Ifmc 2014 report
XXVII International Festival of Modern Choreography in Vitebsk was held from 19 to 23 of November 2014. When the festival takes place for the 27th time, it’s rather strange to hear this question: When the it will start? But nevertheless we always come with the answer learnt by heart: «Third week of November, as always». From the other side, let IFMC and its dates always be a surprise for someone.
The first show was supposed to be very interesting even a year prior to the start of the festival, as we had the confirmation from Gandini Juggling to perform in Vitebsk exactly on November 19. Of course, the experts were aware of the performance, but I hope the audience will remember Smashed for a long time now. The plastic, circus, theatre shown by the company, with the final china crash, were met with the admiration and perplexity at the same time. And if we have no question to the former, then the latter were caused by puzzlement: So, where was the dance itself? Yes, there was no “pure” dance. And probably somebody got distracted and, I assume, annoyed by the apples, which the performers were constantly juggling with. But there were the gestures, glances, turning of heads – the concise, well-mastered characters were living on the stage. I am sure that even a child watching the performance would suggest that the characters are not going along very well, and would point out the «lickspittle», «cool fish», «egoist» characters…and if we take into account that Smashed is a kind of devotion to Pina Bausch, then the performance created by Sean Gandini is the praiseworthy piece of contemporary art in general.
And this is the answer to the question of the purity of the genre. The interesting continuance of the topic was made by public lecture of Tatyana Ratobylskaya, member of advisory council, called «Contemporary art: synthesis or breakdown of the genres».
The first dance performed on the stage of IFMC’2014 – Antipodes – had become the so called key-note of the whole festival: «The road to ourselves». This was the incredible dance, with the unique technics, overwhelming associations and a load of arising questions. There were more questions than answers in this dance as in life. A labyrinth, where one constantly has to choose the right direction. Going by endless spiral in search for the sense in what is going on is finally the road to ourselves.
Then the participants of the international contest appeared on the stage:
- Dance company Nachalo (the Beginning), Grodno, Belarus
- Sergey Poyarkov and Igor Nichiporuk’s project, Minsk, Belarus
- Dmitry Bezzubenko’s project, the Department of Choreography of Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, Minsk, Belarus
- Svoi pocherk (Own handwriting) project, Vitebsk, Belarus
- «Х-periments», Valentina Isakova’s project, Gomel, Belarus
- «SKVO'S Dance Company», Minsk, Belarus
- «SynОNyMY», Minsk, Belarus
- Belarussian state choreographic gymnasium-college, Minsk
- «Skyline» dance theatre, Minsk, Belarus
- Diana Yurchenko’s theatre-studio of modern choreography, Vitebsk, Belarus
- Anatoly Vodzyansky’s project, Kiev, Ukraine
- «Totem Dance Group», Kiev, Ukraine
- Irina Borisova, leading dancer of National Opera of Ukraine, Kiev
- Vladimir Mitev’s project, Kiev, Ukraine
- «Young Balley of Volyn», Kiev, Ukraine
- «TWO Dance Company», Moscow, Russia
- «O’She» dance theatre, Vologda, Russia
- Krasnodar ballet school, Russia
- «nOga» dance theatre, Omsk, Russia
- The Ballet of Krasnodar State Musical Theater
- Theatre-studio of modern choreography, Moscow, Russia
- «Sona Hovsepyan Dance Company», Moscow, Russia
- «MezhduTantsem» (Between Dance) workshop, Ufa, Russia
- «Perpetual Motion» Ensemble of modern choreography of Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts
- Kristine Vismane, Latvia
- Lithuanian national theatre of opera and ballet, Vilnius
- «STARS'WELL» dance company, Latvia
- «Ayaka Habata & Cotaro Ito» dance company, Japan
- Felix Parnell’s ballet school, Lodz, Poland
- «Mihr» dance theatre, Armenia
The festival was opened by Boris Svetlov, the Ministry of Culture of Republic of Belarus, and then the members of the jury and the experts committee were introduced to the participants.
Jury of the International Contest:
- Radu Poklitaru, Ukraine - Choreographer, artistic director of «Kiev Modern Ballet» theatre, jury chairman.
