PSR Magazine for Dance Vol. 3/2021

Magazine for Dance Vol. 3/2021, premiere on June 2nd, 2021, in the frame of Antistatic Festival, Sofia, Bulgaria.  

CONCEPT
Dance Magazine 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 third number of the magazine for 2021 was co-financed by the local National Culture Fund.

Dance Magazine 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 Dance Magazine #3 is 700 copies. It is distributed in specialized book stores, dance centres, venues and events.

CONTENT
Dance Magazine #3 was prepared and came out in times of global pandemic. It set wide restrictions on cultural activities and on the performing arts thus making us rethink again what it the significance of dance for the society and how does it relate to the processes in it. That is why the feature topic of the issue is "Dance and the Political". It is discussed from different perspectives by leading Bulgarian and international authors. In her article “What Has Dance to Do with Politics” British dance researcher Alexandra Kolb outlines different aspects of the political dimension of dance. Bulgarian dance critic and researcher Mira Todorova discusses in her article “Dance and Politics: The Sociopolitical Potential of Dance” the potential of dance to influence social change deriving from topical political, esthetic and dance theories. In “Curatorial Work and Contemporary Performing Arts Institutions: Possible Perspectives” Biljana Tanurovska Kjulavkovski from North Macedonia reflects on the political dimension of the institutions for contemporary performing arts in Europe and invites us to re-imagine their future. The rubric “Feature Topic” includes also articles by Bulgarian writer Yassen Vassilev on the precarious situation of the independent dance makers and the potential of dance to reflect on current political processes by constructing alternative ways of being together, experiences and perceptions. German dance scholar Sandra Noeth contributed to the issues with the article “Bodies, exposed to one another: Corporeal politics and Aesthetic Agency”. Bulgarian philosopher Boyan Manchev approaches in his text “The Dark Dance, or the Uprising of the Body” the Japanese Butoh-dance as a radical and revolutionary political attempt in the arts of the 20^th century.

The rubric HIHGLIGTS is dedicated to special events and current processes in the dance field. In this number it is prevailed by the topic of the COVID-19 pandemic and is effect on the international and local dance scenes. The rubric opens with the speech that Belgium choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker delivered at the EDN Conference “What’s Next for the Dance Ecosystem” in December 2020. Especially for the issue we organized an online discussion among Bulgarian managers and artists from the ballet and contemporary dance on the consequences that the pandemic brought to the sector. Other important topics brought by the pandemic are addressed – such as the boom of digital formats and online streamings of dance productions as well as the unresolved issue with the statues of the independent artist in Bulgaria which was again brought into discussion on ministerial level.  The number also includes an interview with the newly appointed artistic director of Biennale Danza in Venice – the British choreographer Wayne Macgregor, as well as an interview with the newly selected director of State Dance and Choreography School in Sofia.

 The rubric PROFILES features dance artists who have drawn the attention in the current season. Here we present interviews with Marta Petkova – principal dancer at the Sofia National Opera and Ballet as well as with emerging choreographer Deyan Georgiev, who won the first prize at the renown Choreographic Competition organized by Ballet Arabesque in Sofia. A special photo session was made with both of them.

The rubric IN THE STUDIO is dedicated to reflecting on the creative process in dance and choreography. Here we publish the article `Deconstructing the Choreographic Approach of Pina Bausch” by the American dance scholar Prof. Dr. Donna Davenport.

The rubric REVIEWS aims at fostering critical writing about dance and publishes reviews on new productions in contemporary dance and ballet in Bulgaria by emerging and established dance critics.

The rubric THEORIES presents topical ideas and concepts in dance theory. Here we introduce the notion of “social choreography” with an interview with its main author Andrew Hewitt.

In the rubric PERSPECTIVES the number presents the current discussions on how to rethink and reshape working internationally in a more sustainable way with an article by Joris Janssens (Belgium) from Idea Consult.  

The rubric DANCE CULTURE problematizes the new popularity of folk dance in Bulgaria with an article by Kremena Hristova.

The rubric CALENDER recommends a selection of dance events in Bulgaria and Europe that take place by the end of 2021. 

In the rubric TRADITIONS  an article talks about the first Bulgarian choreographers who introduced in the local context the Martha Graham technique in the 1970’s. It presents also a feature article about the world-famous Bulgarian ballerina Vera Kirova on the occasion of her 80^th anniversary.  

In the rubric ANTOLOGY the magazine presents for the first time in Bulgarian Yvonne Rainer’s seminal essay “A Quasi Survey of Some Minimalist Tendencies in the Quantitatively Minimal Dance Activity Midst the Plethora or an Analysis of Trio A” from 1968.

The issue came out in May 2021 and had a public premiere in Sofia.

Its appearance was announced in several local and national media as well as with interviews with the editor in-chief for the Bulgarian National Television and the Bulgarian National Radio.

The website of Dance Magazine - dancemag.eu - was updated. It presents the concept and the content of the current issue, gives free access to some of the articles and publishes news about events featured in the magazine and about its public presentations. The Magazine maintains contact with its audiences throughout the year also through its profiles on Facebook and Instagram www.instagram.com/dancemageu.

Gallery pics by Teodora Simova and Petyal Ivanova.