Kosta Karakashyan is a Bulgarian-Armenian director, producer, choreographer, and writer exploring empathy and emotion through motion.
He has built a prolific body of work, moving through disciplines including film, music videos, commercials, choreography, installations, theatre, and immersive performances produced alongside his production company Studio Karakashyan, and dance company Karakashyan & Artists. His work has been described as "an important voice for LGBTQ+ struggles in Chechnya and elsewhere" by The Columbia Spectator and has been featured by NOWNESS, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and ELLE and across the USA, Canada, Germany, Norway, Egypt, Vietnam and Japan. He brings visceral physical expression and strong storytelling to his projects, which often tackle social topics such as the lives of LGBTQ+ people in Eastern Europe, mental health, and the climate crisis. He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, a Forbes Europe 30 Under 30 honoree, and a member of the European Film Academy.
From age five, Kosta trained as a ballroom dancer and became a professional - winning two Bulgarian National Ballroom Champion titles, dancing on international stages across Canada, Germany, Norway, Egypt, Vietnam, and Japan, and performing and choreographing as the youngest professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars Vietnam at just 18 years old.
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 style of work - inquisitive and based on compassion, social justice, and innovation. In 2023, he was elected as one of two Bulgarian Youth Delegates to the UN for the 2023-2024 mandate, representing the voice of Bulgarian youth on the highest international level and advocating for access to culture and education. As an artist working in the field of dance, Kosta is a passionate advocate of the physical, mental, and social benefits dance can bring into our lives, elaborating these concepts in his TedX speech "Connecting through dance".
His films include a real boy (NOWNESS Picks), In Her Skin (Beyond The Short), Surrender (Sofia International Film Fest, Lower East Side Film Festival), Supersexual (Nouvelle Bug), Glance from the Edge (Dance Filmmaking Premiere) and WAITING FOR COLOR. He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents 2024, Midpoint Intensive Queer, Les Arcs Industry Village, Talents and Short Film Market Torino, NOWNESS x Cinedans Pitch, ShorTS Development & Pitching Training, Nouvelle Bug Workshop, and FILM+ Development Lab. As a commercial director, his credits include H&M, Calvin Klein and ELLE.
His award-winning documentary dance film WAITING FOR COLOR about the LGBTQ+ persecution in Chechnya, gained international attention after its release in collaboration with Single Step Foundation and was awarded the Prix Lumière at Cinédanse Festival Ottawa 2019 and Best Student Film at IMZ + dancescreen 2019. WAITING FOR COLOR has been selected at over 30 festivals worldwide and featured by The Guardian, Elle Magazine, Bloomberg, them, GLAAD, INTO, Radio Free Europe and Marquee TV. The Guardian wrote: "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." As a choreographer and movement director, he has worked with artists such as Rita Ora, Sherihan, MNEK, Sigala, and Porter Robinson and companies such as McDonald’s, Disneyland, Audemars Piguet, Skoda, Calvin Klein and Old Spice.
