Remember the catchphrase: “Everything is transitory, but music is eternal”? It was uttered more than once by the characters in Leonid Bykov’s film “Only Old Men Go to Battle.” And the Maestro pronounced these words so convincingly that it is impossible not to think: “Is it possible, in principle, to live without art?” Probably possible, but what kind of life will it be?
Meanwhile, scientific minds are categorical: Man cannot exist without art, because creativity is one of the main manifestations of humanity.
This point of view is shared by the 34th International Festival of Modern Choreography in Vitebsk and its organizers - the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus, the Vitebsk Regional and City Executive Committees, the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus and the Cultural Center “Vitebsk” .

IFMC’2023 took place from November 22 to 26. The partners of the festival were the Limited Liability Company "Rubicon" and the Vitebsk Trade and Production Republican Unitary Enterprise "Pharmacia". The official partner is the Republican subsidiary unitary enterprise for the provision of petroleum products "Belorusneft-Vitebskoblnefteprodukt". General partner is Joint limited liability company "Belvest".

The main event of the festival was the republican contest. Based on the results of the qualifying video tour, the following were invited to Vitebsk:

1. Choreographic group “ORIGAMI”, Minsk
2. Project by Galina Khamenko, Minsk
3. Project by Maria Isakova “HANDS”, Gomel
4. Choreographic ensemble “Alesya”, Mogilev
5. Center for Modern Choreography by Nadezhda Kashkan, Minsk
6. Project “Praunuki” (Great-Grandchildren), Department of Directing, Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts
7. Modern choreography group “Quadro”, Gomel
8. Project “Your Handwriting” of the Vitebsk Cultural Center
9. Valentin Isakov’s project “X-perIments” of the Gomel State College of Arts
10. Project by Alexandra Zhukovskaya, Vitebsk
11. Joint project by Yulia Kasabutskaya and Maria Izmer, Minsk
12. Project by Yulia Sulyak, Minsk State College of Arts
13. Contemporary dance group “Untitled”, Gomel
14. Dance Theater "Altana", Minsk
15. Project by Pavel Luntsevich, Vinsk
16. Dance company “About 30”, Minsk
17. Vitebsk State College of Arts
18. We.Are.Art.Project, Minsk
19. Theater-studio of modern choreography of the Cultural Center “Vitebsk”
20. The Department of Choreography of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts was represented by a number of creative projects - Anna Leppo, Maria Kirillova, Sabina Mozgovaya, Dmitry Bezzubenko, Daniil Fibik and Nikolai Maspanov, the Modern Dance Workshop and the Modern Dance Laboratory of Ekaterina Yasyuk.

International jury of the contest:

Konstantin Kuznetsov - People's Artist of Belarus, laureate of international contests, choreographer and ballet tutor of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus, Chairman of the Jury, Belarus
Daša Grgič - international award winner, dancer, choreographer, modern dance teacher, Italy.
Igor Kirov - laureate of international contests, dancer, choreographer, teacher, artistic director of “The Kirov Dance Company”, Macedonia
Aleksandar Ilić - dancer, choreographer, president of the Association of Professional Ballet Dancers, Choreographers and Ballet Teachers of Serbia, professor at the Belgrade Institute of Dance, Serbia
Maša Kolar - an international award winner, dancer, choreographer and artistic director of the ballet of the Croatian National Theater in Rijeka, Croatia

Festival Expert Council:

Svetlana Gutkovskaya - choreographer, laureate of international contests, Honored Artist of the Republic of Belarus, Candidate of Sciences, Head of the Department of Choreography, Professor of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, Chairman of the Expert Council, Belarus
Elena Zachinskaya - a modern dance researcher, representative of the editorial staff of the “Ballet” magazine, Russia
Vadim Kasparov - the founder and director of the International Modern Dance Festival OPEN LOOK, director of the St. Petersburg Dance House “Cannon Dance”, Russia
Tatyana Ratobylskaya - candidate of art history, musician, journalist, researcher in the field of modern dance and theater, Germany
Svetlana Ulanovskaya - dance critic, lecturer, modern dance researcher, Belarus-Russia

Basically, you can immediately go to the “Press and Criticism of IFMC’2023” section and read experts’ impressions of the contest, or you can continue to get acquainted with the chronology of events.

