Press releases

VITEBSK, 23 November (BelTA) – The official opening of the 29^th edition of the International Modern Choreography Festival (IFMC 2016) will take place in Vitebsk on 23 November, BelTA learned from the organizers of the forum.

The opening ceremony of the dance forum in the Vitebsk Concert Hall will include a presentation of the participants of the international dance competition, 32 dance companies from European countries and China. The program of the opening ceremony will include Radu Poklitaru’s Giselle by Kiev Modern Ballet. The opening night will wrap up with a Belarus-style PARTY featuring Belarusian folk bands.

On 23 November Vitebsk will play host a number of master classes, an exhibition of paintings titled as The Music of Color by Vitebsk painter Oleg Kroshkin, photo expositions Man’s Landscapes and Experiments from Minsk photographers Anna Moiseyuk and Olga Rabetskaya.

The festival will run through 27 November. The events will be held in the Vitebsk Concert Hall and the Yakub Kolas National Academic Theater. The program will include performances from the leading dance companies of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, France, Sweden, Norway, and others. The festival will present a number of premieres. Apart from Giselle, the forum will include AkhmatModi play from French Compagnie Autre MiNa and Son of Mr Piero from Vinci/Mona Lisa by Evgeny Panfilov Ballet Theater from Perm.

The modern choreography competition will be the draw of the festival. This year it is be an international competition. The competition is divided into three stages: the selection of applications, the private viewing of the selected works by an international jury and the final public round.

The final of the international competition will take place at the Vitebsk Concert Hall on 26 November. The wards ceremony and the performance of the prizewinners will make part of the closing ceremony of the forum on 27 November.

The forum will also comprise meet-the-artist sessions and dance performances. Meet-the-artist sessions will be held after the AkhmatModi play at the Yakub Kolas National Academic Drama Theater on 24 November and after the play There by Norway’s Jo Stromgren Company at the Vitebsk Concert Hall on 25 November. Performances by dance companies from Russia and Sweden will take place in the Vitebsk Concert Hall on 23 and 25 November. The program will also include master-classes, roundtable sessions, interactive lectures, exhibitions. The Grand Prix winner will get $5,000 in prize money. Winners of the first, second and third awards will receive $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 respectively. A number of special awards have been envisaged for this year’s festival as well. At the close of the event the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus will perform the ballets Six Dances and La Petite Mort.

The festival has been organized by Belarus’ Culture Ministry, the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater, the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee and Vitebsk City Hall, and the Vitebsk culture center.