- Yury Troyan, Belarus - People’s Artist of Republic of Belarus, choreographer, artistic director of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of Republic of Belarus, jury co-chairman.
- Emanuele Soavi, Italy – Choreographer, artistic director of «emanuele soavi INcompany»
- Ido Tadmor, Israel - Choreographer, artistic director of «Israeli Ballet»
- Klaus Richter, Germany – performer, artist, sculptor, professor of High Arts and Theatre School in Neuss.
- Olga Pona, Russia - Choreographer, artistic director of Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theatre
- Renee Nommik, Estonia - Choreographer, artistic director of «Fine Five Dance Theatre»
Advisory Council:
- Larisa Barykina, Russia – Ballet critic, musicologist, critic and researcher of musical theatre, chairman of the Advisory Council of Russian National Theatre Award «Golden Mask», chairman of the advisory council of the festival.
- Svetlana Gutkovskaya, Belarus – choreographer, award winner of various international contests, Candidate of Philological Science, professor, head of the department of Choreography Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, co-chairman.
- Tatyana Ratobylskaya, Belarus-Germany – Candidate of Art Criticism, journalist, researcher in the field of theatre and contemporary dance
- Aart Hougee, Holland – former director and co-founder of European Dance Development Centers in Holland and Germany.
- Inta Balode, Latvia – Dance critic, member of the editorial board of the internet magazine of Latvian dance.
Apart from Gandini Juggling, the following companies took part in the opening show: «Eugeny Panfilov Ballet» theatre, «Perpetual Motion» Ensemble of modern choreography of Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts, Olga Pona’s Chelyabinsk modern dance theatre, and «Kiev Modern Ballet».
The principle dancers of Lithuanian National theatre of opera and ballet Eligijus Butkus and Andrius Zuzzalkinas were the only exception from the guest companies list, as they presented «Waiting for Godot» piece for the contest. This was the only chance for them to perform on festival stage as they have to leave right after the opening concert to be present at the rehearsals of the premiere performance of their home theatre. The hardest play even for the Theatre of Absurd, looked at least intriguing when told in modern dance language.
One more nontraditional aspect of the opening ceremony was congratulations to Alexey Kolbin with 20 years of the professional artistic career. Alexey was greeted with the bouquet of flowers and received the well-merited applause from Vitebsk audience, from people who have been admiring him for 20 years already.
On November, 20 was difficult and intense even by IFMC standards. The rehearsals and performances of participants of the «closed» part of the contest in Vitebsk concert hall and the rehearsals of the guest companies at the stage of Vitebsk drama theatre n.a. Yakub Kolas. After 10-hours working day, the participants and the audience of the festival gathered together to see the first one-act ballets concert in the theatre.
At 18.30 Andersson Dance from Sweden presented their version of «Name of the next song». Orjan Andersson, the choreographer and the leader of the company, had opened the curtain of ancient times and gave the full liberty for imagination to us. The original musical soundtrack was fully corresponding to the associations derived from watching the scenes from Middle Ages.
«Fine Five Dance Theatre» presented their premier piece «…and Blue». In the annotation the choreographers Tiina Ollesk and Renee Nommik described the idea as the abstract dance piece of the feeling of the loneliness inside and around us. Though the metaphoricity of the piece is so intense that one can easily define the actual problems, including global ones. And to my opinion, the theme of the religious intolerance there was shown in a tragic way, bordering with insanity, leaving nothing but the empty wasteland.
In 30 minutes, when the applauses to the Estonian company calmed down, the second evening of one-act ballet started. Emanuele Soavi presented a fragment of 4-hour solo piece «Afternoon of a Faun». It was very intriguing to see the interpretation of the legend. And predictably, the piece had less in common with the classical tradition, though the new vision of the dance also was partially built on frontal and profile poses, borrowed from Ancient Greek figures of painted vases. It was also intriguing to see which kind of sensuality possesses the faun of XXI century. Hard to tell not seeing the original, but the intuition says that the cornerstone of the piece was constituted again by the nature of a person, in the direct and figurative sense of the word. Happily, nowadays the society is much more tolerant to chorographical «obscenity» of the beginning of last century.
