site.btaNew Sofia Venue Opens Doors to Four Weeks of Choreographic Experimentation and Creative Exchange

From June 8 to July 6, Baza, the new independent venue for contemporary dance and interdisciplinary arts in Sofia’s Mladost 4 district, will host the inaugural edition of the international platform DanceMeld. The initiative brings together leading Bulgarian and international choreographers, emerging artists, and audiences for a four-week programme of creative exchange, workshops, and public presentations, according to the organising team.

As part of the platform, six choreographers from Bulgaria, the United States, Spain, and Argentina will lead hands-on creative workshops exploring the intersections of dance, voice, text, digital media, and circus arts.

From June 8 to 13, Zornitsa Stoyanova (Bulgaria/USA) will present the creative workshop Polyphonic Dance/Future Love, dedicated to the interplay between movement, text, and voice. During the week, participants will begin developing a new choreographic project exploring love in an age shaped by artificial intelligence.

Between June 15 and 20, young Bulgarian choreographers Silvia Cherneva and Andrea Dragov will lead parallel creative workshops within the New Voices strand. Cherneva will focus on the creation of solo miniatures and playful choreographic structures, while Dragov will investigate the relationships between personal narratives, space, objects, and movement.

From June 22 to 27, Nora Gibson (USA) will lead a cyberdance creative workshop incorporating biosensors, sound, and visual media, while Lucio A. Baglivo (Argentina/Spain) will work with improvisation, partnering, acrobatics, voice, and real-time composition. The platform will conclude from June 29 to July 4 with a creative workshop led by Galina Borissova (Bulgaria), bringing together text, dramaturgy, scenography, sound, and movement in a collective performance-making process.

At the end of each week, participants will present the outcomes of their work to the public and take part in open discussions that invite audiences to become active participants in the creative process. The project is aimed at dancers and choreographers, students, emerging artists, semi-professional performers, and anyone interested in contemporary dance, performance, and experimental stage practices.

DanceMeld is an international platform for contemporary dance and interdisciplinary performance that approaches choreography as a collective process of research and creation. Rather than following a traditional educational model, participants engage directly in ongoing creative processes led by six choreographers with distinct artistic approaches. Each week combines practical laboratories, work within a specific artistic methodology, a public presentation, and a conversation with audiences. In this way, audiences are not merely observers of a final result but witnesses to and participants in the process of creation itself.

A central focus of the platform is the integration of different artistic languages, movement, voice, media, text, visual art, and technology, not as parallel disciplines but as interconnected elements within a shared choreographic process.

The platform also develops the special New Voices programme, which provides opportunities for artistic visibility and professional development to young Bulgarian choreographers under the age of 35.

Baza is an independent space for contemporary dance, performance, and interdisciplinary research founded by choreographer Zornitsa Stoyanova and the organisation BodyMeld. Located in Sofia’s Mladost 4 district, it opened its doors in December 2025 following the complete transformation of a former industrial-administrative facility into a venue for artistic exchange, education, and creative practice. The space features Bulgaria’s first privately funded sprung dance floor accessible to the independent dance community.