THE STARA ZAGORA OPERA – HOST OF THE SIXTH EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL CHOREOGRAPHIC COMPETITION LINKAGE

26 – 27 October 2025

LINKAGE is an international choreographic competition for young choreographers, which includes in its regulations contemporary choreographic miniatures – solos and duets of the duration from 5 to 13 minutes. The basic criteria, which determine the selection of the finalists, are originality of the conception, work with the performers, musical reading, choreographic lexis, technical level of the performance.
The sixth edition of the International Choreographic Competition, which will be held on 26 and 27 October on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera, will present some of the best choreographic miniatures, created during the last 2 years, and the audience will have the opportunity to choose its favorite.

After the preliminary selection by the members of the jury: Angelina Gavrilova, Valeri Milenkov and Filip Milanov, out of 200 applications from all over the world were chosen 13 finalists, who will present live their own choreographies. Every choreographer will arrive with his or her performers, for whom he or she created their choreography. For the first time in the short history of the Competition, there is a Bulgarian participant – Stanislav Genadiev, who will present his solo “Platform”.

The finalists this year are:
1. Anna Pasetti – duet “Das Unheimliche”, Italy
2. Heung Won Lee & Marine Fernandez – duet
“Un Fil”, South Korea / France
3. Iga Włodarczyk & Katarzyna Zakrzewska – duet “Ki”, Poland
4. Louis Thuriot & Patricia George – duet
“RAKKE”, Belgium
5. Michal Vach – solo “Fae”, Czechia
6. Minsu Kim – duet “Tuning”, South Korea
7. Nicolaos Doede – duet “The Passenger”, USA
8. Oliviero Bifulco – duet “DIOSCURI”, Italy
9. Simone Wennerberg – duet “GRIND”, Denmark / Norway
10. Stanislav Genadiev – solo “Platform”, Bulgaria
11. Tomas Martino – solo “EIRA”, Italy
12. Wang Yu – duet “Let me out”, China
13. Yingyu Lyu – solo “A heavy parting”, China

The prizes which will be awarded are the following:
First Place – 6 000 leva
Second Place – 3 000 leva
Third Place – 2 000 leva
There will also be awarded a special Prize of the Audience of 2 000 leva.
The spectators will have the opportunity to vote and choose their favorite.
There will also be awarded special prizes, based on the judgement of the Jury:
– 20-day-long creative residence in Sofia, awarded by the Foundation “Art Link” and Zhivko Zhelyazkov. The residence will be held in 2026 in the space of Stage “Derida”.
– Creative residence in 2026 for work with the ballet artists of the Stara Zagora State Opera. The selected choreographer will be invited to create his original new dance work, which will remain in the repertoire of the Ballet.
– Creative residence in 2026 from the Ballet “Arabesque”. The selected choreographer will be invited to create his new original dance work, which will remain in the repertoire of the Ballet.

The Jury, which will assess the finalists of the Competition is different from the Jury of the preliminary selection, so that its members will not have an already established opinion and will assess impartially seeing the work live for the first time.
Head of the Jury is the Prima Ballerina and Artistic Director of the Ballet of the Stara Zagora State Opera – Silviya Tomova. The other three members are: Angelina Gavrilova – Artistic Director of the Ballet “Arabesque”, Zhivko Zhelyazkov – choreographer and Artistic Director of the Dance Company “Derida Dance” and Vilislav Prager – choreographer and co-founder of “Antistatic” – a festival for contemporary dance and performance.
The organizer of the Competition is the Dance Company “Stream Dance” with Artistic Director Filip Milanov in partnership with the Stara Zagora State Opera.
The project is realized with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture.
In the first Competition evening on 26 October at 19.00 on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera, the spectators will be able to see the original choreographies by the nominated finalists and choose their favorite for the Prize of the Audience. It is an interesting fact that the Italian choreographer Tomas Martino, whose solo entitled EIRA was chosen for the final of the Competition, will have its official premiere on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera. The solo has not been performed before an audience so far. Among the finalists are Louis Thuriot & Patricia George from Belgium /mother and son/, who with their duet “RAKKE” come to Stara Zagora as winners of the choreographic competition in Rotterdam.
On 27 October at 19.00 will be held the award ceremony and the closing dance Gala evening, when the prizes will be announced and the awarded artists will perform their works. There will be performances of guest-artists as well.
Important!
This year the organizers offer the people who live in Sofia and want to attend the final of the Competition organized bus transport, departure and return, with a preliminary enrollment. The bus will leave Sofia on 26 October and travel back to Sofia the same evening, immediately after the Competition evening and the voting for the Prize of the Audience.
More here:
Organized travel to the 6th International Choreographic Competition LINKAGE
https://urboapp.com/bg/e22084-trip-international-choreography-competition-linkage#

Tickets for the two Competition evenings can be bought online on the site and from the ticket office of the Stara Zagora State Opera at the price of 10 leva.
The idea about the Competition appeared spontaneously during the pandemic in 2020. Its creators are Filip Milanov and Valeri Milenkov, who are also the founders of the Dance Company “Stream Dance”, and Filip is its artistic director. Supported by the Ministry of Culture, the International Choreographic Competition LINKAGE turned into one of most large-scale and significant projects of “Stream Dance”. The first two editions were realized online, as well as by a live projection – the video-materials of the selected choreographers were projected on the Stage “Derida” in the city of Sofia, as the events were open to a small number of spectators according to the obligatory restrictions caused by the pandemic. The third, fourth and the fifth editions were held on the stage of the Stara Zagora Opera, which in 2022 hospitably met 9 out of 11 selected choreographers from the USA, Italy, Ukraine, Hungary, the Netherlands, Spain, who arrived together with their performers to present their productions. In the fourth edition were selected totally 10 finalists from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Argentina and China, and in the fifth edition the finalists were 12 in total from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal, Israel, China, Japan, Canada, USA.

As early as the creation of the idea about the Competition, the aim of the Dance Company “Stream Dance” was to turn it into a large-scale international event. The International Choreographic Competition LINKAGE is the only one of its kind in this forum within the borders of our country. The international interest increases with every subsequent edition. The Competition attracts choreographers of a high professional level, and many of them have already won prizes at other prestigious international competitions for contemporary dance. LINKAGE develops the dance stage in Bulgaria by attracting a large number of professionals in the sphere of the contemporary dance and performance, and also contributes with presenting to the audience world-famous names in the framework of one competition evening.