Press releases

The festival is due to run from 15 to 19 November to bring together artists from Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, the UK, Germany, Israel, Spain, Italy, Canada, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovenia, the USA, Ukraine, France, Croatia, Czechia, and Japan.

The Belarusian national modern choreography contest is held every other year, taking turns with the international event at the IMFC. This year, for the first time in the festival’s history, a domestic choreographer or dancer will be awarded a special prize for remarkable contribution to modern choreography and dedication to art, apart from traditional prizes for the winners. The special award has been established in the run-up to the IMFC anniversary edition. “People’s Artist of Russia Sergei Bezrukov kindly agreed to present the award at the solemn opening concert,” Marina Romanovskaya said.

Together with the director Anna Matison and the choreographer Radu Poklitaru the big-name artist will present the movie After You’re Gone. The picture will be screened in the Dom Kino cinema on 15 November to open the forum’s eventful program. In the evening of 15 November, the first IMFC concert will introduce the participants of the national modern choreography contest and show Correction, a production of the Czech dance company VerTeDance. “The team will give a wonderful fantasy show. The talks over their performance in Vitebsk lasted for a good three years. We are happy we have finally managed to work it out,” Marina Romanovskaya underlined.

Another draw of the festival will be a performance by the Spanish National Dance Company. In 2016, the team won the Prix Benois de la Danse. In the world of ballet, this award is the equivalent to the Academy Awards (Oscars), Marina Romanovskaya clarified. This is why it is such a pleasure that Vitebsk connoisseurs of modern choreography will be able to assess their skills. Carmen, choreographed by the famous Sweden Johan Inger, will be presented on 19 November. The Spanish are going to bring their own lights and decorations to demonstrate the show. The stage assembly will take two days. “It is very hard to arrange a visit of such teams: they usually have everything scheduled for the next five years. It was a great luck for us and a unique opportunity for the audience to see the best skills,” Marina Romanovskaya remarked.

Another IMFC highlight will be a concert featuring winners of the festival’s several previous editions.

The lineup of events also includes interactive lectures, theoretical and practical master classes, seminars, roundtable discussions, art laboratories by Russian, Polish, and Belarusian dancers, open sessions of the expert council, presentations of books about dance. An exhibition dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Museum-Archive festival will be arranged in the lobby of the Vitebsk concert hall along with Anna Moyseyuk’s photography project IFMC on Mark Chagall street (Belarus) and Alexander Salivonchik’s art exhibition (Belarus-Germany).

The festival was established by the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee, the Culture Ministry, the Vitebsk City Hall, Belarus’ National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater. The organizer is the Vitebsk cultural center.