IFMC was not held in neither 2020 nor 2021. It has been experimentally proven that covid is not a fan of modern dance and is categorically against mass gathering of people. Two years later, the circumstances preventing the traditional pastime in the second half of November in the concert hall “Vitebsk” did not decrease, rather the opposite, but yet we decided. One of the motives was the meme of Vitaly Barkovsky, who used to be the director of the Y. Kolas Drama Theater: “At least give us something!”. By the way, the call was born as a result of a completely different, theatrical story, but you can’t refuse its relevance.

“We live in difficult times...” If the tribune begins his speech with these words, it means that he wants to add solemnity and significance to the event. On the other hand, if the subject digs into his memory, he will be surprised to find that there was not much simple time in his life. There were problems, the search for oneself and one's place in life, experiences of all types, but there were not so many minutes, hours, days of happiness and peace. On the third hand, we ourselves form the agenda. Thanks to the Vitebsk Oblast and City Executive Committees, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus and the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus, who decided to hold the International Festival of Modern Choreography in Vitebsk in November 2022, at a difficult time - in the context of major repairs of the Concert Hall “Vitebsk” - IFMC took place with sequence number XXXIII. By the way, IFMC is not only the efforts of the founders. The organizers of the festival thank:
Sponsor – the Limited Liability Company “Rubikon” and personally Director Igor Lobkovsky.
Partner – the Republican Subsidiary Unitary Enterprise for the provision of petroleum products “Belorusneft-Vitebskoblnefteprodukt” and personally Director of the enterprise Alexander Kapshul.
General partner – the Joint Limited Liability Company “Belwest” and personally General Director Yuri Sumaneev.

On November 23, in the Concert Hall “Vitebsk”, at 19.00

- the opening of the festival took place. Greetings were delivered by Chairman of the Vitebsk Oblast Executive Committee Alexander Subbotin and First Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Belarus Valery Gromada. Then the presentation of the contestants took place on the stage -
1. Dance Theater “Altana”, Minsk
2. Maria Isakova project, Gomel
3. Folk Choreographic Ensemble “Alesya”, Mogilev
4. Denis Chernyshov project, Chelyabinsk
5. Dance Theater [REFLECTIONS], Minsk
6. Ensemble of the Department of Choreography of Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, Minsk
7. Alexandra Kinevich project, Minsk
8. Dance company “Okoem”, Yekaterinburg
9. Pavel Luntsevich project, Minsk
10. Anastasia Golesheva project, Minsk
11. Dance Theater “Prospekt”, Tyumen
12. Vitebsk State College of Culture and Arts, Vitebsk
13. Anastasiya Rebkalo project, Saint-Petersburg
14. Evgeniya Nikolaychuk project, Minsk
15. We.Are.Art.Project, Minsk
16. Dance company “Thoughts Aloud” of the Chamber Ballet “Panther”, Kazan
17. Valentin Isakov project “Х-perIments”, Gomel
18. “Own handwriting” (Svoy pocherk) project, Centre of Culture “Vitebsk”
19. Dance company “Dennitsa”, Yekaterinburg
20. Dance company “NIKA”, Tula
21. Dmitry Bezzubenko project and Konstantin Shakunov project, Department of Choreography of the Belarusian State University of Art and Culture, Minsk
22. Creative Workshop of the Kazan State Institute of Culture “Oxymoron”
23. Honored Collective of the Republic of Belarus People’s Theatre-Studio of Modern Choreography, Vitebsk
24. Contemporary Dance Theater “Samruk”, Almaty

This was followed by applause addressed to the members of the international jury and the expert council of IFMC’2022.

