SummerJam 2006 Dance Workshop

In August, I went to Burgas, Bulgaria, on the coast of the Black Sea, to be a part of a bi-annual contemporary dance workshop organized by Dance BG called Summer Jam. There were dancers from Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Ukraine, Turkey, and me, from the US. I was invited to Summer Jam by a Bulgarian dancer named Ivailo who I met in June at a workshop in Istanbul.
The workshop was split into two parts: the first week was spent in Burgas city where we did intensive technique classes in the morning and a choreography atolier in the afternoon. The second week we went to a nearby coastal campground, pitched tents and did some improvisation work on the beach for some curious summer holidayers. Over the course of the workshop we performed three times: once in Burgas, where we performed a piece made by Teodora Popova, the teacher of the city workshop, and two improvisation performances on the beach. One improv performance was at the camp, the other performance was on the Burgas city beach. I think the pictures will say more than my words...so take a look!




These three pictures show Kire and me working on a duet that we made together for the choreographed performance. Kire is a dancer/choreographer from Macedonia and he is a very talented, creative, fun pioneer in the Eastern European dance world.


For the same performance I also had a solo piece. These photos show me working on it, the second one shows Teodora (the workshop leader) watching me work to give feedback and comments.

This is Ivailo (Bulgaria) and me dancing together at the beach during one of our afternoon improv jams. Ivailo is a teacher of movement theater at Sofia's National Academy of Theater and Dance.




These are some shots of the second improvisation performance we did on the Burgas city beach.