Jury Chairman
SARA-NORA KRYSTEVA
Graduated from the National Dance School in 1996 in the class of Kalina Bogoeva. While she was still a student, she had successful ballet performances in 1995 as follows: Award for Ballet Achievements and Award for the Most Promising Young Performer in the National Ballet Competition Anastas Petrov. In the 1995/1996 school year she was awarded with the Anastas Petrov scholarship.
As soon as she graduated, she joined the ballet company of the Sofia Opera and Ballet and went through all categories from ensemble to a soloist although she performed hard solo parties as soon as she was appointed there. Since 2003 she was a Prima and from January 2009 until September 2021, she was the youngest and the longest serving Director in the history of our National Ballet.
Repertoire: inter alia, Kitri, Karmesita and Queen of the Dryads – Don Quixote; Myrtha – Giselle; Odetta-Odilia – Swan Lake; Zobeida – Scheherazade; Lilac Fairy and Aurora – Sleeping Beauty; Effie – La Sylphide; Marguerite Gautier – Lady of the Camellias; Elina – The Goat Horn; Marina and Madame Hortense – Zorba the Greek; soloist in productions of Balanchine; Black Knight – Crusaders; Evil Sister and Mother – Cinderella.
Both individually and with the National Ballet Company, Ms. Sara Nora Krysteva had guest performances in Spain, Italy, Greece, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Hungary, Germany, Turkey as well as in South America – Peru and Bolivia, and also in Japan.
In 2002 she graduated from the State Academy of Music, Sofia in the field of ballet pedagogy.
Awards:
- Crystal Lyre of the Union of Bulgarian Musicians and Dancers for the Black Night role in Crusaders
- Silver Ryton from the Minister of Culture, Mr. Stefan Danailov for outstanding services to the promotion of Bulgarian culture
- Golden Muse for contribution to the Bulgarian-Russian cultural relations
- Golden Age from the Minister of Culture, Vezhdi Rashidov for outstanding services to the promotion of Bulgarian culture
It was under her leadership that the Ballet Company was awarded the Golden Feather and the Sofia Award.
Ms. Krysteva took part as a member of the jury in international ballet competitions in Bulgaria, Russia, Italy, Estonia, Serbia and France.
Over the thirteen years, being in charge with the Ballet Company of the Sofia Opera and Ballet, she premiered 34 works, some of them produced for the first time in Bulgaria, such as inter alia, La Bayadère; Le Corsaire; In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated by W. Forsythe; The Concert by J. Robbins, The Firebird and Petrushka; Stepping Stones, One Thousand and One Nights, The Lady of the Camellias, Carmen, The Sleeping Beauty, Scheherazade, as well as productions of G. Balanchine, and productions based on music by Bulgarian composers and Bulgarian choreographers and many other.
Ms. Krysteva played a particularly important role in the history, development and preservation of the art of ballet in Bulgaria by persisting two times and succeeding in changing the law for early retirement of ballet dancers in the Bulgaria – from 57 to 45 years and for qualifying their work again as first category work. Another important thing is that she took the initiative to change the law and to allow foreign artists to be appointed to dance companies in Bulgaria, something which was not possible before.
International ballet competition SARA-NORA PRIMA
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