CHOREOGRAPHIC COMPETITION

Stara Zagora Opera House - host of the fifth edition of

International Choreographic Competition LINKAGE 3-4 November 2024

LINKAGE is an international choreographic competition for young choreographers, which includes in its regulations contemporary choreographic miniatures - solos and duets lasting from 5 to 13 minutes. The main criteria for the selection of the finalists are originality of concept, work with the performers, musical interpretation, choreographic vocabulary, technical level of performance.

The fifth edition of the international choreographic competition, which will take place on 3 and 4 November on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera House, will present some of the best choreographic miniatures created in the last two years, and the audience will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite.

After the preliminary selection of the jury composed of Angelina Gavrilova, Valeri Milenkov and Filip Milanov, 12 finalists were chosen from 197 submissions from all over the world, who will present live their original choreographies. Each choreographer will arrive with their performers for whom they have created their choreography.

This year's finalists are: - Bente Bulens (Belgium) - solo "Beyond after" - Esther Latorre (Spain) and Hugo Pereira (Portugal) - duet "Alleo" - Francesca Ginepro and Marco Cappa Spina (Italy) - duet "Let me fall" - Irad Avni (Israel/Austria) - solo "Narkis" - Jason Martin (Canada) - solo "A plea for Impermanence" - Jie Jie (China) - duet "Recursion" - Mandela Leonardo (Italy) - solo "A silent candle in the dark" - Masayoshi Katori (Japan) - solo "Waltz, bad nymph, for quick jigs vex." - Rebecca Loefer (USA) and Mats van Rossum (Netherlands) - duet "Clay" - Rebecca Böhme and Miriam Roeder (Germany) - duet "Blob" - Collective "Recuerdo nº7" (Spain) - duet "Me parece que sufro lo que en mi profesión llaman nostalgia" - Tamir Golan (Israel) - duet "Oxytocin"

The prizes to be awarded are:

First place - BGN 7 000.

Second place - BGN 4 000.

Third place - BGN 2 000.

A special Audience Award worth BGN 2 000 will be awarded. Viewers will have the opportunity to vote and choose their favourite.

Special prizes will also be awarded at the discretion of the jury:

• 20-day creative residency in Sofia, awarded by Art Link Foundation and Zhivko Zhelyazkov. The residency will take place in 2025 in the space of the Derida Stage.
• A creative residency in 2025 to work with the ballet artists of the State Opera - Stara Zagora. The selected choreographer will be invited to create a new original dance work to remain in the ballet's repertoire.

The jury that will judge the finalists of the competition is different from the one for the preliminary selection, so that its members do not have an already formed opinion and judge impartially from the first live viewing. The chairwoman of the jury is prima ballerina and artistic director of the ballet of the State Opera - Stara Zagora - Silvia Tomova, and the other two members are Zhivko Zhelyazkov - choreographer and artistic director of the Dance Company "Derida Dance" and Vilislav Prager - choreographer, performer and co-founder of "Antistatic" - festival for contemporary dance and performance.

The organizer of the competition is the dance company "Stream Dance" in partnership with the State Opera - Stara Zagora.

The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture.

On the first night of the competition on 3 November at 19.00 on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera the audience will be able to see the original choreographies of the nominated finalists and choose their favorite for the audience award.

On 4 November at 19.00 the award ceremony and the closing dance gala evening will take place, at which the awards will be announced and the performances of the winners and guest performers will be presented.

The idea for the competition emerged spontaneously during the pandemic in 2020. Its creators are Philip Milanov and Valery Milenkov, who are also the founders of the Stream Dance Company, and Philip is its artistic director. Supported by the Ministry of Culture, the International Choreographic Competition "Linkage" has become one of the largest and most significant projects of Stream Dance. The first two editions are carried out online as well as with a live screening - the videos of the selected choreographers are screened at the Derrida Stage in the city. Sofia, and the events are open to a small number of spectators, against the mandatory restrictions due to the pandemic. The third and fourth editions take place on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera House, which welcomes in 2022 9 out of 11 selected choreographers from the USA, Italy, Ukraine, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain, who arrive together with their performers to present their productions, and in the fourth edition a total of 10 finalists from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Argentina and China are selected. A few days ago, last year's winners of the competition, the choreographers from Italy Emma Zanni and Roberto Doveri, finished their creative residency in the space of Derida Dance, and together with their new original choreography, which they staged during their stay in Sofia, they also gave a masterclass on contemporary dance.

From the inception of the idea for the competition, the goal of Stream Dance Company was to turn it into a major international event. The International Choreographic Competition "Linkage" is the only forum of its kind within the borders of our country. The international interest is increasing with each edition. The competition attracts choreographers of high professional level, and many of them are already winners of other prestigious international awards for contemporary dance. "Linkage" develops the dance scene in Bulgaria, attracting a large number of professionals in the field of contemporary dance and performance, and also contributes by presenting to the audience world-famous names within one competition evening.