Olga Pona’s Chelyabinsk contemporary dance theatre showed «Submersion and Emersion» dance performance – truly abstract dance, where the dancers, as if they were living in the parallel Universe, could soar alone or gather together in strange societies in order not to reach a specific goal, to achieve something they need for living, but just to share the happiness of free dance.
This was a very intense and inspiring evening. The festival management still feels not easy for giving the minimum of rehearsal time and not fully adhering to the terms of the technical riders of the companies. Now we can confess that we were counting on your professionalism from the very beginning, and we were not mistaken. Thank you.
On November, 21 the evening with «Kiev Modern Ballet» theatre was held. It was first time when Vitebsk saw one-act ballet «Underground». The piece appeared several years ago, received a lot of reviews, so it doesn’t make any sense to retell its content and quote the author’s vision of the subject conflict. But exactly in November 2014 it was impossible to disassociate oneself from the fact of the choreographer’s «anticipation» of the truly dramatic Ukrainian conflict, as well as impossible to fully understand the situation when your «nowadays» cannot promise any chances to have the «future». The ballet impresses.
Second ballet shown that evening, «Women in re minor» to the music of Bach, was the premiere where Radu Poklitaru was one and the same self. «I do the choreography, you watch it, and we discuss it altogether». A lot of dance to the great music, with remarkably organic choreography, which curiously enough gives the opportunity to get ones thoughts off the dance itself and to be included into the chain of author’s messages. Brilliant.
What the two ballets have in common? – The audience. Poklitaru thinks about audience, this is obvious. He goes towards the audience, looking forward to the feedback, makes conclusions and then creates further. One can disagree, or agree only partly, but this is a rare thing nowadays when the artists devote themselves to the audience. One cannot agree again, but the reason we go to the theatre or to the movie, or to see the ballet is to seek for the answer, to confirm our own inner belief. Is it so good when after the show, when the lights are on, that the people go back losing the faith?
On November, 22 two parts of the final festival performances of the international contest were shown to the public audience. The results of the contest were announced a day later, during the Gala Concert. Here it is important to mention another two guest companies. Ido Tadmor, a choreographer and the artistic director of «Israeli Ballet» and Mira Rubinstein, a dancer, shown the love story of a married couple. «Empty room» sparkled with a variety of the shadows. Sholem Aleichem, Ilf and Petrov and a bit of Zoshchenko came to mind – a truly natural story with good humor, tears of sympathetic tenderness and agreeable nodding when living through the dramatic situations shown on the stage. A must-watch.
Second guest performance was the premiere of «The clown» by Eugeny Panfilov’s Ballet. The keen readers had probably immediately started interrogating their memory, trying to remember the familiar title. So it is, this is «The Clown» (German: Ansichten eines Clowns, lit. «Opinions of a clown»), a 1963 novel by West German writer Heinrich Böll. But this title is the only thing they have in common. The author of the idea and choreography, Alexey Rastorguev, started to read this book long time ago, but finished reading at 4th page. But the title gave the impulse to completely different narrative. But still there is something in common between the two pieces. This is the story of the discord with social realm, the questions which one cannot hide from: «Whom am I with?», «Who is with me?». This is the serious ballet, brilliantly performed by the company, it is already won several prizes at international ballet artists competition «Arabesk», and also nominated to «Golden Mask’2014» in three nominations of contemporary dance section – «The best choreographer», «The best dancer» (Maria Tikhonova), and «The best production». Wishing them good luck!
