Information: Filip Petkovski, teacher of Balkan and Near Eastern dance.

Filip Petkovski is an ethnochoreologist, theatrical director and professional folk dancer from Skopje, Macedonia. He graduated in a performing arts high school focusing on folk dance and ballet. Later, he performed Eastern European folk dances and songs with the Tamburitzans, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has performed around 200 concerts throughout the United States with the ensemble, taught various seminars and workshops on Macedonian and Eastern European folk dance and choreographed and staged folk dances for various ensembles.

Filip graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, focusing on theatrical directing and multimedia. He has directed eight theatrical productions in Macedonia, Norway and the USA and focuses on American drama from the 20th century.

Filip continued with his education with the Choreomundus program: International Master of Dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage, through a consortium of four European Universities: The Norwegian University of Science and Technology based in Trondheim, Norway; Universite Blaise Pascal based in Clermont-Ferrand, France; Szeged University based in Szeged, Hungary and Roehampton University based in London, United Kingdom. He graduated as a dance researcher and ethnochoreologist. His MA dissertation explores "Approaches in Staging and Choreographing Folk Dance in The National Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs of Macedonia "Tanec".

Currently he is working on his PhD thesis entitled "Dance as Intangible Cultural Heritage" focusing on UNESCO's convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage and three case studies from the Balkans: the "Nijemo Kolo" from Croatia, "Kopačkata" from Macedonia and "Kolo" from Serbia.

Filip's published works include:

• Petkovski, F. (2014). The women’s ritual processions Lazarki in Macedonia. Venets: The Belogradchik Journal for Local History, Cultural Heritage and Folk Studies. Vol. 5. Number 1. pp. 107- 127.
• Petkovski, F. (2015). Professional Folk Dance Ensembles in Eastern Europe and the Presentation of Folk Dance on Stage. Proceedings of ICTM’s Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe: 2014 Symposium – Petnica, Serbia. pp. 173-178.
• Petkovski, F. (2015). Memory and Perspectives: Choreomundus- International Master in Dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage. Struga’s Music Fall. Proceedings of The Society of Composers of Macedonia- Struga, Macedonia.
• Petkovski, F. (2015). Ethnochoreological analysis of the folk dance Raiko through different structural analyses. Etnolog. Nu.17. Macedonian Ethnological Society. Skopje.
• etkovski, F. (2016). Crnogorka- the dance that does not exists. Institutionalized folkloristic and ethnology in Macedonia and Balkans – theory and empiricism. Institute for folklore Marko Cepenkov. Skopje, Macedonia. pp. 369- 378.
• Petkovski, F. (2017). UNESCO and the notion of “staged rituals”- The case with The National Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs of Croatia LADO. Proceedings of ICTM’s Study Group on Music and Dance in Southeastern Europe: 2016 Symposium – Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.
• Petkovski, F. (2017). Chuchuk, Chachak, Chochek: Who inspired whom?. Struga’s Music Fall. Proceedings of The Society of Composers of Macedonia- Struga, Macedonia.