writing

There was an air of excitement for the premiere of Hang in There – the sold-out night also marked the choreographic debut of interdisciplinary artist Tsveta Doycheva. Her first project explores a complex topic – the long-lasting trauma of gender-based physical violence. According to the program, it aims to “verbalise” the daily routine of trauma and to analyse, distill and conquer it. The topic was promising but the severity of the work proved a challenge to the performers, eager to convey to us the same intense emotional experience they undoubtedly grappled with during the creative process.

While the lights slowly drew us in to the tableau onstage, the piece opened to the sounds of a melancholic guitar fragment arranged to form a slow pulsating beat. The four female dancers Adelina Zhelyazkova, Isabel Mitkova, Tsveta Doycheva (the choreographer) and Yanitsa Atanasova slowly took turns coming downstage, confronting the audience and showing off for them at the same time. Clad in matching sheer white pants and nude tops, they evoked a procession of vulnerable bird-like creatures. In the space between hunched shoulders and a slow foot rising to relevé, their bodies contracted with delicacy. The beauty of this languid section was punctuated by limbs unexpectedly turning in to form haunting, almost menacing shapes.

Read the full piece at Dance Tabs.