dragOn aka PONY by STEAM ROOM at Kulturnatten
Saturday 10th of September at 7 pm
Free admission. No booking.
As spaces are limited, please arrive in good time to get your ticket.
dragON aka PONY is the first work of the project dragON, a choreographic trilogy coauthored by Aleksandar Georgiev, Zhana Pencheva and Darío Barreto Damas, (aka STEAM ROOM). The project deals with the protest and celebration body in dragging scene, exploring their relation within dance and choreography.
dragON aka PONY is a choreographic work that presents a playground charged with multiple dance references from the past and present, arriving from Western and Eastern Europe, creating a space of constant transition, unfolding intimacy and exposing humble co-existence. Within a frame of contemporary POP, the work revives geometrical choreography through the prism of classicism and the usage of folklore as a ritualistic form. dragON aka PONY has a little bit of Isadora and a lot of MTV or VH1.
Dance, choreography, performance: Aleksandar Georgiev, Zhana Pencheva and Darío Barreto Damas aka STEAM ROOM
Music: Tsvetan Momchilov
Costumes, stage: Ralitza Toneva
Graphics: Gjorgji Despodov
Co-produced with: Garage Collective, Brain Store Project and Nomad Dance Academy Slovenija
Supported by: Creative Crossroads in the framework of the Life Long Burning project supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria, National Cultural Fund of Bulgaria, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, City of Ljubljana – Department of Culture, Konstnärsnämnden (International Exchange Grant), I-portunus (Funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union), Zagrebachki Plesni Centar, BAZAAR festival, Youth Cultural Center Burgas, Hamalogika, Era of Aquarius Festival, Performance Room, Moving Body Festival, DNK – space for contemporary dance and performance, JSKD – Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities, VIZ!, Jasmin.bg, Kafene.bg, LoveTheater.bg
STEAM ROOM (North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Spain, Sweden) is an artistic team within the field of choreography and dance. The team is formed by Aleksandar Georgiev – Ace, Zhana Pencheva and Darío Barreto Damas, three choreographers/dancers actively operating locally and internationally. STEAM ROOM is formed out of the wish to facilitate conditions and environments that contribute to the development of the work in the field of choreography and dance in different localities, with an intrinsic international vision. STEAM ROOM aims to open spaces for reflection and wider critical knowledge through artistic work and cultural initiatives. STEAM ROOM was formed in 2018 and until now they have produced two artistic works,(dragON aka PONY and dragON aka PHOENIX as part of the choreographic trilogy dragON), and initiated cultural programs focused on discursive and critical practices, the dialogue between artists-art-audience, research, artistic residencies and emerging artists throughout the institution project ICC (Imaginative Choreographic Center).
In 2018 STEAM ROOOM started a choreographic trilogy named dragON. The trilogy follows a main conceptual line initiated by Aleksandar and Zhana in their previous work: to look upon the celebration body as a protest body and vice versa. dragON focuses on drag practices, exploring and displaying dancing and choreographic playgrounds where the team questions: how can we drag dance and choreography? For the residency the team are planning to work with the last part of the trilogy – dragON forever. In this work they are interested in exploring the practice of lip-syncing applied to dance and choreography. The initial trigger is the gap or space created in between the actual played song and the lips performance, or in other words between the mimic singing and the song being mimicked. Can we dance within that gap? What would be a lip-synced choreography? The understanding of dance and choreography as popular practices accompanies the three works of the trilogy.