Dance Magazine is an annual print publication dedicated to ballet, contemporary dance, and dance culture. Its goal is to cover current events, analyze processes, and highlight outstanding figures from the Bulgarian and international dance scenes during the season.

Editor in Chief of Dance Magazine is Angelina Georgieva.

Dance Magazine was initiated in 2019 by Brain Store Project Foundation / Antistatic Festival in the frame of Performance Situation Room programme of Life Long Burning and since then it has been published in partnership with Nomad Dance Bulgaria with the financial support of Sofia Municipality and the National Culture Fund, under the “Creative Europe” Targeted Support Program.

The new issue of Bulgaria’s only Dance Magazine focuses on the new generations in dance.

With texts by Kerstin Schroth, Elena Basteri, María Elna Matamoros Ocaña, Angelina Petrova Georgieva, Neva Gueorguieva Micheva-Berardi, Tsvetana Ivanova Georgieva, Iveta Dimova Marinova, Violeta Georgieva Vitanova, Stanislav Rumenov Genadiev, Albena Kostadinova Tagareva, Boris Stefanov Daltchev, Anita Zaharieva Angelova, Elena Plamenova Khliebkova, Marta Buggio, Mariya Panayotova Rusanova, Plamen Encislavov Harmandjiev, Vassilka Georgieva Shishkova.

 

The magazine has completed its first seven years. It is believed that in human development, these years form the foundation of personality. This gave us reason to focus on the question of what contributes to the formation and strengthening of new generations in dance—artists who are now emerging or already establishing themselves on the professional stage. In the "Feature Topic" section, we talk with some of the interesting new faces in contemporary dance in Bulgaria to hear their stories. Education is naturally of key importance for the formation of new generations. Therefore, we conducted a study of leading educational programmes the city of Sofia, primarily in contemporary dance. Chris Standfest, longtime artistic director of the young choreographers' series at Vienna’s ImPulsTanz festival, shares her observations on what supports the development of new generations in dance and what topics young dance creators in Europe deal with today. The successful example of Germany’s Explore Dance network shows how to ensure the future of dance art by attracting young audiences.

In this issue, we introduce new, vibrant presences on the Bulgarian and international scenes such as Simeon Atanasov, Deva Schubert, Christos Papadopoulos among others. We also cover the heated discussion on the potential impact of advancing artificial intelligence on dance in the "Perspectives" section. With this issue, we launch the new "Directions" section, which presents the development of dance in various national contexts around the world. We begin with the story of the Flemish wave, which turned Brussels into a vital center of European contemporary dance.

The theme of new generations suggests an optimistic look toward the future, but a sense of anxiety creeps into the pages of the magazine about whether the achievements in cultural policies and institutional commitment to culture and the arts will be preserved and built upon amidst widespread budget cuts, extreme politicization of leadership appointments, and uncertainty regarding peace in Europe. Simone Willeit from Germany calls in the "Highlights" section for unity against “everything that is being taken away from us, so that we can continue to maintain a democratic environment.”

These are just some of the topics in the upcoming 120 pages dedicated to dance…

The feature topic of its 6^th issue in 2024 is The Value of Dance. Artists, managers, writers, and researchers from different angels of contemporary dance world reflect on the value of dance practice (Chrysa Parkinson), on the changing view on dance technique and education (Jens R. Giersdorf), on the role of dance festivals (Kerstin Schroth), dance criticism (Sanjoy Roy) and dance heritage (Madeline Ritter) as well as on the social value of dance (deufert&plischke) including in the Arab world (Egypt, Jordan).

The new issue reports also on the changes at the top of world-famous ballet institutions in Russia after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, on the last edition of the leading ballet competition in Europe Lausanne Prix and other currents on the international and local dance scene. A special focus is given to dance dramaturgy by presenting some newest (Jeroen Peeters, Guy Cools) and already canonical publications (Marianne Van Kerkhoven) on the topic.