Thistles and Sunflowers Balkan Ceilidh
Part of Thistles and Sunflowers Festival 2022
Dance the night away with artists and stories from the lands of thistles and sunflowers. Follow the lead of Ceilidh caller extraordinaire Caroline Brockbank and virtuoso accordion player Colin Garvin. Take a break from ‘stripping the willow’ to learn your first Balkan Horo led by resident Thistles and Sunflowers artist, the Bulgarian folk dancer and choreographer Ariana Stoyanova.
Retrace your Ceilidh steps, then stop and collect your breath while The Laid-Back Community Choir takes centre stage. Led by Yana Aleksandrova, our resident Thistles and Sunflowers storyteller, the choir premieres a newly arranged bilingual repertoire.
Alternate your Balkan Horo and Ceilidh steps and let spoken word artist, Makar and language activist Jim Mackintosh speak, reading his poetry as featured in the exhibition Thistles and Sunflowers Poetry Trail and find out why biligualism matters with our guest storyteller, the cognitive neuroscientist Thomas Bak.
“Nectar for insects, seeds for birds and symbols for nations, Thistles and Sunflowers is a festival spotlight on stories and artists from Scotland and Bulgaria. We conceived the Balkan Ceilidh as a finissage of our festival weekend marking the fifth anniversary of the Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Centre Scotland – the only independent non-profit and non-venue based arts, culture and education organisation of its kind in Scotland. It also marks the National Day of the Cyrillic Alphabet celebrating Bulgarian cultural heritage, literature and the arts every 24 May. Finally, it marks 2022 – Scotland’s Year of Stories showcasing and celebrating stories inspired by, created and written in Scotland.” - Iliyana Nedkova and Daniela Dimova-Yaneva, curators.
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Thistles and Sunflowers Balkan Ceilidh is a new commission by the Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Centre Scotland and curated by Iliyana Nedkova and Daniela Dimova-Yaneva in a partnership with Scottish Storytelling Centre, Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, Bilingualism Matters, Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in the UK, New Bulgarian Cultural Platform, Scottish Poetry Library and CeilidhKids.
Part of Year of Stories 2022, Thistles and Sunflowers Festival is running 18 May - 5 June 2022 at Scottish Storytelling Centre – a spotlight on stories and artists from the lands of thistles and sunflowers. Festival initiative of the Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Centre Scotland, Thistles and Sunflowers is curated by Iliyana Nedkova and Daniela Dimova-Yaneva and supported by the City of Edinburgh Council Flexible Fund, as well as Tasgadh Fund for Traditional Arts devolved from Creative Scotland and managed by Fèisean nan Gàidheal.
Tickets are on a Pay What You Can scale (suggested amount is £5). This event is being sold at full capacity without social distancing. Audiences are kindly requested to wear masks at all times, unless exempt.
