IFMC Grand Prix goes to Japan

The production Nil by Japan’s Ayaka Habata & Cotaro ITO Dance Company won the Grand-Prix of the 27th International Festival of Modern Choreography (IFMC) which took place in Vitebsk on 19-23 November, BelTA has learned.

The award ceremony held during a gala concert of the festival on 23 November was a sell-out. According to choreographer and head of the Koresh Dance Company Ronen Koresh, this is a testament to a bright future for the modern dance. The Koresh Dance Company from Philadelphia opened the concert program with a combination of selections from a number of plays united by We Will Be Together idea. The idea echoes the concept of this year’s festival – searching yourself, harmony and peace.

The gala concert featured the best performances of the IFMC 2014 competition program. This year partaking in the festival were 33 dance companies form Armenia, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia and Japan. The contestants presented 49 works. Twenty-two of them reached the final. The dance companies who failed to reach the final got participation certificates for the first time in the history of the festival.

Ayaka Habata’s production Nil (nothing, emptiness) won the jury’s and people’s votes. “I have never seen such a mixed and interesting composition of the jury. The fact that such different people were unanimous in their opinion speaks volumes. Only a masterpiece takes the Grand Prix. This production possesses everything necessary: dramaturgy, psychological logic and great performance skills,” Chairman of the jury, Art Director of Kiev Modern Ballet Radu Poklitaru (Ukraine).

According to Co-Chairman of the jury, People’s Artist of Belarus, ballet leader at the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater Yuri Troyan, the awarded works also included two dance companies from Moscow and Kiev each, Sergei Poyarkov and Igor Nichiporuk’s project from Minsk, Diana Yurchenko’s Theater Studio of Modern Choreography from Vitebsk and O’She Dance Theater from Vologda.

There were also special awards of the expert council. The jury bestowed its first money prize on Valentin Isakov’s project from Gomel.

The ballet Six Dances from the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus wrapped up the gala concert of the festival.

The 27th International Festival of Modern Choreography in Vitebsk was held on 19-23 November. Apart from the concert program the festival comprised practice and theory master classes, photo and avant-garde exhibitions. The event is considered image-building not only for Vitebsk but for the whole Belarus. All the participants, guests and members of the jury praised a high organizational level.

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.