BALLET

The first choreographer with special education in the troupe of the Stara Zagora Opera was Anna Vorobyova. Under her direction was the first ballet production in the repertoire of the theatre "The Doll Fairy" by Bayer (1949).

In the period 1952-1955, Assen Manolov staged The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, Rivals, Invitation to a Dance and Bolero. A little later Theodorina Stoycheva realized the ballet "Kardjali" by Ivan Dimov. The creative participation of Nedelcho Izov led to the increase of the number of the troupe for the needs of the new modern building of the Opera (1971). From this period are the productions of "Copelia" (1971) by Dimitar Tsenov, "Bakhchisarai Fountain" by Boris Asafiev (1972) - a diploma work by Margarita Arnaudova, who also staged "The Creation of the World" (1974).

Among the guest choreographers stands out the Georgian artist and balletmaster Vakhtang Chabukiani, who staged "Laurencia" (1976) and "Don Quixote" (1984). The head of the Berliner Ballet, Gerhard Petzold, directed the search in the direction of contemporary jazz dance technique. Under his direction the three ballet miniatures Rhapsody in Blue, Bolero and Sailors on the Shore (1987). Igor Chernyshov of the Kuibyshev Opera Theatre (now Samara) also worked with the ballet company, staging the ballet Angara (1987) by the contemporary Russian composer Andrei Eshlai and to a libretto by Yuri Grigorovich.

Penka Filipova (1996-2003) directed the repertoire towards contemporary musical styles. Alida Boneva (2003 - 2016) completes the company with young performers from the ballet schools in the city and from the ballet class formed at the National School of Music and Performing Arts "Kh. Morfova. During this period the productions "The Wonderful World of Scheherazade" (2004), "Bolero" (2006), "Cinderella" (2016) and an adaptation of "The Nutcracker" (2009) with guest director Boryana Sechanova stand out.

With the attraction of Sylvia Tomova as artistic director of the Stara Zagora Ballet (2016) a talented and highly motivated multinational troupe with ballet dancers from Japan, Taiwan, Canada, France, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Albania is taking shape. The repertoire is enriched with titles from different dance and music styles "The Delvata" (2016), "Romeo and Juliet" and "Flight to the Light", "Swan Lake", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (2017); "Winter Ballet Tale", "The Fantastic Boutique", "The Destinarian", "Don Quixote" (2018), "The Nutcracker", "Ghetto", "Antigone", the contemporary dance miniatures "Lotus", "Dance at Sunrise", The Next" /2019/.