Jury:
Honored Artist of Russia, principal of the Mariinsky Theater, chief choreographer of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus, Chairperson of the Jury – Igor Kolb, Belarus.
Choreographer, dancer, teacher of STEPZ Dansestudio in Copenhagen - Jeanne Yasko, Denmark.
Laureate of international competitions, dancer, choreographer, teacher, artistic director of “Balmanukyan Dance Project”, art director of the International Summer Festival of Contemporary Dance “SUMMEET” – Arman Balmanukyan, Armenia.
Laureate of international competitions, dancer, choreographer, teacher, artistic director of “The Kirov Dance Company” - Igor Kirov, Macedonia.
Choreographer, laureate of the National Russian Theater Award “Golden Mask”, artistic director of Chelyabinsk Contemporary Dance Theater – Olga Pona, Russia.
Soloist of the Royal Swedish Ballet, guest dancer of the world's leading ballet theaters, teacher – Irina Lavrenova, Sweden.

Expert Council:
Music and theater critic, art director of the International Contemporary Dance Festival “On the Edge” (Na Grani). Member of expert councils and jury of the Golden Mask National Theater Award, Russian and international awards and competitions. Head of the School of Theater Criticism of the Sverdlovsk branch of the Union of Theater Workers, Chairperson of the Expert Council – Larisa Barykina, Russia.
Choreographer, laureate of international competitions, Candidate of Philological Sciences, Professor, Head of the Department of Choreography at Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts – Svetlana Gutkovskaya, Belarus.
Dance critic, researcher of contemporary dance, lecturer, teacher of the Department of Choreographic Art at St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions, PR-director of the International Festival of Contemporary Dance “Open Look” – Svetlana Ulanovskaya, Belarus-Russia.
Candidate of Art Criticism, musician, journalist, researcher of contemporary dance and theater – Tatyana Ratobylskaya, Germany.
Professor, Doctor of Art Criticism, professor of the Department of History and Cultural Heritage at Vitebsk State University named after P.M. Masherov, researcher of the Russian avant-garde – Tatyana Kotovich, Vitebsk.

After getting acquainted, the participants of the competition left the stage in order to take their seats in the auditorium before the start of the performance of the opening concert. The person appeared on the stage who is able to bring the meeting to the rank of an event by his mere participation - People's Artist of the USSR and the Russian Federation, laureate of high national Russian and foreign prizes and awards, legendary dancer of the 20th century - winner of the Nijinsky Dance Award of Paris Academy “The Best Dancer of the World”, choreographer, director, actor, teacher, poet - Vladimir Vasiliev. This year, the Maestro appeared at the festival in a new capacity as an artist. The exhibition of his watercolors was held during the days of IFMC, then in the Art Museum of Vitebsk. But the arrival of the legendary artist in Vitebsk was dictated, first of all, by the desire to present the result of the cooperation of the State Youth Song and Dance Ensemble “Altai” named after. A. F. Berezikov and the choreographer of the Evgeny Panfilov Ballet Theater Alexei Rastorguev, which he patronized from the moment of idea to implementation. The premiere of the performance “Rakhmaninoff” took place almost a month before the festival, on October 4, in the ensemble's hometown Barnaul, and the only message was a fragment of A. Rastorguev's interview with local media: “... This is not a biography of Rachmaninoff, this is a performance about the feelings, associations that arise. The first part of the concert (“Concerto No. 2 in C minor for piano and orchestra in three parts, Op. 18”), for me is the hope of what will happen to me or to all people in life. The second part is a pronounced love. The third part is the greatest faith. Hope for love, through which you gain faith! This is what I see in Rachmaninoff's music, and the performance is about it.”
Opinions, as usual, in the section “Press and Criticism 2022”.

