Information: Nikolay Tsvetkov, teacher of Macedonian and Bulgarian dance.

Nikolay Tsvetkov was born in Petrich, in the Pirin region of Bulgaria, in 1960. At Age 4, he began his studies at the Bulgarian Choreographic School in Sofia as a student of the well known Krasimir Petrov. During that time, he participated as both a dancer and a singer in performance pieces by some of the top choreographers in Bulgaria. After graduating with honors in 1979, Nikolay toured with the Bulgarian National Opera for two years.

Nikolay studied at the Bulgarian National Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv from 1981 to 1985. After finishing his studies, he performed with the State Folk Ensemble Trakia in Plovdiv from 1985 to 1989 and with the Pirin State Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances from 1985 to 1996. With the Pirin Ensemble, he danced under the direction of Kiril Stefanof and also served as choreographer and rehearsal master. He performed as a soloist and created numerous choreographies, some of which remain part of the company's basic repertoire. During his tenure with the Pirin Ensemble, he performed in more than a thousand concerts in Bulgaria and abroad, including tours in Algeria, Canada, China, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malta, Nicaragua, Russia, and the United States. Additionally, his choreographies and performances with the ensemble were presented on national television and published on two video cassettes. Nikolay's choreographies have also been featured in many films and theater performances.

Nilolay became a Professor of Dance and Chair of the Choreography Department at South-West University Neophit Rilski in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, in 1996 where he has taught dance composition, Bulgarian folk dance, and teaching methods since 1992. He is an internationally known folklorist and dance pedagogue and is an international authority on dance and folklore of Pirin, Macedonia.

In recent years he has also performed with Bulgarie, a company of fifty ensemble dancers and thirty soloists performing as actors, stuntmen, ballet dancers, singers, and musicians. Created in 2003, the dance spectacle is one of Bulgaria's contemporary grand folklore projects. In seven scenes the narrator takes Bulgarian traditions out of the depths of time to reveal their richness and beauty. Presented are unique folklore music, songs, and dances from seven ethnographic areas: the Rodophi Mountains, Macedonia, Šopluka, Northern Bulgaria, Dobrudža, StrandŠa, and Thrace. Bulgarie delivers more than one hundred performances each year and has performed with extraordinary success in the Greece, Israel, Japan, the United States, and across Western Europe.

In addition to his work in Bulgaria, Nikolay has taught and presented at dance seminars in Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Holland, Israel, Japan, Sweden, the United States, and across Western Europe.