In a world that extracts articulation, optimizes breathing, and mechanizes every movement, what would happen if we surrendered to the unspoken—to that which refuses to be anything other than escaping air? What would happen if, instead of speaking, we sighed? In her new work, Iskra Prodanova, together with her collaborators, explores the sigh as a phenomenon, as a silent rebellion, on the threshold, in between, where the air is refusal and escape from punctuation, from the dualistic structure of language, and becomes the language of the unspoken. The sigh, where it intertwines with other sighs, creates a polyphonic sound analysis of the feelings within us. 

Iskra Prodanova (b. 1988) is a choreographer-pedagogue by education and a multidisciplinary artist and researcher by vocation with 15 years of experience in contemporary (performing) art. She is the co-founder, curator, and artistic director of the Moving Body platform (est. 2016, Varna). Her latest research revolves around the notion of (inner) UTOPIA as a form of resistance and resilience. Through the lens of transformative possibility rooted in the present, she is exploring the intersections of art, culture, identity, memory, inner freedom, colonial legacies and decolonisation, (re)researching for pathways to collective healing and justice. Her practice focuses on the liminal in order to understand what is happening in the space of “in-betweenness”, through the practice of slowing down, be-coming, inviting, and allowing different ways of being, focusing on (un)learning, and listening. 

Over the years, she has been creating solo stage works, video works, and has participated in group artistic projects, exhibitions, and performances in various contexts and festivals. Among them: VIDEOHOLICA International Festival for Video Art; DA fest – International Festival for Digital Art; RADAR- Festival Beyond Music; ACT Independent Theatre Festival; VERTIGO Festival for Contemporary Dance and Performance; Process Space Art Festival; WATER Festival for Contemporary Art; ATOM Choreographic Series; CAMP Festival for Visual Music; HOT ROOM / sharing practices and POETIC BODIES / research program in the context of ICC, BUNA festival, International festival for contemporary dance and performance “Antistatic”, and many others.

Iskra was part of Derida Dance Center‘s residency programme in 2013, where she explored the topic of ‘copy and the original’ through an audio-visual performance together with the visual artist Neno Belchev and the sound artist Angel Simitchiev. She has also been part of similar opportunities at Radar Festival Beyond Music in 2017 and Radar Sofia 2021, and Slavs and Tatars 2025.

In 2016, Iskra, together with Svetlozara Hristova, initiated the Moving Body platform.