November 24, the Yakub Kolas Drama Theater, 19.00

Long before the beginning of the evening, from the very morning in the Concert Hall “Vitebsk” the first practical master classes and the lion's share of the competitive performances of the closed round were held. The festival moved to the theater only a few minutes before the host’s appearance. The first of the guests was the Independent Contemporary Dance Company Libertatem from Moscow with the performance “Gaudi” to the music of Maya Goryat, choreography - Victoria Archaia. It is easy to guess that the performance is dedicated to the famous Spaniard Antonio Gaudi. The metaphorical work looked unobtrusive, outwardly calm, but inevitably carried along into the worlds of the great master, giving the opportunity to carefully touch the life and work of a brilliant architect. The performers were at their best, Pavel Ryabov-Korsakov played the main role wonderfully.
After the intermission, the dance theater “Road from the City” (Doroga iz goroda) from Kazan performed a dance performance “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie”. Director – Olga Labovkina. Choreography - Olga Labovkina in collaboration with artists of the theater. For all categories of festival participants and, I hope, spectators, the performance was a discovery. Actually, both Olga and the theater are very familiar with IFMC, but this work was the discovery of Olga Labovkina as a director, and this is a completely new round of her creative career and recognition. Bravo. If you are not too lazy, then it is quite easy to find information about the performance, the history and circumstances of its appearance on the network. Let's just say that the performance is based on the play by John Priestley, and the focus of the dramatic narration was the isolation of the situation, provoking the exposure of far from ideal human nature. It's time to go to the “Press and Criticism 2022” section.

November 25, the Concert Hall “Vitebsk”, 19.00

The schedule of the first half of the day was similar to the previous one - master classes, a closed round of the competition and, finally, an evening dedicated to Evgeny Panfilov. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the death of the Master, an extraordinary person, a talented artist, whose work did not want to fit into the framework and rules allotted to dance. His whole life is like the flight of an unpredictable comet. Reading the biography of Yevgeny, you get the impression that the fate of a guy from the Arkhangelsk village was at first skeptical about his dream of becoming an artist, and only when he was already over twenty, it gave up and said: “Okay, go to the ballet barre.” Time passed, everything worked out, and then fate miraculously brought Panfilov to Vitebsk.
It would seem, where is Perm, and where is Vitebsk? Nearly two thousand kilometers. Since then, almost every year, like a pilgrim, Panfilov and his theater returned to Vitebsk - every autumn of the dashing nineties, every November of the new century. The master is not with us, but his works live and mutual attraction remains.
In the first part of the evening, one of the categories of spectators for the first time, the other again, saw a performance from Panfilov's ‘golden collection’ with an updated cast of performers - the one-act ballet “Capitulation”. This is in fact the most uncompromising and gloomy work of Panfilov, a performance-sentence. But, as the libretto says, that is why it is worth seeing.
In the second part of the concert, several generations of theater artists presented fragments of the premiere performances of the season and choreographic miniatures that have already become classics.

November 26, the Concert Hall “Vitebsk”

16.00
I part - the final of the competition. During the previous two days, a closed tour was held, where 25 teams showed 39 performances. 15 works reached the final of the competition. Curiously, the total time of the works of contenders for the titles of laureates of the competition was 4 hours, 44 minutes, 44 seconds. What would that mean?
II part.
For the first time IFMC got acquainted with the theater of modern dance “Kannon Dance” in 1999. Today it is not an amateur group, but a professional troupe that became part of the Petersburg Concert, a solid concert organization, the successor to the once famous Lenconcert. But the founders remain unchanged - the director of the Dance House and the artistic director of the theater Vadim and Nataliya Kasparov. Twenty years later, “Kannon Dance” presented one of their last works “On/Off” staged by Macedonian choreographer Ivana Balabanova. The performance is professional - intelligible, built, dynamic, easily giving rise to associations and well performed.

19.00
I part – continuation of the final of the competition.
II part - one-act ballet “Libertad” (dedicated to Frida Kahlo) performed by the Evgeny Panfilov Ballet Theater, choreography - Alexei Rastorguev. The life and work of one of the most famous artists cannot but excite the minds of contemporaries, and the ballet is a tribute to the truly tragic fate of one of the most striking women of the past century. The production involves a female troupe and only one male dancer, and the main role was played by soloist Maria Tikhonova.
About the impressions of the evening as a whole in “Press and Criticism 2022”.

November 27, the Concert Hall “Vitebsk”, 16.00

As usual, at the closing concert of the festival it seems that it opened only yesterday and suddenly it turns out that it's time to summarize the results. Yes, impressions will remain, there will be TV shows, articles in newspapers and magazines, social networks, but we will remember, watch and read separately. Will we see each other again? The answer to this rhetorical question is two fundamental circumstances - the desire of participants and organizers. Let's hope. The first part was the award ceremony for laureates and holders of special prizes of the IFMC’2022 competition.