The final festival Gala concert was held on November, 23. The day before, late in the night the jury finished the contest summing-up discussion which traditionally took long hours plus required inventing IFMC practice know-how. When the official festival awards fund was over, Olga Pona suggested to discuss the piece, which wasn’t on the winners list. After solid arguments all members of the jury were convinced to go forward, but how? And then Olga suggested to establish the special jury prize and was the first to put her own money on the table. In a minute the question was solved and the members of international jury were contributing to the development of Belarusian company «X- periments » with smile on their faces. As the result, the final awardees list looked as follows:
Special advisory council prize «For being creatively courageous»
«Zeir»
Music by Boris Berman Root, choreography by Kristine Vismane, Latvia
Special advisory council prize «For evocation in dance of historical memory of people»
«1915 … Dedication»
Music by Komitas, choreography by Sona Hovsepyan
Sona Hovsepyan Dance Company, Москва
Special advisory council prize «For plastic concept»
«Jealousy»
Music by foreign composers, choreography by Elizaveta Zhukova
Theatre-studio of contemporary choreography, Moscow
Special advisory council prize «For contribution of Belarusian contemporary dance development» - to Olga Skvortsova
Choreographer, artistic director of SKVO'S Dance Company, Minsk
Special jury prize «For talented debut»
«Spectrum»
Music by Vivaldi, choreography by Valentin Isakov
«X-periments» Valentin Isakov’s project, Гомель
Special prize n.a. Eugeny Panfilov to the best choreographer of the contest Olga Gorobchuk
«Twinkle»
Music by classical and modern composers
Dance theatre «nОga», Omsk
3rd prize
«Three sisters»
Music by Frederic Chopin, Michail Shiskin, choreography by Pavel Glukhov
Theatre-studio of contemporary choreography, Moscow
3rd prize
«Reunification»
Music by Stateless, choreography by Vladimir Mitev
Vladimir Mitev project, Kiev
3rd prize
«Home»
Music by foreign composers, choreography by Egor Maslov
Theatre-studio of contemporary choreography, Moscow
2nd prize
«Individual»
Music by Alva Noto, choreography by Yaroslav Kainar
Totem Dance Group, Kiev
2nd prize
«Province»
Music by Erik Truffaz, choreography by Diana Yurchenko
Theatre-studio of modern choreography of Diana Yurchenko, Vitebsk
2nd prize
«Flowers for Yulia»
Music by Max Richter, choreography by Sergey Poyarkov
Sergey Poyarkov and Igor Nichiporuk’s project, Minsk, Belarus
1st prize
«On fingertips»
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach, choreography by Ilya Oshi
«O'She» dance theatre, Vologda, Russia
Grand-prix
«Nil»
Music by «In the make chromos», choreography by Ayaka Habata
Ayaka Habata & Cotaro Ito Dance Company, Japan
The audience of Gala concert could not see all listed pieces, as by jury decision, the second and the third prizes were divided to three equal parts each, and the awardees quantity increased up to 14. Such number of the contemporary dance pieces could make the whole concert, but the schedule of the festival also promised the performance of American «Koresh Dance Company» and National Opera of Belarus.
«Koresh Dance Company» is well-known in their motherland, Philadelphia, due to brilliant technique and emotional dance of the founder of the company, Ronen Koresh. The choreographer uses various styles and their combinations – from Martha Graham techniques to Israeli folk dance steps. One hour program of the company performance included light miniatures and deep philosophical, abstract pieces to classical and modern composers’ music. The most remarkable to my memory was «Air on a String» duet to the music of Bach. Also, literalily, on public request, Vitebsk saw the famous «Six dances» by Jiří Kylián performed by National Academic Bolshoi Theatre of opera and Ballet of Republic of Belarus. From all appearances, the ballet is deemed to be successful for many generations of the audience from all over the world, and Belarus is no exception.
I would like to finish this report with the words of gratitude and acknowledgement to the partners of IFMC’2014 – general partner «Belwest»; official partner «Belinvestbank», and the partners «Belagroprombank», «Mobile Telesystems» and «Priorbank». Unfortunately, the world changes so quickly and unpredictably, that nobody can tell what will happen in the next 2015. How it will be? What shall we plan? What can we hope to? But we can certainly express our gratitude to the founders, partners and the participants of the festival for XXVII International Festival of Modern Choreography, and we are sending you sincere thanks for your input and creativity. I think, Vitebsk audience will join me in this – applauds from the audience…
On behalf of the festival management, Eduard Chernivchan, chief operating officer, presenter
Photographers – Dmitry Abletsov, Igor Gusakov, Vladimir Lupovskoy, Anna Moyseyuk
P.S. Poster and booklet of IFMC’2014