Press releases

VITEBSK, 30 October (BelTA) - The International Festival of Modern Choreography (IFMC) in Vitebsk will wrap up with a performance by the Ballet National de Marseille, BelTA learned from the Vitebsk cultural center.

The 2017 IFMC will take place from 15 to 19 November. Some amendments have been made to the forum’s announced program for technical reasons. For instance, Sergei Smirnov’s Eccentric Ballet, a four-time winner of Russia’s national theater award The Golden Mask, is to replace the Czech dance company VerTeDance with a dance show Songs of the Last Grass.

The evening of modern choreography due in the Yakub Kolas National Academic Drama Theater on 17 November is going to be eventful. The stage will see past IFMC winners: Olga Labovkina’s project (Belarus-Russia), the Zaleski Dance Design Show (Belarus), and the Feliks Parnell Ballet School (Poland). Another highlight will be Runway, a production of the Zawirowania Dance Theater (Warsaw).

The solemn closing ceremony will be held on 19 November. It will feature an awards ceremony and a performance by winners of the Belarusian modern choreography contest. Then, the Ballet National de Marseille will replace the Spanish National Dance Company with the show Bolero. “The production of Emio Greco and Pieter Scholten is in demand on every stage in the world. It will become an event for modern choreography connoisseurs in the audience,” the cultural center noted.

The anniversary edition of the festival will bring together artists from Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, the UK, Germany, Israel, Italy, Canada, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovenia, the USA, Ukraine, France, Croatia, Czechia, and Japan. The festival was established by the Belarusian Culture Ministry, the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee, the Vitebsk City Hall, and Belarus’ National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater. The organizer is the Vitebsk cultural center.