aleksandra Janeva Imfeld is also the first resident of Without Distance Educational Platform of Antistatic festival.
Professional performance artists, dancers and choreographers are invited to attend Liveness /Perfomativity/Movement In Dance And Exhibition Context workshop with Manuel Pelmuş (Romania/Norway) on May 15th through 17th. Manuel Pelmuş is a choreographer and artist who lives and works between Oslo and Bucharest. His work has been presented in numerous gallery and museum exhibitions. He has recently had a solo exhibition at Para Site, Hong Kong (2018), and his projects have been shown at Tate Modern Museum, Museum Ludwig Köln, Cologne (2016); Off-Biennale Budapest (2015 and 2017); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2014); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2014) and the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2013), amongst others. In 2012, he was awarded the Berlin Art Prize for performance arts and the prize for excellence from the National Dance Center of Bucharest in 2014. His first ever workshop in Sofia will revolve around questions of liveness, performativity and movement in a dance and exhibition context.
From 18th of May till 21st, professional dancers and choreographers have the unique opportunity to attend Milan Herich’s (Slovakia/Belgium) workshop Down By Spiral. Born in Slovakia, Milan graduated at the Banska Bystrica Dance Conservatory. Later in 2002, he continued his dance training at the renowned school P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels under the direction of Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker. He worked with different choreographers and companies like Ultima Vez/Wim Vandekeybus and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Over 19 years already, he has been in continuous collaboration with David Zambrano as an assistant in classes and workshops and as an interpreter in some of his works. He leads workshops around the world, teaching the Flying-Low Dance Technique, invented by David Zambrano and DOWN BY SPIRAL is the first possibility for getting acquitted with it in Bulgaria.
The working language of all 4 workshops is English. Attendance is possible after preliminary selection and registration. More information is available here.
Since the main aim of Without Distance platform is to shorten and even to erase the distance between contemporary art and audiences, another way of achieving it are the post-show talks after each performance, as well as the warm-ups with the artists before their shows, which are now an established tradition of Antistatic festival.
For the latest news check http://antistaticfestival.org/ and follow Antistatic International Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and though hastags: #ГласЗаТанц, #Антистатик2019, #VoteForDance, #Antistatic2019.
Without Distance Platform is part of the European project Life Long Burning and organized by Brain Store Project and Nomad Dance Academy Bulgaria, as representatives of the Nomad Dance Academy Network, co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union, ”Culture” Programme of Sofia Municipality and in partnership with the Vera Nedkova House Museum, part of National Gallery, Goethe-Institut Bulgarien and Dance Station.
Media partners of the festival are: The Bulgarian National Television; The Bulgarian News Agency; bTV Radio; Portal for culture, arts and society “Culture”; Artizanin magazine for culture and art; Jasmin.bg web portal; Lovetheater.bg platform for theater; Atrakcia.bg web platform; Seen.bg digital platform for culture; Vij! Sofia Magazine for art and culture;Licatanagrada.bg web platform; Sofia in your pocket city guide; Madame Bulgaria online magazine and Dancing opportunities web platform.
For more information and interviews, please do not hesitate to contact : Ina Doublekova and Kremena Hristova (A25 Cultural Foundation) at : 00359/889616143 and e-mail: info@a25cultfound.org
