Press releases

GOMEL, 13 April (BelTA) – The 8^th international choreographic art festival Sozhsky Khorovod (Sozh round dance) will welcome guests on 16-18 September, BelTA learned from Gomel Mayor Piotr Kirichenko during the first session of the organizing committee on 13 April.

The opening ceremony and the closing one will take place in Gomel’s central stadium that can seat over 7,500 spectators. The festival’s chief director Piotr Sverdlov outlined the preliminary concept of the opening ceremony. “The dancing ‘fabric’ will be made of ‘threads’ of different colors manifested by dancers. Specific features and signature moments of the festival still need more thought,” he said.

An international sport and ballroom dance competition Golden Lynx and the seventh Gomel Fire Festival GOFF 2016 will take place during the choreography festival.

In the Year of Culture the number of participants of the choreographic art festival Sozhsky Khorovod will be increased. The seventh festival gathered artists from 17 countries. This year invitations have been sent out to more than 40 countries, including India, Argentina, and China. Artists from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Serbia, who took part in previous festivals, have also been invited.

A lot of things have yet to be organized and taken care of, this is why Piotr Kirichenko encouraged everyone to work hard. “The choreographic festival has always been a prominent event in the life of the city and the country. We cannot but make it better,” stressed the Chairman of the Gomel City Executive Committee.

The first international choreographic art festival Sozhsky Khorovod took place in 1997. The founders are the Belarusian Culture Ministry, the Gomel Oblast administration and the Gomel city administration. The dancing forum is supposed to develop choreographic art, expand and bolster creative ties, and promote interaction between cultures of different countries.