“Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle.
This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future” (Albert Camus)
Partner Organizations:
DOCK ART Berlin / Germany
DOCK11 EDEN***** Berlin / Germany
Derida Dance Center, Sofia / Bulgaria
La Mama, New York / USA
This project is supported by the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Summa Artium, DOCK ART
Artist: Ivan Estegneev
Through this international residency program, we aim to further artistic excellence across borders and nations. Its goal is to bring people closer together through live, shared experiences. We seek to connect between individuals of different nationalities, ages, and beliefs, stimulate critical thinking, and enable safe yet fearless discussions.
Artist Ivan Estegneev has been invited to create a new dance work and present it at Performance Space DOCK 11 / DOCK ART in Berlin and Derida Dance Center in Sofia.
Several Community Outreach programs will accompany the Project.
Schedule:
January - July 2026 Creation Period
18.7.2026 Pre Premier at Derida Dance Center in Sofia, Bulgaria
Dramaturge & Development: Katherina Vasiliadis
Curatorial Team: Wibke Janssen, Atanas Maev, Kirsten Seeligmüller, Katherina Vasiliadis, Mia Yoo
Project Description
“Made in USSR. Anticipating Dance”
This project is about space and a man, oscillating between the time of waiting and the moment of action. Man as an archetype, born from the Soviet body — disciplined, collective, devoid of intimacy. During the performance, this body opens up his queer identity - discovering individual desire, sensuality, tenderness, and fragility beneath the rigid surface of normativity.
The performance explores the state of preparation for dance, rather than the dance itself. It's as if something is always about to happen—a rehearsal, a meeting, a performance—but it's delayed, stretched out, and dissolved.
The body in anticipation as a mode of memory, as an archive of the lived experience, as a resistance to linear time. The encounter is constantly postponed: a touch turns into a gesture, a gesture into a glance, a glance into a pause.
This constant "almost" is the culmination.
The authors draw on Deborah Hay's philosophy: "What if every moment is a dance?”
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Ivan Estegneev founded the Dialogue Dance School and Company in Kostroma in 2022 together with his partner Evgeny Kulagin. The company has created more than 30 pieces, three of which have been awarded the Russian National Theatre Prize Golden Mask for best contemporary dance performance. Ivan Estegneev and Evgeny Kulagin are also the founders and CEOs of STANTSIA, an independent venue for contemporary art. They have curated and organised co-productions and festivals for dance, theatre, music and contemporary art in Russia with artists from all over the world, including the Diversia Festival from 2007 to 2022. Since 2012, Ivan has worked as resident choreographer at the Gogol Centre in Moscow, founded by Kirill Serebrennikov. He created the productions „Shakespeare“ (2017), „Two Rooms“ (2018) and „Barocco“ (2018) with Evgeny Kulagin, as well as several performances with Kirill Serebrennikov, including productions for the main programme of the Avignon Festival. Since 2016, he has been collaborating with Polish director Grzegorz Jarzyna (TR Warsaw) on five different productions in Poland, Russia and China.
Ivan Estegneev taught stage movement and film dance for the acting faculty at the Moscow Film School from 2015 to 2022. He is co-founder and CEO of the physical theatre workshop DialogLab in Moscow. From 2022 to 2024, he was curator of Context, which is funded by world-famous prima ballerina Diana Vishneva. In 2022, he moved to Germany, where he was choreographer in residence at the Thalia Theatre from 2022 to 2025 and created the following productions: „Black Monk“ (in co-production with the Festival d'Avignon), „Der Wiy“, „Die Fledermaus“, „Barocco”, „Behind the Closed Doors“, „Legende“ (in co-production with the Ruhrtriennale). Ivan teaches at the Contemporary Dance School Hamburg (2023–2025), K3 Kampnagel (2024) and the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre (2023–2025). In 2024, he created „Apocalypses Tomorrow“ for the K&F Company together with Evgeny Kulagin. In 2024, Ivan created and premiered his solo performance „Demon's Sorrow“. In 2025, Ivan Estegneev staged „Heimat“ for the music quartet Salut Salon in Germany. In 2025, he worked as a choreographer and artist for the opera productions The Listeners for the Aalto Music Theatre Essen, as a choreographer for „Don Giovanni / Requiem“ for the Komische Oper Berlin and „The Blizzards“ for the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus. In 2025, he started the DialogLab programme, a workshop for physical theatre in Berlin and throughout Europe.
Derida Dance Center is the first center for contemporary dance and education in Bulgaria, founded in 2010, and functioning through Art Link Foundation. The center has a broad spectrum of activities that fulfill the objectives of the organization, namely to be an instrument for accelerating the development of contemporary dance art in the country by supporting the existing and emerging talents in the field. The main areas in which the center operates are independent dance productions, training and coaching programs for Contemporary Dance, international partnerships, residency programs, presentation, and curatorial activities.
LaMama (Experimental Theatre Club) is a legendary, multicultural NYC theater, founded by Ellen Stewart in 1961, offering a haven for underrepresented, avant-garde artists to create boundary-pushing work, known for supporting global talent and pioneering Off-Off-Broadway theater with a mission of diverse, uncensored artistic freedom. It's a vital cultural institution that champions new performance, pushes artistic limits, and serves as a global hub for diverse voices in theater, dance, and art
DOCK 11 EDEN is a renowned institution, with two locations, for contemporary dance in Berlin and across Europe, consisting of a dance school, rehearsal spaces, and a theater hall operated by the independent DOCK ART gGmbH. Founded shortly after German reunification in a former factory on Kastanienallee, DOCK 11 has developed into a lively centre for artistic creation, education and performances and now houses several dance studios, a digital laboratory, a café, offices and a theatre space with a regular programme. In 2009, the range of facilities was expanded with the addition of EDEN, an ensemble of several high-quality studio buildings and two villas on park-like grounds in Pankow, providing additional rehearsal, performance and multi-purpose rooms as well as additional residential apartments.
DOCK 11 / DOCK ART theater in Berlin has been a permanent venue since 1998 and presents a weekly changing program. The focus is on dance, but performances, concerts, and readings are also programmed. The program strives for diversity and aesthetic plurality, is intergenerational, and is committed to cultural education and community projects. Since 2020, DOCK ART has received conceptual funding from the Berlin Cultural Administration; it stages more than 200 performances per year, reaching approximately 13,000 audience members. Important festivals at DOCK include the international dance film festival POOL, which took place for the 18th time in October 2024; MASH Dance Berlin, a joint festival with the Machol Schalem Dance House in Jerusalem; the festival for contemporary dance and performance art b12; soundance, the international festival for contemporary dance and music; and PLATAFORMA, the decolonial and intersectional BIPoC/Latinx platform for dance, documentation, and discourse. Artists such as Christine Bonasea, Jenny Haack, Martha Hincapie Cherry, Tomi Paasonen, Peter Pleyer, Anna Nowicka, Hanna Schillinger, Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor, Nir De Volff, and Johannes Wieland have long been associated with the venue.
