On International Women's Day, we meet a Bulgarian woman with an impressive education, public and political activity, who has been building her life between Europe and the USA for the past 20 years, and just a month ago in New York she became the World Champion in Bachata for professionals in the most prestigious dance competition in the world - The Summit Championship. She is Iva Yordanova and is today's example of the fact that dreams come true. All it takes is a little courage, hard work and perseverance.

Iva entered the studio of Radio Bulgaria with particular excitement and the reason is that exactly two decades ago she was an intern reporter in the programs for Bulgarians around the world on the Bulgarian National Radio. The topic of life abroad is not foreign to her. Born and raised in Bulgaria, she received her higher education at Berkeley College in the USA, with a degree in Business Administration. She then went on to earn a Master's Degree in National Security from the G. S. Rakovski Military Academy in Sofia and a diploma from Harvard University. As a specialist in business process management, Iva Yordanova has worked for some of the largest international companies and has been a member of major public organizations fighting poverty, AIDS and malaria, including the UN and the Youth Board of Millennium Promise. Ten years ago, the Bulgarian also played an active part in the socio-political life in Bulgaria as Deputy Director of the Agency for Bulgarians Abroad. In her early thirties, she found herself divorced and free to devote herself to what had always been first and foremost in her life – dancing. "My soul is artistic," Iva says today with childlike sincerity.

"I joke sometimes, but it's the very truth that dance has been with me since my mother's womb. My parents met when they were both in the student’s ensemble and I was conceived and nursed with this love for dance. I have been dancing folk dances since I was a child and as a teenager I was involved in hip hop dancing,” Iva recalls.

With all the courage and strength that a 34-year-old woman is capable of, she decided to devote her energy and time to this initial love of rhythm.

"Well, I actually started dancing professionally at 34, so my path is certainly not conventional. But in a way, it is my whole life. Maybe according to generally accepted norms, I should be married with two children by now. My path is visibly different, but I want to believe that with my efforts, with my ambition, with my achievements, I can inspire other women to follow their dreams, regardless of whether they are 17 or 57 years old. In my opinion, it is never too late. Maybe it's too late when you forget you have dreams."

Today, Iva's dream already has its world recognition. She admits that just three years ago she joked with girls from her dance company "Las Generalisimas" that at the age of 40 she would become a world champion. That's exactly what happened at the end of January 2025 in the Big Apple. After an extremely difficult year and a very serious injury that prevented her from dancing for months Iva Yordanova ended up being one of 1,500 competitors from 43 countries in The Summit Championship 2025. The world's largest competition for professional dancers left Miami for the first time in its history and took place in New York, USA. "It was like I was on my own territory," the Bulgarian jokes. The competition has three divisions - amateur, semi-professional and professional, and over 70 different categories. "I competed in professional bachata,” Iva says. And in competition with more than 60 exceptional artists from all over the world, it was the young woman from the Balkans who was proclaimed the solo queen in the Bachata 40+ Females Professional category. "At that moment I was in shock," she tells us.

A curious fact is that this is her second participation in the competition. Exactly five years ago she managed to qualify for the finals among salsa dancers. Cuban salsa is also the rhythm of her heart, although Bachata from the Dominican Republic tops it.

"I discovered salsa and Afro-Cuban rhythms in general while still a student in New York and over time, somehow, in a natural way bachata discovered me on its own. In Bulgaria, about 20 years ago, when Latin rhythms were entering our country, perhaps because there were not so many teachers and so many dancers, the instructors taught everything - salsa, bachata, cha-cha, and merengue. In Bulgaria, many people can dance all these styles."

Her soul is full of art. This is her language with which she wants to inspire, help, and build a better and more peaceful world. Because art is an instrument for peace and diplomacy, Iva Yordanova says. In 2018, she released her first and only music single "Freedom", and in 2022 and 2023, she presented her solo photography exhibition in New York and Sofia in support of the cause of the Future Bulgaria Foundation. Today, Iva is at home in her homeland. Since the beginning of the year, she has been part of the team of the National Film and Theater Academy "Krustyo Sarafov", where she will be responsible for projects and partnerships and promises many surprises next year, when the National Film and Theater Academy of Bulgaria will celebrate its 75th anniversary. In the meantime, she continues to dance, dreaming of a world title from The Summit Championship, but this time in the team category, together with the girls from her dance company. As of this year, Iva is also the only Bulgarian with a jury certificate for Latin dance competitions, which will be another nuance of her artistic path she chose six years ago and continues to walk to this day!

Publication in English: Al. Markov

Photos: Personal archive of Iva Yordanova