Experience bold contemporary performances by acclaimed choreographers and artists pushing the boundaries of dance and movement—including a special production created for children and young audiences.

The Four Agreements by the Dramedy Theater—Varna, Bulgaria

*Theatrical play for kids and youngsters

The Dramedy Academy in Varna presents the play “The Four Agreements”—inspired by the best-selling book of the same name by Don Miguel Ruiz, which has changed the lives of millions of people around the world.
Four simple principles can fundamentally transform our personal journey:
– Free ourselves from toxic thoughts
– Take control of our experiences
– Not let external circumstances and other people’s opinions dictate our days
– Live with clarity, responsibility, and freedom

Creative Team: DIRECTOR AND DRAMATURG Tsvetana Baliyska | STAGE DIRECTOR Emona Sokolova | ASSISTANT DIRECTORS Stefka Dimitrova, Alexandra Rogova, Veselina Kasabova, Gergana Atanasova, Iskra Prodanova | CHOREOGRAPHERS: Tsvetina Matova, Iskra Prodanova | MUSIC: Rada Mihaylova, Tsvetana Baliyska, Avenir Mihaylov | MUSICAL CONSULTANT: Konstantin Kuchev | PERFORMERS: Boris Bonin – musician, Yana Peternishki, Hristiana Nikolova, Boyana Vaseva, Eva Nikolova, Alexander Dimitrov, Boyana Boeva, Ira Georgieva, Kaloyan Todorov, Rada Prodanova, Gergana Stefanova, Ilia Stefanov, Stefan Stefanov, Miriam Gafurzhanova, Yana Alexieva, Alexander Alexandrov, Deya Apolonova, Ivana Pantova, Emil Shkodrakov, Maria Zhecheva, Yana Yordanova

Producers:
“Tvorci” Association, “Dramedy” Theater

Dramedy Theater is a repertory theater with regular performances in Sofia. Over the past five years, it has staged more than 100 performances, reaching an audience of 7,000 people. Children and young people aged 7 to 22 participate in the Dramedy Academy. Participants receive training in acting, singing, and choreography from qualified instructors. The educational program at the Dramedy Academy focuses on the development of emotional intelligence and career guidance. Through the medium of theater, using role-playing and a variety of artistic and psychosocial methods, young people have the opportunity to learn more about themselves and how to interact with others, to discover and develop their talents, to find their place in the world, and to dream and set goals.

TAKEN FROM THE INTERNET OR A BRIEF GUIDE FOR USE OF THE DANCE

A dance performance by Marion Darova, Bulgaria

What are the dimensions of social media’s influence on artists, and what happens when everyone who presents themselves online is an artist? How is the contemporary dance scene changing in this era of manuals and recycling?This is a performance that will reinvent itself and its foundations each time, consuming, revising, and referencing what has come before it, while its performers will be in a constant state of confusion about what and how they should focus their attention in order for it to succeed.This is, by its very nature, a doomed format, because it will not be filmed and you will only be able to watch it live!The performance explores understandings of and approaches to contemporary dance—and dance in general—in the context of rapidly changing trends, easy access to information whose content is determined by market principles, the need to save time and achieve quick results, as well as the sadness that everything has already been invented.

Creative Team: CONCEPT AND CHOREOGRAPHY Marion Darova | PERFORMERS Martina Apostolova and Marion Darova | SOUND DESIGN Alexander Evtimov – The Little Shaman  | MULTIMEDIA Stefaniya Raycheva | VISUAL DESIGN Ivan Todorov

Co-producers:

A co-production of the “WoMo” Association and RSCI Toplocentral, with the support of “NAR” Process Rooms

Funding and support:

Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, Sofia Municipality—“Culture” Program

The “WoMo” Association (WoMo Assn.) is an independent cultural organization in Bulgaria, founded by choreographer Marion Darova and actress/performer Martina Apostolova.

Marion Darova is a choreographer and performer from Sofia. Her interests include philosophy, psychoanalysis, social issues, and gender. Her works are characterized by minimalism and repetition of movement. Marion explores the inclusion of the body in the question of identity and the problematization of the natural-social relationship. In her dance performances WO MAN and FREEFALL, Marion engages with Judith Butler and Jacques Lacan’s ideas on gender. For both performances, she received an ICAR nomination and an award respectively. In her last piece – CODE RED – Marion explores the effects of the Gaze on the body in the context of public actions, performances and stage presentations.

Martina Apostolova is a Bulgarian theater and film actress and social activist. She graduated with a degree in “Acting” from New Bulgarian University in 2013, having studied in the class of Tsvetana Maneva and Snezhina Petrova.

The film “Irina” (dir. Nadezhda Koseva) is her debut feature film. Martina Apostolova has won several major international awards for her role in “Irina”—from film festivals in Warsaw, Tbilisi, Hong Kong, Cottbus, Bari, Tehran, and Palic. She also won the award for Best Actress at the “Golden Rose” Bulgarian Film Festival. In 2020, she was named a European Rising Star at the Berlinale film festival.

