Karakashyan & Artists
Karakashyan & Artists is a multidisciplinary company of dance artists from Bulgaria, boldly moving through disciplines and brought together by director and choreographer Kosta Karakashyan.
In a world where...
… people often feel like spectators of their own lives, we create unique large-scale immersive productions that resonate viscerally with audience members and place them at the centre of the work. We create experiences that empower the audience to go on an evocative emotional journey through the synergy of movement and storytelling. We aim to cultivate empathy and tenderness in society and advocate for social change through our art. Our process explores a movement language that subverts traditional dance vocabulary in favour of authentic emotional expression, inviting our collaborators to follow their own impulses, creativity, and agency.
Informed by a desire...
…to explore the ways stories are told and experienced, Karakashyan & Artists embraces the beauty of the intimate, the visceral, and the subversive. Our work is set in kitchens, landfills, public spaces, warehouses, beaches, toilets, caves, runways, and film sets, incorporating dance, theatre, film, design, and literature. We redefine the boundaries in our creative approach to find new and exciting opportunities to incorporate our love for dance, society, and culture.
Some of the company’s landmark works include “Kitchen”, an interdisciplinary performance combining contemporary dance and theatre with an alternative culinary experience, and “The last sunset”, an immersive dance-theatre performance that explores the negative effects of burning fossil fuels on human health and the environment through a futuristic dystopian lens.
PROJECTSpart of Move for Change
Kosta Karakashyan
artistic director, choreographer, director
Photo Credit: Boris Urumov
Kosta Karakashyan is a Bulgarian-Armenian director, producer, choreographer, and writer exploring empathy and emotion through motion. He has built a prolific body of work, moving through disciplines including film, music videos, commercials, choreography, installations, theatre, and immersive performances produced alongside his production company Studio Karakashyan and dance company Karakashyan & Artists. His work has been described as “an important voice for LGBTQ+ struggles in Chechnya and elsewhere” by The Columbia Spectator and has been featured by NOWNESS, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and ELLE, and across the USA, Canada, Germany, Norway, Egypt, Vietnam, and Japan. He brings visceral physical expression and strong storytelling to his projects, which often tackle social topics such as the lives of LGBTQ+ people in Eastern Europe, mental health, and the climate crisis. He graduated with a BA in Dance from Columbia University and a Master’s in Human Rights from the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice, Italy.
Productions, part of the platform:
For upcoming events of the company, follow: Karakashyan & Artists