The creation of the book "Nestinarski Tants” (Fire Dance) began as a reality radio novel. Initially aired on Radio Sofia and later on the Hristo Botev program on the Bulgarian National Radio, the authors narrated one chapter of the work per show. That is why this is a reality novel and it was created not by one, but by 12 writers, mostly young people.

"All the time we worked without a preliminary plan on how to develop the plot and each author decided how to continue the story, so the book is actually the result of an improvisation,” says author of the idea for the novel Tanya Mir.

The plot of the novel, which is related to one of the most interesting and original Bulgarian traditions – nestinarstvo ( dancing on glowing embers), also attracts attention.

The book tells the story of two girls who, while dancing on the embers, find themselves in different time. One goes back to the era of the anti-Byzantine uprising of Assen and Peter in 1185, which led to the creation of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, and the other finds herself in modern times today. In this way, the fantasy genre provides freedom for the authors to mix past and present enriching the plot.

However, those who do not like fantasy, should not be afraid to grab the book. It has both a romantic story and a criminal element in it. Here is what Tanya Mircheva says:

"This is a story about human relationships that raises the question whether we are so different from our ancestors and what unites us as people."

"Nestinarski Tants" is the latest novel, "born" on the air of BNR. Since the beginning of the initiative more than a decade ago, 36 radio novels have been created. Famous Bulgarian writers and intellectuals such as Boyan Biolchev, Palmi Ranchev, Zdravka Evtimova, philosopher Nikolay Vassilev and many others took part in their creation. Emil Yanev, who is one of the fathers of the idea, recalls: We went through almost all genres - we made crime novels, love stories, historical novels, fantasy and science fiction, parodies …

However, the idea of improvisation is at the bottom of the project.

"The improvisation, the surprise, the unexpected, the speed of reaction is part of it, because everything happened live on air in a conversation with the host and very often in this conversation the author's intentions about the plot changed,"Mr. Yanev says about the beginning.

Meanwhile, "Nestinarski Tants" was also printed and is now available to the readers.

Author: Marian Karagiozov

English: Alexander Markov