site.btaBulgarian Students in France Are Motivated to Learn Bulgarian Folk Dances, Choreographer Says

The Bulgarian folk dance company Zora from Paris was a special guest at the recent 30th edition of a Bulgarian folk dance festival in Brussels, the Grand Horo. The dance company is part of the Zora Association founded in 2014 by Bulgarian students in Paris. They started meeting for dance practice in 2007 and created the association in order to introduce Bulgarian folk dances to the French community. In 2018, the Association started a new tradition - the annual guest choreographer internships, which bring together numerous fans of Bulgarian folklore.

The artistic director of the Zora dance company is Tsvetomir Tsvetanov. He has been with the Zora Association since 2017. 

Here is what Tsvetanov told BTA during his recent stint in Brussels: 

He has been in Paris since 2016, and before that he worked full time as an art and technology teacher, and in his free time as a choreographer at a community center for Bulgarian folk and contemporary dances. Now he teaches at a Bulgarian school in Paris. 

There are many  Bulgarian schools in the French capital, some of them with in-person classes and some of them online.

He only teaches Bulgarian folklore to children aged three to seven years. There is also a children's folk dance company, Bulgarcheta, as the idea is for them to inherit the Zora dance ensemble.

He says: "In the beginning we practiced only once a week. We have workshops for beginners and for intermediate dancers. Intermediate are those who have been dancing for several years and have more experience in Bulgarian folk dances. We have dance practice every Sunday, it's our day, and only Bulgarians come on this day and we only speak Bulgarian. At the workshops I have to teach in French too, because French people come, as well as Belgians. A while ago - maybe 3-4 years ago, a little before COVID - we started to meet for second weekly practice, which is for the representative part of the Zora Association. So, one dance practice is on Tuesday and the other on Sunday." 

The ensemble works a lot with Serbs. Now on January 28 they even have a concert with a Serbian band, who are at a semi-professional level. "Unfortunately, the Serbs are much more united and find more time for dancing. With us it's a bit more complicated. It is hard to find men for the stage, for example. With the Greeks, we try to keep in touch, it's a Balkan nation after all, never mind that we are abroad." 

Zora dance mainly Bulgarian folklore because the idea is to show its beauty and richness. 

It has been a busy season for Zora. Since September, they have participated in a number of events. Tsvetanov says this is rare as the dance company members are working people and it is very difficult for them to find tome and get them organized. This year, their biggest participation will likely be the Grand Horo in Brussels, and they are also doing a solo concert. Otherwise, they also participate in the traditional folk dance festival "On the Market Square of the Other Bulgaria" and in festivals in London. All their other performances are in France.

About his work with the Bulgarian children in Paris, he says: "The [Bulgarian] children in Paris all go to a French school during the week. On Saturdays when they come to school, many of them are already tired. But at the same time they are very motivated to learn. For some of them Bulgarian folk dances seem strange, but they try to understand it. Very often they ask me - why do we only jump, why do we shout. They expect us to dance in a contemporary style. It takes me longer to explain to them the difference between contemporary dance and folk dance. This thing in Bulgaria comes naturally. People and children are brought up this way to see this type of dance on stage, to understand immediately what Bulgarian folk dance is."