As a rule, the organizers are preparing something special for the anniversaries. The XXVIth festival was not the anniversary but nevertheless it was remarkable. On November 20, 2013, on the opening day of the festival, the presentation of the book, which is dedicated to the 25th history of the IFMC, took place. Thanks to Belwest company, which supported the edition of the book, the yearly November festivals are now written in the history of our city. Of course, the 136 pages of the book cannot contain all the events of the 25 year-history of the festival as thousands of specialists, choreographers and dancers from 40 countries of the world took part in them. Thousands of volunteers, dozens of top agencies of Belarus and other countries also took part in the preparation of the festival. Many IFMC participants have already left their mark in the arts of the last century and the beginning of the new century. But the main thing here is the feeling of pride for the city of Vitebsk.

Before the opening concert on November 20, Lev Shulman, the producer and director, presented the new edition of the book “Contemporary dance of the post-Soviet area” (the editor is Ekaterina Vasenina). The senior adviser of the international dance fair in Dusseldorf Kajo Nelles shared his experience in producing and management area. Two photo exhibitions dedicated to the remarkable event – 100 anniversary of Stravinsky ballet “Le Sacre du printemps” opened.

One day before the official opening of the festival Fresco dance company from Israel performed in the concert hall Vitebsk with the show “Cerberus” (producer Yoram Karmi). The audience in Minsk National Theatre of Opera and Ballet also had the opportunity to enjoy this performance on November 17. This is really an interesting performance with the original atmosphere of mythological stories to the music of classical composers and modern authors. At the press conference after the concert Yaram said that in this work he was motivated by his love for the history of ancient Greece.

November 20, concert hall Vitebsk, the opening concert at 7.00 p.m.  
13 dance companies were invited to Vitebsk festival:
- theatre-studio of modern choreography of Diana Yurchenko, Vitebsk
- Marina Kushnerova project “Fingerprint”, Vitebsk
- contemporary dance studio «Parallels», art director is Anastasia Makhova, Vitebsk
- “Alesya” company, director Igor Shuvalov, Mogilev
- Vlad Tereshchenko project, Grodno
- “Prestige” company, the director Oksana Khevuk, Brest
- TAD contemporary dance group, director Dmitry Kurakulov, Grodno
- Project by Kirill Baltrukov “Synonims”, Minsk
- “SKYLINE” dance theatre of Belorussian State University of art and culture, Minsk
- “OBOI” director Valentin Isakov, Gomel
- «Skvo’s dance company», director Olga Skvortsova, Minsk
- “Different faces” dance company, director Tatiana Aksyonova, Minsk
- Sergey Mikel project “BGAM Company”, Minsk
 
Boris Svetlov, the Culture Minister of the Republic of Belarus greeted the guests and the participants of the festival. At the end of his speech he presented 3 commemorative diploma to the long-standing sponsors of the IFMC: to Belwest, MobileTeleSystems and Belinvestbank.
After that Larisa Barykina told the audience about the 20-year history of the dance company TAD, after which Rady Poklitaru, the chairman of the jury, greeted all the participants, wished them inspiration and advised to start the concert.

Contemporary dance theatre “D.O.Z.SK.I.” danced the miniature “The game”. Maria Tikhonova, the soloist of Perm theatre “Evgeny Panfilov Ballet”, three times appeared on the stage.  At first she performed “Without you”, then in a duo with Alexei Rastorguev she performed the miniature “Duet”, after which she performed with the theatre the fragment of the play “Romeo and Juliette”. Nevertheless, Maria proved once again that she is still the soloist and the crowd-pleaser. Anastasiya Kharchenko and Alexei Bus’ko, the soloists of “Kiev Modern Ballet”, performed the miniature “Album”, high skill level showed also the soloists of the ballet school named after Feliks Parnell – Adrianna Rieske and Alexander Stanishevski. “Street Jazz” by Sergey Mandric again showed their best performance.
At the end of the evening the dancers from National Theatre of Opera and Ballet performed the composition “Six dances”, choreographer Jiří Kylián. The performance was in the classical genre of modern choreography and was a success with the public. That was the opening concert of the festival.

November 21st, Drama Theatre n.a. Y. Kolas
In the first part of the concert the audience watched the full version of the performance “Fell-Link” created with the support of the art center of Lithuania “Arts Printing House”, performed by Aurida Gudaite and Laurinas Zakevichus. The performance is the prize-winner at IFMC’2012, the main stream of the staging is hip-hop genre. Now the dancers are performing under the name of Vilnius dance theatre “Low air”.
Moscow theatre-studio of contemporary dance presented the performance “Feeder”. The producer of the theatre is Igor Shegai, art director – Irina Afonina. The performance is inspired by the art of Vincent van Gogh.