Special award “For the use of folklore root culture in modern dance” - Dance company “Dennitsa”, Yekaterinburg. Artistic director - Anna Polyakova.

Special award “For stylistic diversity in the repertoire” - Contemporary Dance Theater “Samruk”, Almaty. Choreographer, artistic director - Gulnara Adamova.

Special award “Perspective” - competition work “Dust” to music by Anna Meredith, choreography - Yevgeny Tsybulko. Ensemble of the Department of Choreography of Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, Minsk. Artistic director - Svetlana Gutkovskaya.

Panfilov Special Prize “To the Best Choreographer” – Valentin Isakov. Competition work “Planet A” to music by Eduard Artemiev, Ryuichi Sakamoto. Valentin Isakov project “Х-perIments”, Gomel State College of Arts named after N.F. Sokolovsky.

3rd prize of the competition - competition work “5”. Music - Nik Bartsch. Choreography - Evgenia Nikolaychuk, Pavel Luntsevich. Dance Theater “Altana”, Minsk.

2nd prize of the competition - competition work “In October” to the music by P.I. Tchaikovsky, choreography - Daria Buzovkina. Dance company “NIKA”, Tula.

2nd prize of the competition - competition work “Connect”. Music - Denis Chernyshov, Shamil Sabirov, Vladimir Reinert. Choreography - Denis Chernyshov. Denis Chernyshov project, Chelyabinsk.

1st prize of the competition - competition work “One reach out away”. Music - Loscil. Choreographer and performer - Evgenia Nikolaychuk, Minsk.

1st prize of the competition - competition work “Confrontation” to music by Michael Wall. Choreography - Igor Shuvalov. Folk Choreographic Ensemble “Alesya”, Mogilev.

Grand Prix - competition work “Every action gives rise to reaction” to the music of contemporary foreign composers. Choreography - Oksana Baklanova. Dance Theater “Prospekt”, Tyumen.

There was an intermission, and then the performance “From Skin To Skin” by the Yekaterinburg Theater of Modern Choreography “Provincial Dances”. Music - Michio Woigardt, choreography - Maura Morales (Cuba). “A performance about touch, tactile contact, about the thirst for hugs and coition, and about the acute impossibility of other people's touches. In general, about the great misfortune of our time, when many people live without warmth, tenderness, tactile contact (from the official playbill of the theater)”. The performance is sharp, sometimes brutal, expressive, tense, ... in the aesthetics of provincials.

Notes. There was a photo exhibition of Rustam Syunyakov (Rust2D), Moscow. I would really like to talk to the person whom it left indifferent. If you remember, in 2019, accredited photographers were given the right to express their attitude to what was happening in a special section called “Photo Lounge”. We continue in the same way and invite you to the “Photo Lounge 2022” (the author of the works - Igor Gusakov).
We continue with another innovation. As usual, we sincerely thank IFMC’2022 volunteers and publish their names – Vladislav Ugolev, Alexander Balbatun, Oleg Buevich, Vyacheslav Rybakov, Stepan Malashkevich, Kirill Bobrovsky, Artur Grigoryan, Lera Fomchenko, Daniil Emelianenko, Anna Ivanova, Karolina Yakubova, Anastasia Petrova, Anastasia Shestel, Yulia Fomenkova, Ilya Belko, Irina Pashkovskaya, Alina Nekhuzhenko, Veronika Verkhovskaya, Anastasia Pishchikova, Diana Petukhova, Victoria Kostevich, Anastasia Lyutskaya , Katya Kozhakina, Anna Levshitskaya, Daria Bulash, Ilya Dyatlov, Veronika Ovchinnikova, Elena Polyakova, Adele Shivise, Evgenia Zyatikova, Sasha Zolotovskaya, Kirill Ogurchenok.

Poster IFMC'2022

Eduard Chernivchan
Executive Director of the Festival