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.

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. Kristine 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…

Editor in Chief of Dance Magazine is Angelina Georgieva.

Dance Magazine was initiated in 2019 by Brain Store Project Foundation in the frame of Performance Situation Room programme line of LLB and since then it has been published in partnership with Nomad Dance Bulgaria with the financial support of Sofia Municipality.