In I Love When You’re Watching Me, I dance solo in intimate connection with silence, music, dance, myself, and the audience, born out of a desire to open spaces of playful intimacy, where you can dwell and dissolve in ephemerality. I can easily appear and disappear, while at the same time always being here. 

In I Love When You’re Watching Me, I celebrate being seen and felt in raw vulnerability. It invites failure and builds connections through sensual and delicate interactions.

In front of your gaze, with each breath, movement, and sound, I change and transition into something else. I become more visible, and sometimes I disappear invisibly. Before disappearing with this dance, I allow myself to take up space, express myself freely, and create through movement. Shifting through personal experiences and dance archives, I leave and erase traces, touch senses, and invite you into the unknown.

The work explores the dynamics of relationships with the environment, the music, the gazes, the bodies, the emotions, the feelings, and the uncertainty of the unknown.

Dance: Zhana Pencheva

Music: Tsvetan Momchilov

Light Design & Costumes: Ralitsa Toneva

Photo & Video Documentation: Gergely Ofner 

Co-Production by Garage Collective, ICC and Zhana Pencheva. 

With the partnership of Toplocemtrala, Sofia 

The project is financially supported by Stockholm University of the Arts, Mobility Program of the Sofia Culture Program, Bulgaria, and ETUD Foundation.

This performance is part of Zhana’s project Bodies in Pleasure, Bodies That Care, Dancing Bodies. It explores sensuality, the performative identities that the dancer carries within themselves, and the erotic presence of the dancing body. The process was accompanied by dramaturgical, dance, and conceptual advice from Hana Erdman, Ofelia Jarl Ortega, Dario Barreto Damas, and Aleksandar Georgiev.

This work was also presented in its early stage as a work-in-progress under the title before disappearing through an ICC Co-production in 2024 and supported from Ministry of Culture of Bulgaria 2024.