28 April/ 8:00 PM/ DNK – space for contemporary dance and performance
1 Bulgaria Square, National Palace of Culture – underground, opposite to the fountains

Iva Sveshtarova/ Willy Prager

SHAMEBOX

Idea, realization and performance: Iva Sveshtarova and Willy Prager
Music: Emilian Gatsov – Elbi
Consultants: Neli Mitewa and Mira Todorova
Thanks to Helena Botto.
A production of Brain Store Project and DNK – Space for Contemporary Dance and Performance
Photographer: Boriana Pandova

In “Shamebox” Iva Sveshtarova and Willy Prager approach the stage as a space that invariably contains in itself the risk of the feeling of shame. To what extent does it consists in performers’ very exposure in front of spectators? What is the primordial stage of the culture of shame? Whether the newly-engendered anonymous digital intimacy is not a stage for liberation of its “norms” as well? The two actors open the “shame box” to study it from the inside. They enter the box as kids led by bold curiosity. Infantile desires pass into the safeguarded virtual boxes offered by the online space. There, the game often continues in a provocative but also grotesquely funny way. How far can all of that get?

Iva Sveshtarova and Willy Prager are a reputable tandem in contemporary dance and performance in Bulgaria. Together, individually and in collaboration with various artists from the country and abroad they are among the creators of works such as “Balkan Dance Reality Show”, “Our Last Pas De Deux After Galina Borisova”, “Strip naked, talk naked”, “Sequel for the Future”, “Museum of Hygiene” and other performances presented by them at different international festivals. They were brought together by the 4XC experimental theatre classes and the speciality of Synthetic Stage Art at the University of Plovdiv. Subsequently, Iva Sveshtarova obtained her Master’s degree in Choreography and Performance at the Institute of Applied Theatre Studies in Giessen, Germany. She has won the scholarship of DanceWeb, and from 2002 to 2006 she was part of the company Acto – Instituto de Arte Dramatica, Portugal. She has authored and co-authored more than 10 performances on Bulgarian and international stages. Willy Prager obtained his Master’s degree in Solo, Dance, Authorship at the Universtität der Künste in Berlin. He has won scholarships of DanceWeb, Theatertreffen – Berlin, On The Edge – Bucharest, and a residency at Tanzquartier Vienna. He won the Prix Jardin d’Europe Audience Award at Impulstanz in Vienna for his performance “The Victory Day”. Iva Sveshtarova and Willy Prager are part of the artistic collective “Brain Store Project”, co-founders of the Balkan dance network Nomad Dance Academy and Antistatic, the international festival for contemporary dance and performance.

Tickets: 8 BGN