The jubilee XXV International Festival of Modern Choreography will be held in Belarus from November 19-29.
31/10/20120 views
31 October, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. The jubilee XXV International Festival of Modern Choreography (IFMC) will be held in Belarus from 19 to 29 November. This was announced today at a press conference dedicated to the festival by Marina Romanovskaya, Deputy General Director for Special Projects of the Vitebsk Culture Centre, as reported by a BELTA correspondent.
According to Marina Romanovskaya, the festival's consistently vibrant programme and prestige have allowed IFMC to expand beyond Vitebsk this year. Evenings of modern choreography will be presented in Minsk (22 November at the Minsk Concert Hall and 28 November at the National Academic Grand Opera and Ballet Theatre), Molodechno (22 November), Bobruisk (23 November), and Grodno (26 November). "We had concerns regarding the last three cities, but numerous calls and the public's interest in this event inspire confidence that everything will go well," noted Marina Romanovskaya.
In Vitebsk, the programme of the modern choreography festival is scheduled for 21-25 November. The venues for its events will be the Vitebsk Concert Hall and the Yakub Kolas National Academic Drama Theatre.
The main event of the festival is the international competition of modern choreography. Traditionally, it is held in two nominations – "One-Act Ballet" and "Choreographic Miniature" – in two rounds, the final of which is public. This year, based on the results of the preliminary video selection round, 45 works out of 92 submitted will be presented at the competition in Vitebsk. Ensembles from Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland, Estonia, Japan, as well as a number of international projects, have been invited to participate in the international competition. "The level of participants is very commendable, the competitive works selected are interesting and diverse. Moreover, unlike some previous competitions, the level of competition among participants is high this year," said the Deputy General Director of the Vitebsk Culture Centre, characterising the results of the preliminary video selection round.
The performances of the participants will be evaluated by a representative jury chaired by People's Artist of the USSR, the renowned choreographer Vladimir Vasiliev, who has specially postponed the premiere of his production to participate in the festival, as its original date coincided with the opening of IFMC in Vitebsk. The jury also includes personalities widely known in the world of contemporary dance: Susan Link (Germany), Alice Dor Cohen (Israel), Paul Johnson (Ireland), Wendy Perron (USA), Radu Poklitaru (Ukraine). The initially announced jury representative from Belarus, Yuri Troyan, will not be able to represent the country due to touring in Spain. Who will replace him is currently being determined, added Marina Romanovskaya.
The founders of the festival are the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, the Ministry of Culture of Belarus, the Vitebsk City Executive Committee, and the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Belarus. The organizer is the "Vitebsk" Cultural Center.
The festival remains true to its main goal – the integration of Belarus's creative potential in the field of contemporary choreography into the global cultural space, continuing to stimulate the development of international relations in the field of art. Thousands of artists from over 40 countries have performed on the Vitebsk stage over the 25-year history of the festival, which all these years has contributed to strengthening Belarus's image as a modern state with highly artistic traditions and cultural values of the new century. -0-
BELTA