…𝒊𝒏 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅
📅 13 and 14 October, 19:00
📍Tranzit House, Baritiu str. nr. 16. (entrance from the Nameless Street)
⏳Duration: 60 minutes
Language: Romanian
𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐠𝐞: 12+

“𝐼𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑜 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡𝑜. 𝐼 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝐼 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑏𝑜𝑑𝑦 𝑒𝑙𝑠𝑒. 𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒, 𝑎𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑒𝑒, 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑢𝑛 𝑎𝑠 𝑓𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒.” („Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” - Lewis Caroll)

🔵…in Wonderland is a contemporary dance performance based on the story by Lewis Carroll. The choreographer-performer invites the audience on a journey in which the self, memory, and reality undergo (i)reversible transformations. Through this performance, the artist explores that moment of reset in our lives, when we are forced to traverse an unknown inner space in order to rediscover our own bearings.
…in Wonderland offers the audience a format in which Vava Ștefănescu’s choreographic solo intertwines, in real time, with the presence of seven guest artists on stage. Andreea Belu, Carmen Coțofană, Alexandra Mihaela Dancs, Florin Fieroiu, Smaranda Găbudeanu, Mihaela Michailov, and Anamaria Pravicencu observe the performer’s dance and describe it, each from their own perspective, in a polyphony of voices. As different witnesses to the same body, the seven (re)tell a story of the body and, through this narration, transform and reveal it from a realm we do not suspect. The audience is invited, through an exercise in attentiveness, to see, to read, and to (re)compose their own bodies in multiple layers of depth.
Dance cannot be translated. The speed at which ideas unfold in a phrase of movement is so great that verbal articulation cannot encompass it. Sensation is the vector of the idea, and it is this that gives rise to emotion and meaning in the most direct way. What you understand when you watch dance, you do not understand with your mind. Rather, you understand it through a complex of sensations and situations that the viewer’s body recalls. Since this reception takes place on such an intimate level, each person in the audience experiences their own story. It is a direct act, and, ultimately, dance needs no other mediation.
In addition to the performances themselves, the project team offers the Cluj audience a space for dialogue and practical exploration of the themes addressed in the performance - the relationship between self and other, the body as an archive of memory, and the tension between articulating thought and experiencing movement.
Thus, on October 14, following the performance, those interested are invited to stay for an hour and a half for a dedicated laboratory facilitated by the entire artistic team. Among the guests joining the evening as dialogue facilitators are Lecturer Dr. Attila Szigeti, philosopher (Babeș-Bolyai University), actress Enikő Györgyjakab (Hungarian State Theatre), artist Urvi Vora, and anthropologist Csilla Könczei. The laboratory will be held in English.

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🔵Credits
Concept / performer: Vava Ștefănescu
Co-authors / performers: Anamaria Pravicencu, Mihaela Michailov, Carmen Coțofană, Florin Fieroiu, Andreea Belu, Alexandra Mihaela Dancs, Smaranda Găbudeanu.
Sound design: Ștefan Rădulescu, Anamaria Pravicencu, David Virschi
Light design: Alexandros Raptis, Dragoș Mărgineanu
Grafic design: Oana Kansoun
Foto/Video: Tania Maria Mușina
Social media: Raul Coldea
PR: Mihai Ivașcu
Production: Carmen Zmaranda
A coproduction of Theater and Book Association – Petec and The National Center for Dance, Bucharest (CNDB), 2026.

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🔵Partners: National Natural History Museum „Grigore Antipa”, CESI Doctoral School SITT, Tranzit Foundation, UNATC – “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theater and Film Arts, Bucharest, Theater and Film Department BBU Cluj.
Media partners: Zile și Nopți, e-zeppelin, IQAds, Radio România Cultural, Scena.ro

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🔵Bio
Vava Ştefănescu 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 collaborations 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, a choreography for puppet theater —Bacău, About You—a version—CNDB, The Wave and the Fortress of Souls—CNDB, Bambi, choreography, directed by Attila Vizauer—Excelsior Theater, Bucharest; and among his most enduring works, Quartet for a Lavalier deserves special mention. He teaches courses in contemporary dance, choreographic composition, stage movement, and movement analysis at universities—UNATC, UBB, CESI, and the Bucharest Choreography High School—as well as at choreographic centers, postdoctoral programs, festivals, and one-off workshops.
His contribution to choreographic and performing arts culture 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 served as artistic director, and from 2014 to the present, she has been the 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, and film. The body is at the center of her work—both as a medium, 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 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 Staged Readings 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. He is currently a choreographer at the “I.L. Caragiale” National Theater in Bucharest. His most recent shows/performances include: DerDieDans, Sequences and Profiles, Dysphoria Show, Eliza Dreams, and Urban Gif Show. His latest show is titled Summit and is a 2023 production of 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 “Octavian Stroia” High School of Choreography and Dramatic Arts in Cluj-Napoca and choreography at the “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theater and Cinematography (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 Center for Dance 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 fostering 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 has 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.

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The project … in Wonderland is a coproduction of Theater and Book Association – Petec and The National Center for Dance, Bucharest (CNDB). Cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for how the results of the project may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the funding beneficiary.