November 22nd, Concert hall Vitebsk
Evgeny Panfilov theatre performed “Romeo and Juliette” for Vitebsk audience. Last time the theatre performed the full version of the performance was in 1997. It was interesting to watch the performance and imagine the atmosphere 17 years ago when Panfilov subdued his home city Perm with this performance. This evening the theater performed the play professionally and gently. It’s probably because there are dancers in the theatre who still remember the opening night of the performance. Among them are Natalia Maslennikova, Sergey Rainik, Alexei Rastorguev, Alexei Kolbin, Vladimir Galkin, Elena Kondakova and Maria Tikhonova.

November 23rd, Concert hall Vitebsk
The participants of the Belorussian competition in contemporary dance appeared on the stage. For the first time the representatives from all the regions of Belarus took part in the competition. There is also a good thing that there are dance companies in Belarus that do not need to take part in the competition in order just to pay attention to themselves. Below there are the results of the Belorussian competition of contemporary dance.

November 24th, concert hall Vitebsk
According to the decision of the International Jury, the prize in the nomination “one-act ballet” was transferred to the nomination “Choreographic miniature”. Here is the list of the prize-winners of the Belorussian completion of 2013:
- Special prize “Contemplation” for the choreographic miniature “Water music”. Choreography: Valentin Isakov. Performer:  “OBOI”, Gomel
- Special prize “For the technical skills” for the one-act ballet “Bardo”. Choreogracher: Olga Skvortsova. Performer: «Skvo’s dance company», Minsk

One more special prize was introduced by the board of directors of IFMC’2013 called “Deposit for the creativity” for the choreographic miniature “The first attempt”, choreography: Kirill Baltrukov, performer: Kirill Baltrukov project “Synonims”, Minsk.

- Prize-winner in the nomination “choreographic miniature” for the performance “Ordinary story”, music: Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, choreography: Tatiana Aksenova, performer: contemporary dance group “Different faces”, Minsk.

- Prize-winner in the nomination “choreographic miniature” for the performance “Lost and found”, choreography: Sergey Mikel, performer: Sergey Mikel project “BGAM Company”, Minsk

The members of the international jury:
- Radu Poklitaru (Ukraine) - choreographer, art director of “Kiev Modern Ballet” contemporary dance theatre, the chairman of the jury
- Larisa Barykina (Russia) – ballet critic, music expert, critic and researcher of the musical theatre, the member of the jury at National theatre prize “Golden mask”, art-director of the festival “On the edge”
- Svetlana Gutkovskaya (Belarus) – choreographer, professor, head of sub-department at Belorassian State University of Art and Culture
- Alexander Pepelyaev (Russia) – choreographer, art director of Russian dance theatres “GULD”
- Ingrida Gerbyutavichite (Lithuania) – art expert, dance critic
- Ludmila Kudryavtseva (Belarus) – People’s Artist of Belarus, the principal soloist of the National academic big theatre of opera and ballet of the Repblic of Belarus
- Kajo Nelles (Germany) - Director of the International Dance Fair in Dusseldorf.

The results of the competition were announced at the end of the concert. In the first part of the gala-concert the Russian chamber ballet 'Moscow' presented the dancing performance. “Egopoint” – is the performance of Nadezhda Saidakova, the leading dancer at Staatsballet Berlin together with Moscow dancers. It is the performance that shows the dilemma which troubles each modern human being – the incredible pace of life when you always need to be in time and in the right place, succeed and at the same time deal with the most important human desire – to know yourself, answer the eternal question “why?”. The performers were dancing on the tips of the toes, the trance music, concept decoration – all this together was interesting and intrigue.

The festival lasted 8 days which is quite long. There were master-classes of Olga Labovkina (Belarus), Alexei Rastorguev and Alexander Pepelyaev (Russia), Airida Gudaite and Laurinas Zakevichus (Lithuania), Simone Kieltyke (Germany), Yannick Matton (Canada). There was also the meeting of the participants of the festival with Tatiana Ratobylskaya which was dedicated to 40-year anniversary of Wuppertal Tanztheater of Pina Bausch.
I would like to thank our partners, participants, guests and spectators for the November 2013!

Eduard Chernivchan
Executive Director of the IFMC

Photo was made by Igor Gusakov, Anna Moiseyuk, Dmitry Abletsov, Ivan Astashonok, Vladimir Lupovskiy.
Poster IFMC'2013