site.btaSamoDivi Group from Nuremberg to Perform Severnyashki Dance at Munich Festival

SamoDivi, the Bulgarian folk dance group  from Nuremberg, Germany, will take part in the 11th edition of the travelling festival Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance, to be held from May 15 to 17 at BMW Park in Munich.

SamoDivi will perform Severnyashki Dance, choreographed by Marin Marinov, a long-time head of the Sredets Ensemble in Sofia, the group's leader, Tanya Makarova, told BTA. Through the performance, the group aims to showcase the beauty of Northern Bulgarian folklore and recreate the playful courtship between young men and women in the village square. The folklore of the regions of Pleven, Lovech, Vidin, Vratsa and Ruse is lively, flirtatious and cheerful, reflecting the spirit of young lovers dancing the horo, Makarova said.

In line with the festival's theme, "Libe Le, Libe Hubavo" (My Love, My Beautiful Love), Iva Tarneva, head of the Sredets Ensemble, has created an additional playful introduction to the choreography, depicting the interaction between two young lovers. The roles will be performed by the group's youngest dancers, 15-year-old Slaveya Mihaylova and 12-year-old Dani Makarov.

Makarova said the group's message to the audience in Munich is one of continuity. "Our children are our pride and our future. We want to pass on our love for Bulgaria and everything Bulgarian, so that this love lives on in their hearts even far from home and is passed on to the next generations," she said.

Preparations for the festival are in full swing. The group rehearses once a week for three hours, balancing work, studies and family commitments, and plans a three-day dance camp in mid-April to refine the performance. "We leave rehearsals tired, but smiling, filled with positive energy that keeps us going throughout the week," Makarova said. She expressed gratitude to the Sredets Ensemble and its leaders Iva Tarneva and Nikolay Iliev for their continued support.

Founded in 2004 by Makarova with enthusiastic Bulgarian students, SamoDivi was initially a choreography-based group. It aims to preserve and promote Bulgarian folklore abroad. 

In its early years, the dancers in the ensemble were exclusively Bulgarian students, most of whom were learning folk dance for the first time in Germany. Today, the group numbers over 80 dancers aged between 3 and 63, and includes participants of other nationalities: Germans, Russians and children from mixed marriages (German, Chinese and Croatian, among others). In addition to the choreography group, the ensemble now has two horo groups and two children's groups, for ages 3-8 and 9-14.

The travelling festival, Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance, is organized by and for amateur folklore ensembles performing outside Bulgaria. The initiative was launched by the Ot Izvora group in Lyon, France, which hosted the first edition in 2015 and the tenth edition in 2025. More than 100 dance ensembles and over 4,000 guests are expected at the 11th edition in Munich in May. The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) is the official media partner of the event and will present all participants.