Marta's choreographed thoughts

I arrived in Sofia in April 2018, soon after my graduation in Italian philology. I had decided to move in with my boyfriend and see how it was to live in this city. I had got a three months scholarship, but didn’t have much to do, so in the first days here I was browsing the internet looking for events. In the website of Sofia In Your Pocket I found out about Antistatic Festival , a festival of contemporary dance and performance, with international and Bulgarian artists held in Sofia, and I read that they were looking for volunteers. I thought: “That seems so cool!” and immediately applied. A few days later I entered Antistatic Festival office and I met the amazing Antistatic team made by Elena, the coordinator and my first contact, Iva, Willy and Stefan, the organisers. The atmosphere was very friendly, welcoming, and quite chill. As I imagined, the tasks were pretty much the same as the ones I had in Bologna: taking care of the artists at their arrival and during the rehearsals, som...

I like festivals, in general. There is that feeling of something well thought and organised around a particular theme, that sense of “something is going on and I should take advantage of it”, and that sort of festive atmosphere that surrounds all the events. The dance festivals are the ones I know best, so that’s where I will focus from now.  Usually, they are quite dense, as the program is very rich, with plenty of performances, conversations with artists, workshops, masterclasses, or conferences. A lot of things, happening in just a few days! On the one hand it can be a bit tiring or overwhelming, but on the other hand this abundance of stuff going on usually brings me a treasure of emotions, reflections, memories, relationships, conversations that stays with me forever. As a spectator, the last festivals I have (partially) attended are ONE DANCE WEEK in Plovdiv, whereas in Italy I can mention Biennale Danza in Venice, Opera Estate in Bassano del Grappa and Prospettiva Danza T...

Pier Vittorio Tondelli, in his book A post-modern weekend, stated: «I know that the secret of writing is to throw away and re-try, without fears and without boredom; it is the awareness that working with words is a playful, yet hard game, as each paragraph implies a choice [...]. Therefore, in order to write a story it isn’t very important to think or have plenty of ideas. It is important to draft [...]. The best ideas show up while writing».  I come back to this passage whenever I am about to write something and I don’t feel particularly inspired, or good, or talented. These words always give me strength and support, and they prove true in my experience: the process of writing, which includes throwing away and re-trying, leads me to analyse certain matters and find out ideas or phrases that would have stayed hidden otherwise.  I guess that's why I like writing. For me it’s a sort of a personal need for exploring and better understanding myself and the world around me. Someti...