This July, Derida Dance Center welcomes internationally acclaimed choreographer, curator and physical theatre director Ivan Estegneev as part of its Residency Program.
His visit to Sofia is part of a large-scale international project carried out in partnership between DOCK11 EDEN***** Berlin, Derida Dance Center, Sofia, and La Mama, New York, with the financial support of Trust for Mutual Understanding, Sofia Municipality – Cultural Events Calendar, DOCK ART and Summa Artium.
Derida Dance Center’s Residency Program continues to establish the space as an active environment for international artistic exchange, research and the development of new stage forms. By inviting Estegneev, the program creates an opportunity for Bulgarian audiences and the professional dance community to encounter an artist whose practice brings together contemporary dance, physical theatre, performance and long-standing experience in international stage productions.
The culmination of the residency will be the pre-premiere of „The Shape of a Man“ — the working title of a new performance by Ivan Estegneev and Evgeny Kulagin. The event will take place on 17 July 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at Derida Stage, with admission based on a “pay what you can” model, including the option of a free ticket.
“The Shape of a Man” explores the space and figure of a man suspended between expectation and action. At the heart of the work is the image of a body shaped by inherited social and historical models — disciplined, collective, deprived of intimacy, and placed under the pressure of rigid notions of masculinity. Gradually, this body begins to open towards a more authentic identity, revealing desire, sensuality, tenderness, and vulnerability beneath the surface of social norms.
Rather than focusing solely on dance as a completed action, the performance is interested in the state of continuous preparation. Something is always about to happen — a meeting, a rehearsal, a performance, a gesture of closeness — yet the anticipated moment is constantly postponed, stretched, and transformed into a stage event in its own right. The waiting body becomes an archive of lived experience and a form of resistance against linear time.
Hugs and touches appear as brief flashes of intimacy — fragile attempts to overcome the distance between two wounded individuals. Through a raw and uncompromising physical language, the stage becomes a space where power and dependence, violence and tenderness, fear and longing are in constant collision. The performance raises the question of how masculinity is constructed and what price is paid for its continuous reproduction.
Positioned between personal experience and the emotional intensity of ancient Greek tragedy, the work does not offer definitive answers. Instead, it leaves open the question of whether it is possible to move beyond inherited roles and expectations and to imagine new forms of intimacy, identity, and presence.
An important part of Ivan Estegneev’s visit to Sofia is the free workshop for professional dancers, which will take place on 8 July 2026 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Derida Stage. The workshop is part of Derida Dance Center’s Residency Program and offers local artists the opportunity to work directly with Estegneev, engage with his method and explore the connections between contemporary dance, physical theatre and stage presence.
Those wishing to participate in the workshop should send an email to office@derida-dance.com with the subject line “Workshop with Ivan Estegneev”, including their name, contact phone number and a short biography in English. The application deadline is 5 July 2026, 11:59 p.m.
Ivan Estegneev was born on 27 May 1980 in Novorossiysk, Russia. He is a choreographer, curator and physical theatre director working internationally in the fields of dance, theatre and opera. In 2002, together with Evgeny Kulagin, he co-founded and became artistic director of the Dialogue Dance school and company in Kostroma. Under their leadership, the company developed into one of the important centres for contemporary dance in Russia and received three Golden Mask National Theatre Awards.
Between 2014 and 2022, Estegneev was resident choreographer at the Gogol Center, where he worked closely with Kirill Serebrennikov and Evgeny Kulagin. He has also worked as a lecturer and curator of stage movement at the Moscow Film School, founded the DialogLab physical theatre laboratory, and between 2022 and 2025 was choreographer-in-residence at Thalia Theater Hamburg. His practice includes collaborations with institutions and festivals such as Komische Oper Berlin, Staatsballett Berlin, Salzburg Festival, Thalia Theater and Ruhrtriennale.
Ivan Estegneev’s visit to Sofia places Derida Dance Center in active dialogue with the international scene and creates a space for exchange between artists, audiences and cultural contexts. Through the residency, the workshop and the pre-premiere of “The Shape of a Man”, the program not only presents a new stage work, but also opens a field for reflection on the body, identity, vulnerability and the possibility of rethinking inherited models of presence.
The residency is realized as a partnership between DOCK11 EDEN***** Berlin, Derida Dance Center, Sofia and La Mama, New York and is financially supported by Trust for Mutual Understanding, Sofia Municipality – Calendar of Cultural Events, DOCK ART and Summa Artium.
