Ekaterina Petrova is a marketing specialist and manager at Taratantsi. Over the years, she has worked as a marketing assistant and later as marketing director at a major German company. At the same time, she contributes to the development of numerous projects in the fields of culture and dance arts.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in “International Economic Relations” from UNWE – Sofia and a Master’s degree in “Cultural Policy and Management” from the University of Arts in Belgrade as a scholarship recipient of the “Dragan Klaić” Foundation.

Ekaterina developed her passion for Bulgarian folklore and folk dances back in 1998, when thanks to her mother, she became part of the children’s dance ensemble “Rosna Kitka” at the National Palace of Children.

Emanuela Zhivkova is a director at a popular Bulgarian television station and holds a Master’s degree in “Film and Television Editing” with experience in European film projects for several municipalities in Bulgaria.

She is interested in presenting cultural heritage through digital imagery. Ema creates the video productions and animations for building augmented reality features for Taratantsi’s dance patterns.

“Folklore has always been present in my life. I admire these people who dance, so I’ve repeatedly tried to learn some steps at home, and today with Taratanci it’s even easier for me – I learn the steps from our patterns and perfect my movements even better during our events,” says Ema.

Iva Gadzheva is an educator – primary school teacher and teacher of Informatics and Information Technologies. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in “International Relations” and a Master’s degree in “Primary School Pedagogy” with an interest in Information Technologies.

Iva coordinates the long-term projects and administrative activities of Taratantsi and creates concepts for children’s educational programs.

Her love for folklore dates back to childhood with bedtime stories, continued through her participation in the school theater troupe and folk choir, and thanks to Taratanci, today she searches for and preserves folk tales through the series “Once Upon a Time…”.

Nikolay Korchev has many years of experience in dance arts, which began in 2001 when Nicky was only 5 years old. In 2010, he began his professional training at the National School for Dance Arts – Sofia. In 2015, he was distinguished as a dancer with the highest level of professional qualification.

He is a Bachelor’s graduate from AMTII in Plovdiv, served four years as a choreographer at Children’s Folk Studio “Rahovche,” Folk Company “Sider Voivoda,” and Folk Choir Club “Folklorna Broenitsa.” He is the founder of the largest folk dance school in Veliko Tarnovo, named “Pletenitsa.”

Nicky joined the Taratanci team in 2016. He is responsible for transforming real dance movements into the graphic step patterns.

Silvio Lorenzato lives in Vicenza, Italy. He began his dance career in 1979 and has extensive experience in folk dance education and performance across Europe.

He is the founder and former director of La Farandola – Folk Dance Association in Vicenza (1993-2005), where he organized educational courses and created folk dance shows. Silvio has collaborated on educational folk dance books including “Dances and Sounds of Israel” and “Dances and Sounds of the Balkans.”

Since 2005, he has led the group “Hora – Danze dei Balcani” in Vicenza and regularly conducts international dance seminars in Switzerland. From 2011, he collaborates as a volunteer teacher with the Center for Pedagogical Documentation in Vicenza, offering dance workshops for kindergartens and primary schools.

In 2019, Silvio joined the Taratanci team, receiving a license to use Taratanci games for conducting Bulgarian folk dance educational workshops in Italy and abroad. He also became the official distributor of all Taratanci products for Italy.

More about Silvio at Silviolorenzato.it