Loading, start, action... This is a game where the digital and the real world intersect, and characters from the screen step into the theatre. Video games and real life are a whirlwind of quests with thrilling tension, even as we play them with different identities and avatars. That's why dance enters the gaming mechanics. Choreographer and director Kosta Karakashyan also turns the audience into actors in his new performance INSERT COIN / PLAYER ONE, a co-production of One Dance Festival.

In the salon of the Military Club - Plovdiv, four dancers flicker between eerie stillness and explosive motion, channeling the chaotic energy of fighter games into a physical space. As in a game, but also really, they will face each other, but also themselves, while the audience will choose to become their ally, opponent or judge. With every move, the dancers ask: where do we end, and where does our collective online experience begin?

INSERT COIN / PLAYER ONE is an electrifying deep dive into the virtual subconscious, where dance, theatre, and gaming collide. In this immersive performance by Karakashyan & Artists, the stage transforms into a live-streamed digital playground, alive with NPCs (non-playable characters), quests, and the ghostly echoes of online worlds. Futuristic costumes, complemented with glowing accessories, enhance the recreation of the battle between the real and the fictional, between the avatar and the human.

At its core, INSERT COIN / PLAYER ONE is a game you don’t just watch — you play. Blurring the boundaries between player and spectator, the performance thrusts its audience into a surreal, interactive space where choice becomes choreography, and action shapes the narrative. Equal parts spectacle and reflection, the performance is a thrilling reminder that the digital worlds we escape to are also mirrors, revealing the identities we construct.

"Karakashyan moves with hard jolts and swift stealth, a body of expression, skill, and power; a body standing its ground and not about to give up."  - The Guardian

Kosta Karakashyan is a director, producer, choreographer and writer. His projects explore the development of empathy through dance, film and education. He is a graduate of Columbia University in New York (BA in Dance) and the Global Campus of Human Rights (European Master’s) in Venice, Italy, which has informed his work style – inquisitive and based on compassion, social justice, and innovation. 

His projects have been featured by NOWNESS, The New Yorker, The Guardian and ELLE and in the US, Canada, Germany, Norway, Egypt, Vietnam and Japan. Following his participation as the youngest professional dancer and choreographer in Dancing with the Stars - Vietnam, he founded Karakashyan & Artists, a multidisciplinary company of dance artists who boldly cross disciplines with an emphasis on movement and powerful social storytelling.

The company has created immersive dance projects such as the culinary-themed piece "KITCHEN" (part of the Night of Theatre 2024) and "The Last Sunset" at the Regional Landfill for Non-Hazardous Waste - Gabrovo in co-production with the Goethe-Institut and in collaboration with Greenpeace and the International Biennale of Humour and Satire. Karakashyan has been honoured by Berlinale Talents 2024 and Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in the Arts & Culture category and is a member of the European Film Academy.