Cultural manager, co-founder and director of Varna Dance Theatre, Karina Ilieva on the solo “BEHIND YOU” choreographed by Filip Milanov (Ballet Arabesque), part of the Showcase programme. 

For me, the first part of the performance looked like a volcano. Something very natural, something very connected to the earth. Something that keeps us firmly grounded. And little by little, I saw an evolutionary process evolving. How, from a rock, from something very stable, we try to emerge, to find something new, to break through. There was a moment when it felt as if we became aware of what was happening around us. What new worlds, new possibilities, new emotions and senses were about to be revealed. And after that, the whole thing shifted into a detachment, a process of detaching from what holds us and moving toward something new and rediscovering ourselves.

As a performer, Elizabet Yakimova is remarkable to me. For most of the time, we mainly see the artist’s back. And it says enough. It is a very intense physical effort. Here we are talking about 50 minutes and one person on stage who manages, solely through her body, to tell us a story in which we find our own place.

I have worked together with the choreographer Filip Milanov. Over the past few years, what I have seen from him is a very distinctive signature. And every time I am surprised by the development he undergoes and how he changes. I am happy that Filip Milanov dares to experiment. And I saw that also in his miniature in the triple-bill „Triptych“ – in the choreography of the dancers, in the work with sound and light, and in the minimalist scenography, which nevertheless tells enough.

Lachezar Yordanov worked on the publication.