The Stara Zagora Opera – Host of the Fifth Edition of the 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 with the duration of 5 to 13 minutes. The basic criteria, according to which the selection is held, are originality of the conception, work with the performers, musical reading, choreographic lexis, technical level of the performance.

The Fifth Edition of the International Choreographic Competition, which will be held on 3 and 4 November on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera, will present some of the best choreographic miniatures, created for the last 2 years, and the audience will have the chance to select their favorite.

After the preliminary selection the jury with members: Angelina Gavrilova, Valeri Milenkov and Filip Milanov, out of 197 submitted applications from the whole world selected  12 finalists, who will present live their authors’ choreographies. Each choreographer will arrive with their participants for whom they created their own choreography.

The finalists this year 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”
– Ji 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 Lowther /USA/ and Mats van Rossum /the Netherlands/ – duet “Clay”
– Rebekka Bohme and Miriam Roder /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 that will be awarded are the following:

First place – 7 000 leva

Second place – 4 000 leva

Third place – 2 000 leva

There will also be awarded the Audience Special Prize of the value of 2 000 leva.  The spectators will have the opportunity to vote and choose their favorite.

There will also be awarded special prizes according to the judgment of the jury:

• 20-day-long creative residence in Sofia, awarded by “Art Link” Foundation and Zhivko Zhelyazkov. The residence will be held in 2025 in the space of “Derida” Stage.
• A creative residence in 2025 for work with the ballet artists of the Stara Zagora State Opera. The selected choreographer will be invited to create a new author’s dance work, which will remain in the repertoire of the Ballet.

The jury that will assess the finalists of the Competition is different from the one for the preliminary collection so that its members may not have a preliminarily formed opinion and be able to assess impartially at the first watching live. The head of the jury is the Prima ballerina and Artistic Director of the Ballet of the Stara Zagora State Opera – Silviya Tomova, the other two members are: Zhivko Zhelyazkov – choreographer and Artistic Director of “Derida Dance” Dance Company and Vilislav Prager – choreographer, performer and co-founder of “Antistatic” – a festival for contemporary dance and performance.

Organizer of the Competition is the “Stream Dance” Dance Company in partnership with the Stara Zagora State Opera.

The project is realized with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.

On the first Competition evening on 3 November at 19.00 on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera the spectators will be able to see the authors’ choreographies of the nominated finalists and choose their favorite fir the Audience Award.

On 4 November at 19.00 there will be held the award ceremony and the closing Gala evening when the prizes will be announced and there will be presented the performances of the award-winners, as well as of guest-performers.

 Tickets for the two competition evenings can be bought online from the site and the ticket office of the Stara Zagora State Opera at the price of 10 leva.

The idea of the Competition appeared spontaneously during the pandemic in 2020. Its creators are Filip Milanov and Valeri Milenkov, who are also founders of “Steam Dance” Dance Company, and Filip is its Artistic Director. Supported by the Ministry of Culture, the International Choreographic Competition “Linkage” has turned into one of the largest in scale and significant projects of “Stream Dance”. The first two editions were realized online, as well as with a live projection – the video materials of the selected choreographers are projected on “Derida” Stage in Sofia, and the events are open for a small number of spectators in accordance with the obligatory limitations because of the pandemic. The third and the fourth editions were held on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera, which welcomed in 2022, 9 out of the total 11 selected choreographers from the USA, Italy, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Spain, who arrived with their performers to show their productions, and in the fourth edition were selected 10 finalist in total from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Argentina and China. Some days ago was completed the creative residence in the space of “Derida Dance” by the last-year laureates of the Competition the choreographers from Italy Emma Zanni and Roberto Doveri, who together with their authors’ choreography, which they staged during their stay in Sofia, held also a masterclass for contemporary dance.  

At the very birth of the idea of the Competition, the aim of the “Stream Dance” Dance Company was to turn it into a large-scale international event. The International Choreographic Competition “Linkage” is the only one of its kind forum within the borders of our country. The international interest increases with every previous edition. The Competition attracts choreographers of high professional level, and many of them are laurates of other prestigious international prizes for contemporary dance. “Linkage” develops the dance stage in Bulgaria, attracting a large number of professionals in the sphere of contemporary dance and performance, and also contributes with the fact that it presents to the public world-famous names in the timeframe of one competition evening.