EVENING OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE

Official opening of the 2025/2026 ballet season

24 October, Friday, 19:00 - Opera stage

Ballet of the State Opera-Stara Zagora with

Artistic Director Silvia Tomova

presents

EVENING OF CONTEMPORARY DANCE

Programme

Part I

Carl Orff - Carmina Burana - O Fortuna

Choreography Romina Slavova, Marcelo Molina

Soloists.

Women: Carmen Demirtas, Bogdana Sergeeva, Ivelina Nikolova, Cozue Donaca, Oda Hamberg, Nicole Petkova, Iva Tabakova, Nikola Fenkova, Vesa Anastasovska, Paula Guayart, Sakura Iida, Laura Figueroa, Ya Chue Navarro, Martina Dallasta, Chiara Ronchi, Aurora Acuisti

Men.

PARIS NIGHTS - First Night - "PAS DE QUATRE"

Choreography by Donvena Pandursky

Music by Carl Maria von Weber /Konzertstück in F minor Op. 79 für Klavier und Orchester/

Performers

Spring - Yukari Mizu

Summer - Alessia Bakin

Autumn - Inna Buzilo

Winter - Armance Delval

Four girls - each with their own particular colour and mood like the four seasons, and actually four states of the same personality. The lyrical sadness of autumn, the tempestuous fury like a winter blizzard, the peaceful and hopeful enlightenment of spring and the sensual warmth of summer intertwine to reveal the different contrasting feelings of the Young Girl.

The first restless night in anxious anticipation of the unknown morning...

"NEOPOTOMEN" duet

Choreography by Claude Brumachon Music by Wim Mertens Darpa - album "Strategy of Separation" Soloists: Elliott Salberg, Tristan Amard

Two steps away from the crowd, they dance a deafening violence, the palpable tear in a hand-to-hand fight that mixes the abrupt and the fluid. The two dancers allow themselves to be caught in the nets of this fiery duel, breaking away and ripping themselves from the ground in a dual flight. In flight to other spaces, they become intoxicated and throw themselves into the airy, epidermal, intimate, impetuous and unrestrained space that liberates the body.

There is immortality in "Neopithecines." A paradigm of duet, of freedom and complicity, The Neopitomen travel in bodies. They invite themselves in, accommodate themselves, and reveal to the dancer that unsuspected thrill we each possess. Eight minutes to understand from the inside, to experience in a thrill as animal as it is human. -Claude Brumachon-Benjamin Lamarche

PICTURE PERFECT

Choreography Kaloyan Boyadzhiev (Bulgaria/Norway)

Music: compilation by Kaloyan Boyadzhiev

Starring:Anelia Dimitrova, Bogdana Sergeeva, Clara Ferrer, Ivelina Nikolova, Tristan Amard

"Picture-perfect" is actually a slang expression used when making a photograph. The photographed should freeze in the perfect pose, be smiling, attractive, as if posing for a magazine cover. The idea was provoked by the importance modern society places on appearance and the frantic desire of people to look like super models. Society is hectic, drawing its conclusions about a person from a momentary impression without bothering to get to know them. No one cares what kind of person you are, but what you look like.This is what the quest for the perfect look is all about. Beauty comes down to a certain standard, and to me it is a complex concept, something that defies templating. The music is electronic and minimalistic, it is a collage that I chose myself."- Kaloyan Boyadzhiev.

Premiere

SUPERMEN

Choreography.

Assistant Choreographer Elsa Genova

Music.

Starring.

O Superman is a reflective, expressive work exploring the interplay of intimacy and distance, hopes and disappointments in human relationships. It offers audiences a space to feel rather than simply understand - highlighting the emotional perspectives that underlie our attempts to share our lives with another.

Of the idea and the inspirational source, James Sutherland says that "beyond love, the choreography delves into the hidden tensions of interpersonal dynamics, inviting us to reflect on the way we perceive others - including both their positive and their negative traits - and questioning the meaning they have in our lives. The title itself, "O Superman," references Laurie Anderson's iconic 1981 experimental song of the same name, rich with connotations of maternal voices, technology, and modern alienation." Although Sutherland's performance is not exactly a dance adaptation of the song, the very reference to this title suggests a thematic connection to communication, foresight, and the emotional complexity inherent in human connection.

Part II

Premiere

NIGHT a one-act ballet

Choreography by Arshak Galumyan

Assistant Choreographer Thomas Klein

Starring: Alessia Bakin, Nina Kratz, Clara Ferrer, Martina Dallasta, Sofia Mockila, Elliot Salberg, Tomoki Ishigo, Tristan Amard, Daniele Chentorbi

Inspired by Georg Kolbe's sculpture Night, choreographer Arshak Galumyan transforms the expressive pose of the figure into a visual and emotional frame for his dance work - a gesture that marks both its beginning and its end. His choreography captures the sculpture's ethereal grace and inner strength, transforming stillness into movement through a series of dynamic, sculptural gestures.

A subtle play of light and shadow shapes the atmosphere of the scene.

Sequences of unified ensemble movements alternate with solos that highlight the dancers' individuality. The stylistic range of the choreography - from fluid to angular, lyrical to acrobatic - allows each performer to showcase their unique physicality and energy.

The opening unfolds with sweeping arm movements: fists pressed together, elbows raised sharply upwards - a vivid echo of Kolbe's sculptural form.

Above the stage, angular mirrors reflect and distort the dancers, casting fragmented shadows across the floor. In a vast cone of white light, bare-chested dancers move in pulsating rhythms, their vast, almost robotic gestures occasionally dissolving into moments of acrobatic flight.

As night falls, only the glow of torches pierces the darkness. The dancers appear only as silhouettes, forming moving constellations of light that culminate in a glowing upsurge - a fleeting image of transcendence. The intensity fades into quiet, lyrical passages: one by one, the dancers disappear into the darkness, carried by gentle tones in the background.

In the final scene, the stage is again flooded with light. Guided by repetitive electronic music, the ensemble twirls and circles in hypnotic patterns, surrendering to the rhythm. From the collective flow, individuals are released in strange, almost surreal movements - echoes of the mystery of the night transformed into pure movement.