NEVER EVER MONDAY, a dance performance by Marion Darova, Bulgaria

NEVER EVER MONDAY is a performance-conversation-simulation about the apocalypse, presented as the only optimal version of the future. Are we afraid of the end of the world, or do we long for it to end with a single global act of destruction? An apocalypse “now,” so that there can be an “after.” Can we truly embrace the upheaval of transformation, or are we caught up in narratives of humanity’s destruction to heal ourselves of our guilt over an uncertain future? Can we restart the game and go back 40 years? Past and future merge into a rosy melancholy that unfolds at a slow cadence in hyperreality.

Creative Team: CONCEPT AND CHOREOGRAPHY Marion Darova | PERFORMERS Martina Apostolova and Marion Darova | SOUND DESIGN Alexander Evtimov – The Little Shaman | SET DESIGN Boris Dalchev | MULTIMEDIA Mihaela Dobreva | COSTUMES Raya Karpacheva | VISUAL DESIGN Martin Petrov – Martinker

A co-production of the “WoMo” Association, Brain Store Project, and RSCI Toplocentral, with the support of the Hod-Movement Laboratory.

Funding and support: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, the National Culture Fund, the European Union’s “Creative Europe” program, and the “Creative Crossroads” program within the “Life Long Burning – Future Lost and Found (LLB 3)” project.

The “WoMo” Association is an independent cultural organization in Bulgaria, founded by choreographer Marion Darova and actress/performer Martina Apostolova.

Raw Confessional Poetry, a performance-concert—a hybrid form

by Galina Borisova and the KAKE band, Bulgaria

Creative Team: CONCEPT AND PRODUCTION Galina Borisova | LIVE MUSIC KAKE | PERFORMERS KAKE—Martian Tabakov and Martin Penev, and the artists: Nevena Kaludova, Elena Dimitrova, and Galina Borisova | SET DESIGN, COSTUMES, AND LIGHTING: Ralitsa Toneva | GRAPHIC DESIGN AND PHOTOGRAPHY: Teodora Simova | COMMUNICATIONS: Mihaela Lyutskanova

Produced by: Etud Foundation
Co-produced by: Etud Gallery

Funding and Support: Ministry of Culture

Galina Borisova—a freelance choreographer with several international awards to her credit; her performances have been presented at various festivals in Europe and the United States. Winner of the Icarus Award for the production “Raymonda and Esmeralda.” Author of the book “Dance Performances and Artistic Preferences,” published by New Bulgarian University. Active blogger at http://galina-borissova.blogspot.com/ . She works with dancers, performers, and musicians in a unique hybrid format. Her sense of humor is her signature trait. She calls herself a “mutant choreographer.” 

Nevena Kaludova—an actress at the Sofia Theater—has participated in a number of independent projects, the most recent being “Anna—The Incorrigible,” dedicated to Anna Palitkovskaya.

Elena Dimitrova—Guest lecturer at the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts “Krastyo Sarafov,” guest artist at the Ivan Vazov National Theater; she also creates her own projects, most of which are presented at “Toplocentral.”

Martin Penev—sculptor, painter, drummer, and a versatile artist with diverse skills and projects. He currently works at the “Toplocentral” Regional Center for Contemporary Art.

Martian Tabakov—his passion is music, a passion inherited from the Tabakov family; he is one of the founders of the punk band KAKE, as well as a sculptor and painter with numerous awards and international exhibitions to his credit.

Experience the power of film as a medium for conveying the beauty, complexity, and diversity of movement. Each screening aims to inspire, provoke thought, and broaden your understanding of the body in motion. Our curated selection includes films that span genres, cultures, and themes, each capturing the essence of movement in its own unique way. From the subtleties of contemporary dance to the raw power of physical performance, these films challenge traditional notions of the body and movement. The screenings are free.

Critical Moves – Short Dance Films for the Screen
October 30, 2026, 7:30–8:30 p.m., PUNKT9

*аdmission by donation

Through the selection for the first day of the Moving Body Festival, we explore different images of the self and how far we can go if we set out on the path to freedom—to be a woman, a man, and a whole person in a world that constantly demands that you be someone else. What don’t we know about ourselves? And through what lens do we see the world? How do we exist within a community, and what do others reflect through us?
The program includes mainstream and experimental films, exploring these and many other fundamental questions about human existence and the journey toward one’s true self.

Critical Moves – Short Dance Films for the Screen
October 31, 2026, 4:00–5:00 p.m., PUNKT9

*аdmission by donation

What we are is the past. In our bodies, we carry what has been, what is, and what will be. This selection of films is dedicated to Memory. By exploring the limits of the body and mind, our connection to nature, and the realization of our potential, the films examine where we came from and what we still hold within ourselves. The program includes a mixed selection of mainstream and experimental films, encouraging the audience to look beyond what they remember of the present and connect it, through an invisible thread, to what they sense has been.

