Derida Dance Center

Derida Dance Center, represented by Art Link Foundation, has the following objectives:

• To stimulate the creation and promotion of contemporary art and culture;
• To improve the knowledge and skills of dancers, choreographers and other participants and creators of productions in contemporary performance arts;
• To create stage products and programs;
• To organize of workshops with the aim of creation interaction between artists;
• To collaborate in international festivals for contemporary art;
• To monitor of contemporary art in Bulgaria;
• To promote Bulgarian productions in the country and abroad;
• To run an year long educational program in the field of contemporary dance;    
• To contribute to cultural enrichment of local communities;    
• To support the activities and performances in the country and abroad of the dance groups and related organizations in accordance with their needs;
• To contribute to the development of international cooperation in studying, preserving, presenting and promoting the contemporary performance arts and cultural heritage

Derida Dance Center achieves them trough:

• Building initiative committees;    
• Forming a jury or other working groups;    
• Acting in terms of promoting of contemporary art and culture;
• Organizing and conducting international festivals and other forums;
• Organizing workshops;
• Issuing printed and internet materials to achieve their goals;
• Participating in national and international projects and programs;
• Developing long-term strategies for the development of art in Bulgaria;
• Researching contemporary art in world-wide context and enriching it by creating and promoting productions and co-productions;
• Developing, publishing and distributing electronic and printed materials presenting contemporary performing arts and cultural heritage, intended for the general public as well as tourists, travel agencies, tour operators and tourist information centers;
• Developing and maintaining a platform for communication and information on contemporary performing arts and related activities and events aimed at dance groups and specialties, but open to the general public;
• Managing programs for financing individual activities and performances of dance groups and related organizations;
• Fundraising for the implementation of the Foundation's activities by local, foreign and international funds, organizations, individuals and legal entities, including through project activity under European and other international programs.

Derida Dance Center - Art Link Foundation is the first center for contemporary dance and training in Bulgaria, that was founded in 2010. The center has a wide spectrum of activities through which it executes the organization’s objectives, namely to be an instrument for accelerating the development of contemporary dance art in the country by supporting existing and emerging talents in the field and creating the conditions needed.

The main directions in which the center works are: independent dance productions, educational and training program for Contemporary dance, international partnerships, residency program, presentational and curatorial activity.

The organization was awarded IKAR 2017 for best performance in category “Contemporary dance and performance” as well as twice Sofia award for outstanding achievements in the field of culture.

Since 2012 Derida Dance Center, represented by Art Link Foundation has been an official representative of Bulgaria in the European platform Aerowaves and since 2015 has been performing the function of presenting partner. In March 2018 Derida Dance Center became the host of the annual festival of the platform - Aerowaves Spring Forward, which was a historical event for Bulgaria.

In 2018 the artistic director and co-founder of Derida Dance Center - Jivko Jeliazkov was selected from 637 applicants in total for one of TOP 20 choreographers in Europe by the Aerowaves platform.

As a natural continuation of the activity, the team of Derida Dance Center opened an independent theater stage - " DERIDA Stage" - on April 19, 2019, which is located at 32 Tsar Samuil Street, Sofia, Bulgaria.

The new “DERIDA Stage” is a space for presenting independent productions in the fields of dance, theater, circus and visual arts.

DERIDA Stage is situated in the center of Sofia, Bulgaria on one of the most artistic streets of  the city- Tsar Samuil. 

Entering the lobby you find yourself in a wide space decorated with photographs of an emerging photographer, that caught under her lens the bodies of dancers. On the right you can see  the reception desk where you can find information on all the programmed events and tickets. 

When you go further, the lobby  reveals itself as a coffee bar and co-working space open to the public.

Continuing further along, there is the entrance for the stage with a smaller corridor on the left for the audience to enter and a large double door leading to the backstage and the stage itself.

The stage is a black box equipped with a professional dance floor with two sides - black and white and is with dimensions 10 x 10 metres. 

The venue is also equipped with professional light and sound systems that are being controlled from the controller room above the audience.

The capacity of the stage is 50 to 70 sitting places with the opportunity to be situated all around the dance floor, depending on the needs of the performance.

DERIDA Stage is one unconventional space by also having  a bar on the stage that could be used as part of performances if needed.

In terms of facilities, the venue has a separate bathroom, toilet, changing room and an office space that can be entered either from backstage or from a staircase than is downstage on the right side of the audience.