Press releases

VITEBSK, 19 November (BelTA) – The 27th International Festival of Modern Choreography (IFMC) opens in Vitebsk on 19 November. Partaking in the event will be more than 40 dance groups from 15 countries, BelTA learned from the Vitebsk Culture Center.

Traditionally, the opening ceremony of the festival will feature a special guest. This time it will be the Gandini Juggling company, the winner of Herald Angel Award of the Edinburgh International Festival. It was assembled by British choreographer Sean Gandini after an audition for performers from different countries. During the whole dance show the company juggles with apples demonstrating an unbelievable synthesis of modern dance and circus. The performance has become a hit in many countries, and now the Vitebsk audience will have an opportunity to see it.

Partaking in the opening show will also be winners of the previous editions of the festival: Alvaro Esteban Lopez (Spain), Evgeny Panfilov's ballet company from Perm, Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theater (Russia), and Kiev Modern Ballet (Ukraine).

During the festival that will last till 23 November, the Vitebsk Concert Hall and the Yakub Kolas National Academic Drama Theater will host first night shows and performances that are already known to the Vitebsk audience by the leading dance companies from the UK, Israel, Italy, Russia, the USA, Ukraine, Sweden, and Estonia.

The highlight of the festival will be the international modern choreography competition. Thirty-three dance groups from nine countries (mainly from Belarus and Russia) were selected out of 55 companies during the preliminary qualifying video round. Some groups have already performed in Vitebsk: the modern choreography theater (Moscow), the modern dance company Eternal Movement (Kemerovo), the modern choreography theater-studio of Diana Yurchenko (Vitebsk), a number of Ukrainian projects, the Felix Parnell ballet school (Lodz), Sergei Mikel’s project of the Belarusian State Academy of Music, and the choreography department at the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts.

The contestants include classical ballet dancers who prepared the performances in the genre of modern choreography. Partaking in the contest will be the soloists of the Lithuanian Opera and Ballet Theater, the National Opera House of Ukraine, and the Krasnodar State Music Theater. All in all, the program of the closed-door round of the competition features 49 performances. The program of the festival also includes workshops, photo and avant-garde art exhibitions.

The tickets for the IFMC 2014 are still available, but the opening show is almost sold out. The shows by the Kiev Modern Ballet (Ukraine) and Evgeny Panfilov's ballet company are also popular with the audience.

The festival has been founded by the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee, the Culture Ministry of Belarus, the Vitebsk City Hall, and the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater. The organizer of the event is the Vitebsk Culture Center.