The performance has been cancelled. You can use your tickets for any other performance from the Bulgarian Dance Platform (except for Certified Copy and PURE /youth/)

84 is the required number of phone calls needed to successfully close a deal in the corporate sales world. In their dance show on capitalism, Stephanie Handjiiska and Kosta Karakashyan ask awkward questions about the market value of dance labour; questions about the role of the dancer who simultaneously performs the dance work and sells it; about working and living conditions, about success and fatigue in the era of late capitalism.

Each ticket to “84 Conversations” is an investment. Each ticket pays off in the form of dance fantasies, personal stories, telephone dancing and sex appeal. 

Bonus – each audience member receives a survival guide to capitalism.

84 DIALS first time.
84 DIALS second time.
84 DIALS third time. 

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Stephanie Handjiiska is a Bulgarian director, choreographer, producer and dance artist based in London, UK. In 2020, Stephanie graduated with distinction an MA “Contemporary Dance” with a specialization in “Choreography” at  London Contemporary Dance School. She creates contemporary dance and dance films. Together with Kosta Karakashyan she directed the dance films “Glance from the Edge” (2020) and co-created “INNER BLOOM” (2021). In 2022, Stephanie shot her first dance film as a solo director “The Bulgarian Women” in London, which tells the story of 12 inspiring women in Bulgarian history, seen through the prism of dance and fashion. The premiere of the film will be on June 26th, 2022 at the “Toplocentrala”, Sofia. The performance “84 Dials” is a continuation of the study of capitalism from Stephanie’s master’s thesis “The Precariousness of Artistic Labour Under the Influence of Capitalism”, which she wrote under the mentorship of Dr. Tom Hastings in London. The performance will be presented at the Bulgarian Dance Platform in Sofia and at the Resolution Festival for New Choreography at The Place Theatre in London, both in May 2022. In April 2022, Stephanie received a commission for a new stage work and film from The Place London’s Choreodrome programme. The new work “Not a Crab, Not a Fish” explores the theme of identity and invisible artists from Central and Eastern Europe living in the UK.Since 2016, she has been the chairwoman and program director of the Man with a Hat Foundation – a Bulgarian non-governmental organization, which mission is to develop dance and dance cinema in Bulgaria. Since 2020, Stephanie, together with Silvia Cherneva and Kosta Karakashyan have organized the Focus Screendance program, which aims to develop dance film in Bulgaria through an educational program for artists, production of new professional dance films, tour of dance films in small towns and villages and work with young people and adolescents.

Kosta Karakashyan is a Bulgarian-Armenian director, choreographer, performer, and writer exploring empathy through movement and storytelling. His work has been described as “an important voice for LGBTQ+ struggles in Chechnya and elsewhere” by The Columbia Spectator. A two-time Bulgarian National Ballroom Champion, Kosta has performed and choreographed on Dancing With the Stars Vietnam, Bulgaria’s Got Talent, and across Canada, Germany, Norway, Egypt, Vietnam, and Japan. He graduated with a BA in Dance from Columbia University and a Master’s in Human Rights from the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice, Italy. Kosta has worked with artists such as Rita Ora, Years and Years, Sherihan and Preyah, directors Jonathan Alric, Alaska, Manu Cossu and Will Hopper, and commercial clients Škoda, Calvin Klein, H&M, Kohler, Method, EE, Studio Zard, Florsheim, and SRB Paris (featured in Vogue Russia). Bringing his experience of choreography and performance to the screen, Kosta has directed, produced, and choreographed numerous short films and videos through his production company Studio Karakashyan, most notably the documentary dance film “WAITING FOR COLOR” about the ongoing LGBTQ+ persecution in Chechnya, awarded the “Prix Lumière” at Cinédanse Festival Ottawa 2019. “WAITING FOR COLOR” has been selected at over 20 festivals worldwide and featured by The Guardian, Elle Magazine, Bloomberg, them, GLAAD, and Radio Free Europe. His choreography has been presented by the Columbia Ballet Collaborative (NYC) and Ballet “Arabesque” (Bulgaria).