Former Fellows

In the past decades, Bulgarian artistic modernism has been a subject of profound historical research and reevaluation. However, there is still a considerable gap in the survey of the heritage of dance modernism. Modern dance was introduced on local ground in the interwar period by artists who gained their education in Germany, under the pioneer of German modern dance Mary Wigman. Two of them – choreographers-dancers Lidiya Valkova and Maria Dimova, are considered its major exponents. The solo works they presented independently in 1920s and 1930s manifested a new art of dance referred to as “artistic dance” in differentiation to classical ballet. The main objective of this research is to locate and evaluate their work within the genre of modern dance and within their historical cultural context in local and transnational perspective. Of special interest are issues such as the notion of “essence” of dance and the discourse on its autonomy as an art form; the relationship between tradition and modernity, between artistic experiment and folk dance; body imagery in dance and its political implications in relation to national identity building. The research will combine approaches coming from dance historiography, dance and performance studies and cultural studies.