November 22, “Vitebsk” Concert Hall, 19.00

A year later, the IFMC call signs were heard again in the large hall of the palace, followed by the traditional introduction to the contest participants, greetings from officials, and a performance by the “Moscow” Ballet. It is curious that despite the cultural scale of the capital of the Russian Federation, the group is the only professional modern dance theater in Moscow. Last fall, the Ballet became part of the Novaya Opera musical theater, although fans of modern choreography have been familiar with the group since the second half of the 90s of the last century. The name and quality remain unchanged.
The performance, premiere of the play “Ballet Moscow. Angles”, which we saw, is a kind of creative report on the results of the laboratory to support a new generation of authors. In this project, the troupe's dancers and teachers-coaches act as directors. Having experienced many choreographic styles on their professional path, they offered the spectator different points of view - perspectives of modern dance: sensual and intellectual, playing with plot and pure dance. A very attractive palette. Professional ballet. If you are not too lazy, then by visiting the theater’s website you can get acquainted with the original repertoire, watch teasers, read reviews and think: “When I visit Moscow, if I have time, I’ll go.”

November 23, National Academic Drama Theater named after. Y. Kolas, 19.00

It was an evening of the ballet troupe of the Belarusian State Youth Theater. The premiere of the play announced in the poster took place at the end of October last year, exactly on the eve of IFMC’2022. But for the festival program that had been compiled by that time, the residents of Vitebsk would have been the second wave of spectators. So, as it is.
Plastic performance “Contact. A little story about what’s inside... That’s all”. What about? The quintessence of the production fits into the philosophical observation of the Swedish writer Fredrik Backman: “The best and the worst happen by themselves, but what is in between... It is what makes us continue living...”.
As a result of the impression and reflection on what was said, the director-producer and choreographer Diana Yurchenko consistently came up with an idea, a desire and the opportunity to carry out her plans. And a little story was born - a fairy tale for adults. According to the author: “... this is a story about children's fears, glass balls without air, the fragility and vulnerability of a child. In simple words, about the meaning of life, family and choice of a way.”
And about the fact that we all come from childhood. The performance is very good.

November 24, “Vitebsk” Concert Hall, 19.00

The evening was held in two parts and in the first half of the performance we met again the Moscow Ballet - “All roads lead to the North”. The performance became a laureate of the Russian National Theater Award “Golden Mask” in 2017 in the category “Modern Dance/The Best Performance”. And that's it. As one of the spectators said out loud, purchasing tickets for a concert with the participation of the Ballet at the concert hall box office the day before: “They don’t just give the Mask. Need to go".
The official release of the production says that the joint work of the Belgian choreographer Karine Pontjes and the ballet dancers was created from the improvisations of the artists. “... The performance delicately destroys stereotypes about male nature. In recognizable scenes of male socialization - at the card table, in competitions, in the office - there is a place for competition and brotherhood, cruelty and mutual support. The main task in the cycle of male hierarchies is not to lose yourself.”
The performance is truly impressive. The vortex of male ups and downs captures and captivates throughout the entire action. It is necessary to pay tribute to the artistry and dedication of the performers; the guys danced as if for the last time.

The second part is the play “About the Prince and the Pauper”, the theater “Ballet of Evgeniy Panfilov”. The performance based on Mark Twain’s novel “The Prince and the Pauper” was staged by choreographer Alexey Rastorguev and stage director Dmitry Khomyakov. Rastorguev’s “prince” and “pauper” characters are not literary, but metaphorical. This is an internal union between virtue and vice, at first glance unnatural, but unchanged in all eras.
In addition to the prince and the pauper, the play has another title role - the “State Seal”. The collective image of the Seal is not just an abstract sign of power that each of the characters wants to take possession of. This is one of the symbols of the legality of everything that happens in any society. There is wisdom and beauty in the existence of the Seal, there is harshness of decisions and mockery of those who underestimate it. It is through the duets of Her and His that the “prince” and the “pauper”, the high and low in human nature, a double game in intentions and actions are manifested.

November 25, “Vitebsk” Concert Hall, 16.00
Final of the Republican contest of modern choreography, part 1

For the first time in the last decade, we changed the established procedure for holding concerts of the public final of the contest and the artists of the modern dance theater “Cannon Dance” were the first to take the stage. The usual order of things was caused by technical features to ensure the performance. The theater presented the play “The Ineffable Cube”. Spectacular, associative. The characters of the play are in search of answers to the most pressing questions of our time. Reflection of actors is not easy work and is definitely not a comfortable process.
As the author, choreographer from Macedonia, member of the contest jury, Igor Kirov outlined the idea of the performance: “This is the desire to find out who we are, where and why we are here. The desire, in an unexpected meeting with an unknown person, to tell him/her about your own pain, listen to him and try to understand what is behind your own and other people’s words. Instead, we build a wall to protect our feelings... The play is about those who have the courage to ask..."

