site.btaMunich Festival Hosts from Lazarka Ensemble to Perform Two Dances

The Lazarka Ensemble, the host of the 11th Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance travelling festival, which will take place in Munich from May 15 to 17, will preform two dances. One performance will be a premiere for the ensemble, while the other will mark its 35th anniversary, Ensemble Director Plamen Petkov told BTA in an interview.

The dancers will not be staging a large-scale celebration during the event because of the packed programme and the large number of participants, but will mark the anniversary with a short special segment.

The first dance, "Sharena Gaida", will likely open the festival. It is a dance from the repertoire of the Philip Koutev Ensemble, choreographed by Ivaylo Ivanov, with music and arrangement by Georgi Andreev, Petkov explained. 

Being a premiere, this is the ensemble's greatest  challenge. It is a Pirin dance, a style they have not previously included in their repertoire.

The ensemble's experience has mainly been with Shopluk, Thracian and Northern Bulgarian dances, while "Sharena Gaida" presents the dancers with a new stylistic approach and a different folkloric specificity. It was chosen to match the motto of this year's festival, "Libe Le, Libe, Hubavo" (My Love, My Beautiful Love).

Petkov said the dance production is based on two songs: one is about love for the homeland above personal ties, and another with a humorous theme celebrating love for music and art.

The ensemble's second performance will be "Shopski Lazarki", one of the earliest dances in its history. The choreography is by Belcho Stanev, founder of the ensemble.

"This dance had somewhat fallen into oblivion, but we restored and updated it," Petkov said, adding that there will be more surprises during the festival linked to the ensemble's 35th anniversary.

Over the past few months, the dancers have been holding three rehearsals a week, while the ensemble has also organized a training camp with the participation of the choreographer of the Varna Ensemble and his wife.

"We are working hard, although much of our time is devoted to organizing the festival," Petkov said.

All dancers in the Lazarka Ensemble are Bulgarians aged between 15 and 60.

In an earlier interview for BTA's BG World, Petkov described Lazarka as one of the oldest and most established Bulgarian folk ensembles abroad. Founded in 1991 by choreographer Belcho Stanev and a group of Munich-based enthusiasts, the ensemble promotes Bulgarian folklore across Germany and Europe and has received numerous awards at international festivals and competitions. Lazarka also fosters cultural exchange between Bulgaria and Germany and is a co-founder of the Association of Bulgarian Folklore Ensembles Abroad.

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 both 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.