Not a Crab, Not a Fish is a compelling solo dance piece on immigration, belonging and the Eastern European experience in the UK by Bulgarian-born dance artist Stephanie Handjiiska.
Powered by loneliness, anthropological interviews, traditional Bulgarian costumes and stereotypes of cheap immigrant labour, the artist takes the audience on a journey around Pushkin House to unravel the state of liminality an Eastern European immigrant experiences in their first three years after arriving in the UK. The piece also researches the notion of wildness and the beast that lives within each of us.
Not a Crab, Not a Fish has been developed as a part of a Choreodrome 2022 residency with the financial and production support of The Place London, and within the residency programme of Pushkin House 2023.
Artistic Team
Idea, dance and choreography: Stephanie Handjiiska
Music: Georgi Atanassov
Costume design: Veronica Blagoeva
Producer: Lydia Wharf
About the Artist
Stephanie Handjiiska is a Bulgarian-born, London-based dance artist, choreographer and dance film director with a focus on movement, beauty and socially engaged work. Her work explores identity, immigration, belonging, femininity and capitalism. Stephanie’s dance work is informed by yoga, contemporary dance, Gaga, release technique and her own kitchen dances.
Stephanie is a graduate of the London Contemporary Dance School, and her work has been curated for forums like Dance Umbrella, Resolution Festival and ImPulsTanz in Vienna.
Stephanie is currently researching Central and Eastern European identity in her project Not a Crab, Not a Fish, supported by Pushkin House and The Place London, and is teaching Dancefloor Meditation at Pushkin House and yoga classes in venues around London.
More about the artist’s work: https://stephaniehandjiiska.com/