site.btaBrussels Folk Dance Club to Perform at Munich Festival

The folk dance club Na Horoto in Brussels will participate in the 11th Expats Join Hands in Worldwide Dance travelling festival, which will take place in Munich from May 15 to 17. 

"At this year’s gathering we will present the dance Za Edna Karpa (For a Handkerchief), a Thracian dance created by Ventseslav Nedelchev. There were two reasons behind the making of this dance. We needed a new Thracian dance for the club’s repertoire and decided to combine the creation of a new work with the theme of the gathering, Libe Le, Libe Hubavo,” the club’s leader Maria Tsvetkova told BTA.

She added that meeting Ventseslav Nedelchev at a folk dance seminar in Paris several years ago also played a major role. "His dedication to researching lesser-known dances in the field and the exceptionally pleasant work during the seminar were the reasons why we invited him to create and stage a choreographic work for us. His highly professional approach in proposing the story, presenting a preliminary dramaturgical plan and clarifying the details, as well as the work on the performance itself, turned the process into an extremely enriching and enjoyable experience," Tsvetkova said.

She explained that the dance is based on authentic folk dance examples from across Thrace, including territories currently outside Bulgaria’s borders, which are rarely used in stage performances. The music is traditional folk music, with some of the songs arranged by Stefan Dragostinov.

"The preparation was rather intense because of the inevitable professional travel commitments of some of the dancers and the relatively short time between the staging and the gathering due to the choreographer’s schedule. At the same time, the satisfaction from what we achieved is immense. We hope the audience will feel the emotion and experience with us the six-minute story of the maiden’s handkerchief. And we hope to entertain them as well," Maria Tsvetkova said.

The folk dance club was founded nearly 19 years ago informally as a club for learning traditional dances. “The best possible word-of-mouth publicity quickly attracted many Bulgarians from Brussels and the surrounding area, and within a few years two groups were formed," Tsvetkova explained. A performance group was later established, initially consisting only of women and subsequently becoming mixed.

The club currently has around 100 members divided into four groups for learning folk dances, with strong interest also coming from foreigners of various nationalities. The performance group consists of 16 dancers.

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.