…in Wonderland

Info

We plunge into a story. The classic story of Alice in Wonderland, and the story of a body as a resonance chamber, where familiar fragments, memories, texts and improvised narratives meet and transform. In …in Wonderland, choreographer Vava Ștefănescu creates a space in which the body processes text, while text absorbs the vibrations of the body, exploring the ways in which we can lose ourselves in order to find new coordinates.

In the special version presented at the “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History, the performance leaves the stage of the National Centre for Dance Bucharest and enters a different universe of looking: among display cases, dioramas, fossils and preserved bodies. The museum thus becomes a true Wonderland, while the performer’s living body enters into dialogue with the immobilized and classified bodies of the exhibits. The visitor is no longer merely an observer, but is drawn into an experience in which the boundaries between looking and being looked at, living and preserved, human and animal are suspended.

In this context, …in Wonderland becomes an intervention in the space itself and in the way we perceive it. Movement, sound and the presence of the body reactivate the museum and transform the visit into an intimate and uncanny experience of nature, memory, vulnerability and identity. Among preserved beings and stories about the world, the human being, in turn, becomes an object of observation: a living, fragile and mysterious body, engaged in a continuous search for its own Wonderland.

Biographies

Vava Ștefănescu is a choreographer and dancer who lives and works in Romania.
As a performer and choreographer, her rich artistic portfolio includes original choreographic works and performance installations, as well as pieces created in collaboration with theater and film directors. Her performances have been presented at prestigious national and international festivals. Among her most recent works are: Maia—Portrait with Hands (choreography and performance)—a film by Alexandra Gulea; Nocturnes of Poetry, organized by ARCEN; La Cenerentola, choreography for puppet theater —Bacău; About You—a version—CNDB; Val and the Fortress of Souls—CNDB; Bambi, choreography, directed by Attila Vizauer—Excelsior Theater, Bucharest; and among her most longstanding works, Quartet for a Lavalier deserves special mention.
Her contribution to the culture of choreography and performance has been recognized with awards, including the Order of “Cultural Merit” in the rank of Knight, Category D—“Performing Arts” (2016), the Choreography Award (Bambi, Excelsior Theater, 2017), the Choreographer of the Year Award (Istanbul, 2010), and the Ministry of Culture Award for Choreography (16 Lessons on the Disasters of Carnal Love—Oleg Danovski Theater, Constanța, 2004).
From 2006 to 2013, she was artistic director, and from 2014 to the present, she has been manager of the National Dance Center in Bucharest (CNDB).

Smaranda Găbudeanu is an interdisciplinary artist with an eclectic background in theater, dance, performance, visual culture studies, and film. The body is at the center of her practice, serving as both a medium for her work, a lens for exploration, and a point of intersection between worlds.

Alexandra Mihaela Dancs is a dancer and choreographer. She creates and co-creates performances and performative installations presented in national and international contexts and at festivals. Passionate about surfing and always on the move, she seeks in dance and choreography the same combination of freedom, risk, endurance, and pleasure.

Anamaria Pravicencu is an artist, sound art and radio art producer, and the curator of the SEMI SILENT portfolio.

Mihaela Michailov is a playwright, performing arts critic, cultural educator, and associate professor at UNATC “I.L. Caragiale” in Bucharest. Since 2018, she has coordinated the university’s Master’s program in Playwriting. She is the director of CeArFi—the Center for Research in Performing Arts and Film at UNATC Bucharest.
She served as curator of the National Theater Festival from 2022 to 2024, and in 2025 she curated the Educational Module for the FNT and organized the Reading Performances Module.
Since 2000, she has been writing reviews and analyses focused on the performing arts in Romania and abroad. She has given lectures and presented the theatrical and choreographic scene in Romania in Avignon, Lublin, Luxembourg, Paris, Tokyo, and Vienna. In 2014, her essay “Evacuate the Area: Zero Space” was published by Routledge in the anthology European Dance since 1989: Communitas and the Other, and in 2021, Radical Bodies in Contemporary Performances, a volume produced in collaboration with the CNDB.
She is the co-founder of the Replika Educational Theater Center in Bucharest, where she has coordinated, alongside the Center’s artists, educational art platforms and workshops for adolescents.

Florin Fieroiu is a choreographer and dance teacher.
He is a recipient of the 2015 CNDB Awards, “Le Prix Individuel d’Interpretation” (Rencontres Choregraphiques Internationales de St. Denis—Paris), and the UNITER Award for choreography in the performing arts.
He began studying contemporary dance in Paris (Théâtre Contemporain de la Danse) and later at the American Dance Festival (U.S.). He was a co-founder of the contemporary dance group “Marginalii” and has created numerous works for both the contemporary dance and theater stages. He has developed movement and motor skills workshops for both professional and amateur dancers and has led several projects in arts education and training, as well as a series of creative workshops for dancers, actors, performers, and dance enthusiasts. She is currently a choreographer at the “I.L. Caragiale” National Theater in Bucharest. Her most recent shows/performances include: DerDieDans, Sequences and Profiles, Dysphoria Show, Eliza Dreams, and Urban Gif Show. Her latest production, titled Summit, is a 2023 production by the Masca Theater in Bucharest.

Carmen Coţofană is a freelance artist who studied ballet at the “Octavian Stroia” High School of Choreography and Dramatic Arts in Cluj-Napoca and choreography at the “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theater and Film (UNATC) in Bucharest. Since 1999, she has participated in various choreographic and performance projects presented at national and international festivals; she has studied movement techniques and principles through professional fellowships and workshops; has gained experience through her own productions, collaborates on theater and film projects, and has developed her teaching skills through her work in academia.
She is a project and program coordinator and manager at the National Dance Center in Bucharest.

Andreea Belu is a former choreographer and contemporary dancer who currently focuses on movement research. Her work is driven by an interest in cultivating individual and bodily awareness and developing bodily intelligence.
She is currently conducting research as a doctoral student at the University of Theater Arts in Târgu Mureș.
She has consistently taught contemporary dance, Contact Improvisation, Pilates, and yoga, and for 13 years she collaborated as a performer, teacher, choreographer, and student with several institutions, including: CNDB, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Germany), the University of Arts in Târgu Mureș, CiNETic – Bucharest, Tangaj Dance Collective, and the Museum of Recent Art in Bucharest.
She has created stage movement for theater productions, collaborating with several theaters in Romania, and has led the workshops “What Kind of Body Do I Think With?”, which explored the connection between somatics, proprioception, and communication within artistic creation groups.
She currently teaches in the educational programs of the National Dance Center in Bucharest (the Academy of Dance and Performance and the Performing Arts School for Children) and at the Film School.
For her, movement is a direct and sincere way to connect with people.