The third edition of the festival for literature and contemporary dance "Leap Off Page" will be held in October in Ruse

Saturday, 28 September 2024

The third edition of the International Interdisciplinary Festival "Leap Off Page" will be held from September 30 to October 6 in Ruse. The forum, which has been organized by the Elizabeth Kostova Foundation since 2022, connects choreographers and writers of different nationalities and provokes the creation of hybrid works combining literature and contemporary dance. The International Festival "Leap Off Page" is implemented with the financial support of the Municipal Foundation "Ruse - City of the Free Spirit", the Ministry of Culture and in partnership with the Municipality of Ruse, the Drama Theater "Sava Ognyanov" and the Revival Community Center "Zora" - Ruse.
"Leap Off Page" is held in different cities in Bulgaria to stimulate international cultural dialogue beyond the center and to offer different local communities an encounter with new art forms. After two editions in Veliko Tarnovo and Gabrovo, in 2024 the festival will visit Ruse, where it will traditionally present workshops in creative writing (on October 3) and contemporary dance (on October 2) for exchange with local artists. The final performance, presenting the five hybrid works, will be held on October 5 /Saturday/ at the Drama Theater "Sava Ognyanov".
This year's program includes writers and choreographers from Bulgaria, Venezuela, Lithuania, Turkey and France, who will work in creative pairs on dance works based on literary texts.
The artists participate:
Alexander Gochev /Bulgaria/ – graduated from the Department of Theater at the New Bulgarian University;
Vasilia Drebova /Bulgaria/ - performer whose work moves between the genres of contemporary dance, performance and post-drama theater;
Velizar Gruev /Bulgaria/ - dancer in the dance companies "Dune" and "Head Under Water". He graduated in "Theater of Movement" at the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts "Krastyo Sarafov", specialized in contemporary dance at LMTA /Vilnius, Lithuania/;
Defne Suman /Turkey/ -  born in Istanbul, graduated with a master's degree in sociology from Boaziçi University. He continued his studies in Oregon, USA. Her books have been translated into many languages, and in Bulgarian you can find the novels "Daughter of Smyrna" and "Istanbul Rhapsody" by Ed. "Window";
Dorothea Vassileva /Bulgaria/ - philologist, Englishist by education, teacher by diploma and creator of digital content by profession. He is interested in literature and translation;
Isabel Mitkova /Bulgaria/ - contemporary dance and performance artist, project manager and co-founder of the Goya Projects Association;
Indre Valentinaitė (Lithuania) - poetess, author of four award-winning poetry collections. Her poetry has been translated into more than 20 languages. She also performed on the music scene, winning several music competitions and participating in rock operas as a singer;
Marion Darova /Bulgaria/ - made her choreographic debut in 2016 with the performance "Mainstream". In 2018 was the premiere of "Corpus meum", which aims to provoke a debate on the legalization of euthanasia;
Walid Hajar Rashedi /France/ - his debut novel "Qu'est-ce que j'irais faire au paradis?" is a finalist for the Goncourt Prize for debut novel in 2022, and his second novel "Nos destins sont liés" was published in September 2023;
Hensley Ran Solorsano (Venezuela) is a writer and musician who lives and works in Berlin. He is the author of two collections of short stories in Spanish.
More information can be found on the festival's website.

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