Kosta Karakashyan

Kosta Karakashyan is a director, choreographer and dance artist who graduated in Dance from Columbia University in New York and Human Rights at the Global Human Rights Campus in Venice. His projects explore the development of empathy in our society through dance, cinema and teaching. As a dancer and choreographer, Kosta has worked in the field of sports and contemporary dance in Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Norway, Vietnam, Japan and the United States.

In 2014, only 18 years old, Kosta was invited to participate in Dancing Stars Vietnam as a dancer and choreographer and is also a two-time champion of Bulgaria in sport dancing. He won the Lumiere Award from Canada for his film WAITING FOR COLOR, a documentary dance film about violence against the LGBTI community in Chechnya. His latest projects as a director and producer in his studio Studio Karakashyan are music videos and the dance film "Glance from the Edge" in collaboration with Stephanie Handjiiska, shot at 12 different locations in Bulgaria. His choreography is presented by Columbia Ballet Collaborative (New York) and Ballet "Arabesque" (Sofia) and his work is covered by The Guardian, Elle, them, GLAAD and Free Europe.

Kosta is an associate artist of the Man with a Hat Foundation, who participates in the following initiatives and projects:
Co-director and co-choreographer of the film "View from the Edge" together with Stephanie Handjiiska
Principal lecturer in the Focus Cinema Dance Training Program
Director of the film SURRENDER in the program Focus Cinema Dance
Director of INNER BLOOM in the Focus Cinema Dance program
Co-choreographer and performer in the performance 84 Conversations
Choreographer and performer of the performance “The Effort Trap” within the Dance Distribution 2020/2021