Mission statement
Moving Body takes care of artists and the audience, brings them together and looks for an active relationship between them. Moving body feels the need to stimulate the context and maps routes for artists and audiences to move through art with a strong conceptual and choreographic sensibility. The platform unfolds in different territories that hides entrances and exits to different contexts and themes that meet us with works in-processes, research practices, workshops, performances, audio-walks, exhibitions, screenings, discussions and party situations, where experience, encounters and dialogue are key.
Driven by expertise, curiosity and an open view on - the world, Moving Body highlights the role of art in promoting intercultural dialogue, tolerance, human rights and social cohesion, through the promotion and display of - socially and politically engaged- art.
Vision
Moving Body’s main focus and engagement is the art, the artists and the audience. Our open perspective - is reflected in the diverse voices in our programming , the stories we tell, the themes we choose, the lectures we organise, the films - we screen, the space we create for sharing, discussing, creating. Just like our artists and audience, we look at the world with a hesitant and investigative attitude. Through the platform we ask the questions: How do we move? What makes us move? Towards what are we moving? How do we move from an individual towards a collective body shaping the future of history? How do we move in a time of Catastrophe?
Founders
Iskra Prodanova
Svetlozara Hristova
Team
Stoycho Cahakarov - designer
https://chbulgaria.com
Denitsa Kaloyanova - PR and communication
https://www.linkedin.com/denitsa-kaloyanova
Gergana Encheva - photographer
https://photo-forum.net/en/photographer/gera
Razdelna Pictures - video
Julia Radanova - lawyer
https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-radanova-2a1b0427
Iskra Prodanova
Iskra Prodanova (1988) is a choreographer, performer, facilitator of dance, movement, somatic and embodiment practices, as well as co-founder, curator and artistic director of the Moving Body platform. She works and creates mainly in the field of contemporary dance and performance art, but she also experiments with visual and sound art. She maps various routes along which to move, and territories in which to stand.
Iskra graduated as a choreographer-pedagogue from Varna Free University “Chernorizets Hrabar” in 2011, after which she developed her career thanks to a number of workshops, intensive programs, causalities, events and encounters with numerous artists. Some of them include Diego Agullo (Body and Event; Dangerous dance); Doris Uhlich (More than naked); Philippe Saire; David Zambrano; Nigel Charnock (DV8); Leslie Baker (Six Viewpoints); Adi Weinberg (GAGA movement); Iztok Kovac (En Knap); Christian Bakalov.
Iskra was part of Derida Dance Center‘s residency programme in 2013 where she explored the topic of ‘copy and the original’ through an audio-visual performance together with the visual artist Neno Belchev and the sound artist Angel Simitchiev. She has also been part of similar opportunities at Radar Festival Beyond Music in 2017 and Radar Sofia 2021.
Over the years she has been creating solo stage works, video works and has participated in group artistic projects, exhibitions and performances in various contexts and festivals. Among them: VIDEOHOLICA International Festival for Video Art; DA fest – International Festival for Digital Art; RADAR- Festival Beyond Music; ACT Independent Theatre Festival; VERTIGO Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance; Process Space Art Festival; WATER Festival for Contemporary Art; ATOM Choreographic Series; CAMP Festival for Visual Music; HOT ROOM / sharing practices and POETIC BODIES / research program in the context of ICC, and many others.
In 2016, Iskra, together with Svetlozara Hristova, initiate the Moving Body platform.
In recent years Iskra has been busy with solo and collective participatory and choreographic stage works, with her own artistic works and with dancing for other choreographers and artists.
She shares: “I’ve always been fascinated by liminal spaces, by what happens in-between. In-between cultures, people, systems and spaces. Because that’s often where the most creative ideas come from. It’s why I first gravitated to the liminal concept — for it describes the magic of the in-between — a transitional space in flux, and full of possibility.”
Her artistic pursuits surround the questions: Where we are moving to? What drives us to move? How do we move from an individual towards a collective body? How do we move in time of Catastrophe?
These questions are implemented in the way she makes her works and in the way she moves the Moving Body platform, together with her creative partner and cultural manager Svetlozara Hristova, under the motto The Way We Move Matters (TWWMM).
Svetlozara Hristova
Svetlozara Hristova (1987) graduated Cultural Studies at Sofia University Kliment Ohridski with a diploma thesis on Theater of the Spiritual Archetype – Sfumato Theater. During her studies she specialized in Acting at the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts Krastyo Sarafov. Svetlozara has over ten years of experience as a cultural manager in various artistic initiatives; and her name is mainly associated with two festival platforms in her hometown, Varna – RADAR Festival Beyond Music (since 2014) and Moving Body Festival (since 2016). Svetlozara has lasting interests and curiosities in the field of contemporary performing arts, site-specific art, photography and literature. She has participated as a co-imaginator and dramaturg in some contemporary dance and theater performances. Svetlozara also writes regularly for specialized media, including the online platform New Dramaturgies (2017/2018), Dance Magazine (2019/2020) and the Translation on Air (2021/2022) section. She is also a co-founder of Book Journey (since 2021) – a platform for booklovers of contemporary literature. Svetlozara is also a guest lecturer in various civic initiatives, including TEDxTalayana (2019, Varna), The Changemakers (2018, Stara Zagora and Plovdiv), DA LAB laboratory for presenting new and experimental projects (2017, Sofia), Forum for innovations and culture of sharing (2016, Veliko Tarnovo), Forum Klyuch (2015, Varna) and others. Svetlozara has been invited to be a member of various jury commissions, including this prestigious ICAR award for the category of Contemporary Dance and Performance, the International Portrait Film Festival, among others.