If you have a look at the poster, the uninitiated may get the impression that IFMC is a series of leisurely evening meetings with modern dance. Actually this is not true. First of all, this is an intense internal process associated with the preparation, rehearsals and holding of the closed round of the contest, and only secondly - the public program, where people meet together - the contest participants, the jury, the expert council, guest theaters, organizers and spectators. It's time to say that during the previous two days, November 23 and 24, a closed round of the contest was held, where 24 groups were represented and 34 productions were shown. 13 works made it to the finals of the contest. The first part of them was presented at the concert.
Evaluations of the works that aroused the genuine interest of the jury and the expert council can be found in the section “Criticism of IFMC’2023”.

November 25, “Vitebsk” Concert Hall, 19.00
Final of the Republican contest of modern choreography, part 2 

At the 2nd concert of the public final of the republican modern dance contest of the 34th IFMC, the 6 remaining works of the finalists and the second performance of the guests - the modern dance theater "Cannon Dance" from St. Petersburg - were predictably shown.
The theater troupe presented the production of German choreographer Lilit Hakobyan - “Heartlessness”. The performance is inspired by the works of philosopher Hannah Arendt. The choreographer asks herself and the audience both relevant and eternal questions: “What is truth? Why is self-deception often more attractive than reality?” In Hannah Arendt's view, facts and events are infinitely more fragile than the axioms of our views of the world around us. And it is precisely the fragility that makes our beliefs often self-deception, so easy and so seductive <…>. And reality has a discouraging habit of confronting us with surprises for which we are never prepared...”
It is impossible not to say that the theater is worth of words of recognition. The dancers are so fit, skillfully and not without grace, demonstrating professional skills in the proposed formats of choreographic narratives. And the experience of collaborating with Lilit Hakobyan is an undoubted success. The performance is bright, sensual, expressive.

November 26, “Vitebsk” Concert Hall, 16.00
Closing of IFMC’2023

All interested media in Belarus have already reported on who won the special prizes of the contest, which works were included in the list of laureates (according to the Regulations on the contest, the whole choreographic work is evaluated). But if you want to find out why, then you need to follow the link “Criticism of IFMC’2023”. The results look like this:
- a special diploma from the Directorate of IFMC’2023 “For the poeticization of national art through the means of modern dance” for the production of “Yakavasts”(Quality) based on V. Ivanov’s song “Speý dubraý”(Oakery Song) was awarded to the Project of Sabina Mozgovaya, Department of Choreography of BSUC&A;
- a special prize of the “Postscriptum” contest for the production of “Rethinking” to the music by contemporary authors was awarded to the Project of Yulia Sulyak of the Minsk State College of Arts;
- a special prize “For the semantic content of the dance” for the contest work “Nagori” belongs to the Project of Maria Isakova “Hands”, Gomel;
- Dmitry Bezzubenko became the winner of the special Panfilov prize “Best Choreographer” for a contest work performed by artists of the Modern Dance Workshop of the Department of Choreography of the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts “Conjugation”;
- 3rd prize of the contest – “Voyager 1”. Choreography and performance - Pavel Luntsevich, Minsk;
- 2nd prize - contest work “After” to the music by foreign authors. Choreography – Olga Labovkina. Performer: Joint project by Yulia Kasabutskaya and Maria Izmer, Minsk;
- 1st prize of the contest – production “Loksar”. Center for Modern Choreography by Nadezhda Kashkan, Minsk.

And the Evgeniy Panfilov Ballet Theater completed the public program of the 34th IFMC with a festival version of the play “Romeo and Juliet”, since there are three full-fledged acts in the original, full-scale production of one of the masterpieces of Evgeniy Panfilov’s choreography. For the first time in choreographic practice, Panfilov brought onto the stage as an equal character of the tragedy the Queen Mab, whom the witty and cynic Mercutio speaks of as a charming personification of the invincible Rock. The deceptive beauty of the Queen Mab hides the image of an evil, demonic obsession. Unfortunately, witches are much closer to people than the God. The inexorable pressure of mystical power drives a wave of human passions. Where? Well, of course - to death.
Despite the tragic ending of the final performance, the festival was peaceful, positive and creative for all categories of those involved - organizers and participants, members of the jury and expert council, and most importantly - the audience (I would like to believe)
Gratitude and recognition to our volunteers, who in 2023 were Polina Lebedeva, Alina Lebedeva, Veronika Ovchinnikova, Kristina Gavrilova, Alina Dymova, Alina Nekhuzhenko, Polina Knyrko, Evgenia Konyushko, Anastasia Bozhenok, Ekaterina Panteleeva, Alexandra Karpovich, Anastasia Kovalenko, Bulash Daria, Lyutskaya Anastasia, Gavrilova Veronica, Verkhovskaya Veronica, Petukhova Diana, Kostevich Victoria, Sergienko Dmitry, Zyatikova Evgenia.

IFMC’2023 Poster

Eduard Chernivchan
IFMC Executive Director