China wins Grand Prize of International Modern Dance Festival in Vitebsk

The main prize of the International Modern Dance Festival in Vitebsk was awarded to the soloists of the State Dance Ensemble of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army for the production “Comprehension”. Kulli Roosna Project (Tallinn, Estonia) won the first prize in the One-Act Ballet nomination. The second prize which was transferred to the Choreographic Miniatures nomination was presented to Jazz Dance Studio PAL (Niigata, Japan). Another second prize of the nomination went to the Karakuli dance theater (Minsk, Belarus) for the choreographic miniature “Level completed”. The first prize also remained in Belarus: the theater of modern choreography D.O.Z.SK.I. (Minsk) got the prize for the production “Nothing In Common”. Fine Fave Dance Theatre (Tallinn, Estonia) got a special prize of the festival “For Excellence” and Ekaterina Kvitkovskaya (a group of contemporary dance of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, Minsk) was honored “For Exceptional Mastery”. Dmitry Zalesky (contemporary dance theater D.O.Z.SK.I., Minsk) was named best choreographer of the dance festival. He was presented with the special Evgeny Panfilov award. Twenty-six companies and projects from Belarus, Germany, Israel, China, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Switzerland and Japan took part in the contest this year. In Vitebsk, they showed 13 one-act ballets and 24 miniatures. The jury panel was composed of renowned choreographers from Estonia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, China, Germany, and was chaired by People's Artist of the USSR, laureate of international and Soviet Union contests Valentine Elizariyev. The Kyiv Modern Ballet Theater (Ukraine) will present its ballet-phantasmagoria Nutcracker at the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Minsk on November 29. The theater is headed by Radu Poklitaru, one of Europe’s most popular young choreographers. The International Modern Dance Festival in Vitebsk aims at popularizing Belarusian modern dance companies and advancing Belarusian choreographers to the European and world cultural space. Over the 22 years of its existence, the festival has won recognition in more than 40 countries. In 2009 the forum became a CID-UNESCO full-fledged member. The founders of the festival are the Culture Ministry of Belarus, the Vitebsk Oblast executive committee, the Vitebsk City Hall, the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. The organizer of the festival is the Vitebsk Culture Center.

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