PSR Magazine for Dance Vol. 2/2020
Magazine for Dance is an annual edition that aims to offer a contemporary perspective on dance today covering ballet, contemporary dance and performance as well as dance culture. The project was launched in 2019 as an initiative of Brain Store Project within Performance Situation Room programme line of Life Long Burning and has been carried out in partnership with Nomad Dance Academy Bulgaria. The second volume of the magazine for 2020 was co-financed by the local National Culture Fund.
Magazine for Dance is the only Bulgarian print media entirely dedicated to dance. Its mission is to build bridges between different genres, dance communities and audiences, between the international and the Bulgarian scene, and to be a platform for discussing and presenting the processes, ideas, events and personalities that shape the diverse dance world today.
The aim of the magazine is to be accessible to wide audiences and in 120 full-colour pages to offer a variety of content that highlights current processes and events and presents interesting perspectives on important issues and ideas in dance. It engages international and Bulgarian authors from different generations and uses different genres - reviews, interviews, essays, portraits, theoretical and research articles, etc.
The print run of Magazine for Dance #2 is 700 copies. It is distributed in specialized book stores, dance centres, venues and events.
The creation period of this magazine was from 1.11.2019 – 30.06.2020.
It was published in May 2020 but its live premiere had to be postponed due to Covid-19 to 03.11.2020 in the frame of Antistatic Festival.
CONTENT
The COVER TOPIC of Magazine for Dance #2 is Dance and Other Art Fields. The texts dedicated to it look at how since the late 19thcentury dance has been increasingly interconnected with different fields in culture and has a powerful influence on other art forms.
A feature article written by the dance researcher Mira Todorova follows how dance has entered painting and plastic art and the innovations that it fostered in modern art. The guest-author from Serbia – Marijana Cvetkovic, discusses in historical perspective the current trend of presenting dance and choreography in the context of museums, galleries and visual art events in Europe and USA and the questions these practices put forward. The Bulgarian fashion designer Neli Miteva writes how dance and performance has become a part of fashion designers’ view of presenting designs. In a special article the German dance historian Isa Wortlekamp analyses the relations between dance and photography. The issue publishes also a translation of the famous essay “Dance Lessons for Writers” by the eminent British writer Zadie Smith.
The rubric HIGHLIGHTS outlines some special events and current processes. It celebrates the 60thjubilee of the choreographer Mila Iskrenova who has contributed to the development of contemporary dance in Bulgaria in the past 30 years and has an important role in the formation of several generations of dancers. The magazine reminds of the history of the world-famous Varna Ballet Competition in the face of its unclear future due to financial issues. In an interview the artist and choreographer Ivo Dimchev speaks about his current turn to music concerts and his interdisciplinary space for art – Mozei, in Sofia. The issue also presents Rio Rutzinger from danceWEB and Life Long Burning network and the LLB project line Choreographic Convention.
The rubricPROFILESfeatures dance artists who have drawn the attention in the current season or who are expected to have guest-performances in Bulgaria. This issue presents with an interview Kaloyan Boyadjiev – a ballet dancer and choreographer at the Norwegian National Ballet who is invited to stage in Bulgaria in 2020/2021. A special article is dedicated to some of the younger but already established artists in contemporary dance and ballet in Bulgaria such as Philip Milanov, Marion Darova and Sophia Tutsakova. Mårten Spångberghas given a lengthy interview about his perception of contemporaneity and the role of dance in it.
The rubric IN THE STUDIO aims to present new ways of working in the field of dance and choreography. Yassen Vassilev speaks with Manuel Pelmus about his way of working between choreography and visual arts.
The rubric REVIEWS aims at fostering critical writing about dance and publishes reviews on new productions in the sphere of contemporary dance and ballet by emerging and established dance critics.
The rubric THEORIES presents provoking ideas in the field of dance theory. Magazine for Dance # 2 reviews the edition “Movement Research” edited by Marten Spangberg.
The rubric PERSPECTIVES is dedicated to the intersection between dance and new technologies with an interview of one of their main exponents Marko Donnarumma.
The rubric DANCE CULTURE is focused on the popularity of K-Pop dance and discussed the politics beyond it.
The rubric CALENDAR recommends to the audiences a selection of dance events in Bulgaria and Europe that take place by the end of 2020.
The rubric TRADITIONS published a new research article about the pioneers of modern dance in Bulgaria in the 20thcentury.
The aim of the last rubric in the magazine – ANTOLOGY –is to offer for the first time in Bulgarian emblematic texts about dance in 20thand 21stcentury. Magazine for Dance # 2 published essays by Merce Cunningham regarded as one of the leading proponents of interdisciplinarity in dance in the 20thcentury.