Na Trí Céilithe (The Three Concerts), dir. Rhys Ryan, Australia, 14’51

WOMAN short cut, dir. Editta Braun, Austria, 10′

Dragon Tigrer, dir. Ugo Tanty, Arthur Roustin Pinto Rodrigues, France, 6′

Quiet Since Yesterday, dir. Maciej Frąk, Katarzyna Zakrzewska, Poland, 5’46

Salt, dir. Andrea Arena, Italy, 8’47

I Saw You Watching, dir. Claire Marshall, Australia, 5’25

Avalanche, dir. Silja Tuovinen, Finland, 10′

Nouage, dir. FU LE, Magalie Lanriot, France, Portugal, United States, 9’51’

Critical Moves – Short Dance Films for the Screen
November 1, 2026, 4:00–5:00 p.m., PUNKT9

*аdmission by donation

The final evening of this year’s film selection is a dynamic exploration of the body in Time and Space. Does time stop when we dream? When we wake up, do we measure time according to changes in space? This selection of films from various genres challenges time’s ceaseless change and its accomplice—humanity. What do we choose to do? Where are we headed? Are we still dreaming?

Life/Time, dir. Terence White, Ireland, 9’53

Hidden Steps / Siõrškuäđam, dir. Kati Kallio & Laura Feodoroff, Finland, 13′

THE DUST OF MY CONCRETE CHILD – PORTRAIT 5: Emptiness & Void, dir. Lino Eckenstein & Eden Manga-Knoy, Switzerland, 9′

Spectrum / Space, dir. Máté Bartha, Germany/ Hungary, 8’32

Memory of a Liquid Days, dir. João Afonso Vaz, Portugal, 12’40

Deus Ex Machina Doctrina: The Ai Dances, dir. Christopher Knowlton, United States, 11’25

Movement Silence, dir. Gogita Chikvaidze, Georgia, 4’46

Screening of the feature-length film THE SEA

dir. Douglas Rosenberg, 64 min, USA/Sweden

November 8, 2025, 4:00–5:30 p.m., PUNKT9, Varna

*аdmission by donation

“The Sea” is a 60-minute black-and-white film created and directed by Douglas Rosenberg. It was shot entirely on location on the shores of the Baltic Sea. “The Sea” was filmed in the footsteps of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman in a landscape that inspired the project. The island of Faro is an extraordinary place that was once Bergman’s home, as well as the location where he shot some of his most important and captivating films.

FESTIVAL AWARDS: “Berlin Kiez” Film Festival, Best Feature Film, *The Sea 2025*; “Knowbox Dance” Film Festival, “Visionary” Award, *The Sea 2025*; World Independent Film Awards, Best International Feature Film, “The Sea 2025”; “Wunderground” Film Festival, Best Experimental Film, “The Sea 2025”; “New Renaissance” Film Festival, London, Best Performance Art Film 2025; “Cine Paris” Film Festival, Best Director, Feature Film

Douglas Rosenberg (MFA, San Francisco Art Institute) is the Villas Distinguished Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is an artist and theorist working in the fields of performance, video, and installation, whose works have been exhibited worldwide for over 30 years in museums, festivals, galleries, and other venues. He is the author of *Screendance: Inscribing the Ephemeral Image*, published by Oxford Press, and *The Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies* , for which he received the Oscar G. Brockett Award for research in the field of dance, as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of *The International Journal of Screendance*. His work has been supported by numerous grants and awards, including the NEA, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Soros Foundation, the MAP Fund in New York, and the James D. Felan Award for Art in Video. He recently received the Creative Arts Award. https://www.douglas-rosenberg.com/

Join inspiring artists for informal talks and shared brunches, offering a closer look at their creative journeys, artistic practices, and the ideas behind their work.

Marion Darova © KoceBosse Studio                             Martina Apostolova @ Boryana Pandova

Martina Apostolova and Marion Darova, moderated by Elitsa Mateeva

Conversation + Brunch

November 7, 2026, 12:00–2:00 p.m., PUNKT9, Varna

What connects philosophy to theater, soccer to art, and personal experience to contemporary performance? As part of the Moving Body Festival, Marion Darova and Martina Apostolova will present two of their latest works and discuss the different paths that have led them to the stage.

The discussion will trace their first steps in the profession, their experiences within the state theater system, and the freedom they’ve discovered in the independent sector. We’ll talk about their choice to pursue contemporary art and performance, the challenges facing independent artists, and how long a performance typically runs. The conversation will also touch on the significance of the “Ikar” Award, the intersections between different artistic practices, and the collaborative projects they have coming up.

Galina Borisova: 40 Years on Stage

Talk and Lecture + Brunch

November 8, 2026, 2:00–3:30 p.m., PUNKT9, Varna

Galina Borisova—a freelance choreographer with several international awards to her name; her performances have been shown at various festivals in Europe and the U.S. Recipient of the Icarus Award for the production “Raymonda and Esmeralda.” Author of the book “Dance Performances and Artistic Preferences,” published by New Bulgarian University.

Active blogger at http://galina-borissova.blogspot.com/