The Slovenian dance company En–Knap returns to Bulgaria with a special selection of dance films and dance in virtual reality. The events will take place on:
- March 19 at 7:00 PM – Derida Stage, Sofia
- March 21 at 3:00 PM – Drama Theatre “N. O. Masalitinov”, Plovdiv
- March 22 at 5:00 PM – ReBonkers, Varna
Admission is free for all events.
The program for each evening includes a presentation of Stage360 — dance in a VR environment — and a screening of a selection of some of the most striking dance films by choreographer Iztok Kovač and director Sašo Podgoršek. Their collaboration is one of the longest-lasting partnerships in European dance cinema and has received numerous international awards, including the Grand Prix at International Video Dance – Stockholm.
The audience will have the opportunity to meet the creators and experience the performances from the unique perspective of the performers themselves.
Iztok Kovač is one of the most influential Slovenian choreographers, who in the early 1990s helped place Slovenia on the European dance map. He has created more than 35 productions and has worked in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Israel, and South Korea. As a choreographer and dancer, Kovač and En–Knap developed a distinctive dance aesthetic that has become a hallmark of Slovenian contemporary dance.
At the visual and emotional core of the cinematic language of the Kovač–Podgoršek duo lies the industrial landscape of Trbovlje — the choreographer’s hometown. For nearly three decades, this former mining town with a 200-year history has deeply shaped the sensibility of the two artists and has become their “natural Hollywood”: a raw environment of mines, chimneys, concrete, and abandoned structures with a powerful visual character.
These are not simply “dance moments captured on film.” Rather, the film itself begins to dance, while the dance is refracted through imagery like a visual-musical orchestration — closer to a choreographed installation than a conventional genre work. That is why their films may include dialogue, silence, or the rough presence of voices, yet still remain unmistakably choreographic in the way they shape and recreate time.
The film program includes:
- Vertigo Bird (1997)
- Dom Svobode (2000)
- What Are You Going to Do When You Get Out of Here? (2005)
- Vašhava (2014)
- The Last White Bisons — the newest project of En–Knap Dance Company
Stage360 is En–Knap’s expanded and innovative stage format that explores moving contemporary dance and movement beyond the traditional stage. Filmed with a 360° camera placed at the very center of the action and viewed through a VR headset, the selected works invite the viewer inside the performance — closer to the performers than ever before.
Here, the viewer’s gaze is completely free. Without a fixed frame, each audience member becomes the director of their own experience, choosing what to watch and where to focus within the 360° sphere.
The events are organized by the Informbureau Association Foundation and funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU under project No. BG RRP 11.024-0017 “From Movement to Image: Dance Films and VR Art with En–Knap – Slovenia”, part of procedure BG RRP 11.024 “Presentation of Contemporary European Productions from the Cultural and Creative Industries to Bulgarian Audiences.”
