The 13th ballet competition in June, the All-Russian competition of young performers "Russian ballet" ended at the Bolshoi Theater. Jury in different years

Anyone who has seen the views of the first round, to the best of his own exactingness, can decipher the neck in the title as both “satisfactory” and “depressing”. Any assessment of the general level of the ballet show in progress will be fair. A fairly significant number of contestants without a bright individuality and with elementary school gaps does not allow putting a solid four.

The longed-for GRAN PRIX is unlikely to find an owner again. Unless, of course, a miracle happens, and someone, overcoming the debut excitement, will be able to conquer the jury with a brilliant dance technique, artistry and ... attractive appearance (this is also a problem). So far, no one has even come close to the four winners of the main prize - Irek Mukhamedov, Andrey Batalov, Denis Matvienko and the first grand dame. Already at their first appearance on the stage, the audience was breathless. It was not clear how, for example, a real ballerina chic appeared in this fragile little bird-bird Nadya from Perm? Where did the culture of her huge stride in ““, which was later transformed by other ballerinas from an academic ekart to a dashing rending of legs, come from?

If in the second competition the success of a pupil of a provincial ballet school seemed an accidental exception, today the whole geography of the country is on the map of the show: Voronezh, Izhevsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Perm, Syktyvkar, Ufa, Yakutsk and Moscow with St. Petersburg. Not all participants will make it to the finals, but the very arrival of envoys from remote regions is a visible evidence of the unprecedented popularity of ballet art in Russia.

This happens all over the world, which is confirmed by participants in more than twenty countries, including those where ballet was not a priority of the national culture. Therefore, quite interesting representatives of Albania, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan can be called the revelation of the competition. Strong and numerous landings of participants came from Brazil and China, Japan and South Korea.

True, the emergence of numerous new ballet schools has created problems with quality teaching. Firstly, not everywhere teachers have the proper level of training. Secondly, most studio schools fully or partially exist on private funds, and then the conditions are set by the students. The children wanted to dance Esmeralda, Kitri or Basilia with Actaeon - the teacher agrees, and the mother pays. He takes a shock, observing at the competition a clear discrepancy between the selected variations and the physical data of the performer and the degree of his technique.

However, with technology, no one really stands on ceremony, the freedom of replacement is amazing. And when you see three consecutive variations of Swanilda from “Coppelia” staged by A. Gorsky, but completely different in choreography, you understand the great wisdom of Medici.tv to start live broadcasts of the competition only from the second round. Otherwise, you can completely confuse both spectators and professionals, and, most importantly, you yourself will unwittingly become a propagandist of bad examples of classical ballet and bad taste.

There were quite a few participants in the first round that were quite weak, with a C grade, both in the morning, when the younger ones competed (from 14 to 19 years old), and in the evening, where the older ones (from 19 to 27 years old) competed. Although the division took place according to passport data, everything was mixed on the stage. Failure should not be attributed to natural excitement, an unusually sloping stage or floor covering: everyone was on an equal footing. And the one who did not so much nerves performed better as the school is better. And with her, many have problems.

It is assumed that the main task of young artists of the younger group is to show correct, “school” performance: purity of movements, correct form, musicality, together with which a sense of style and artistry can be manifested. Often, something else prevailed - unworked feet, raised shoulders, “dirt” in small parterre technique, not to mention disrupted pirouettes and jumps without flying.

The older group has a different problem. Many artists tried to overcome the shortcomings of the school base with spectacular tricks, among which were inconceivable upside-down revolts in countless “Flames of Paris”, a clear reckoning on an external impression, excessive exaltation of every movement. Especially the Asians stood out, who uncompromisingly, in the spirit of oriental martial arts, entered the element of classical ballet. As a result, I wanted to see beauty and spirituality on the stage, but instead a whole line of similar gnarled low dummies passed by - twirls and jumpers. As if they were not ballet dancers, but circus performers in the arena. True, in the circus they make everything cleaner, jump higher and spin faster.

The result is logical: out of 127 participants, less than half made it to the second round, and only. 62 artists will continue to fight for medals.

Like any other, this competition is a mixture of explosive emotions. Even sport, with its obvious electronic scoreboards, gives rise to discrepancies, and even the art of dance with its ephemerality and rigid soldering of technique and artistry is all the more a field for disagreement. But it's too late to wave fists: yesterday, on the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theater, an international jury headed by the Russian ballet icon Yuri Grigorovich announced the list of winners. They say they are not judged. And it is necessary and even useful to discuss the tendencies of the competition - the next one, given a favorable scenario, will happen in four years, during which time a lot can be corrected in the kingdom.

The festival, which has been living since 1969, is almost ten years younger than its counterparts, the Moscow International Film Festival and the Tchaikovsky Competition, and although the motives for their creation were similar, the ballet hosts always had many reasons for pride. The ballet competition was cutting-edge: in 1969 the jury recognized the best gorgeous couple from the Grand Opera Francesca Zyumbo-Patrice Barthes, and the great Plisetskaya publicly said that there is sex in ballet. In recent times, the competition has largely lost its prestige, and the organizers of the current one have restored it in a radical way, having taken 200 thousand dollars to two Grand Prix. And the dates helped: the chairman of the jury, Yuri Grigorovich, reached the milestone of 90 years, and the competition itself became an off-beat of the official "Year of Russian Ballet and the 200th Anniversary of Marius Petipa".

What is usual in the competition: young and not so much artists dance either dashingly or for sure. There are, to put it mildly, problems with musicality (I don’t know which of the contestants will cope with Stravinsky in the near future) and with long breathing, which allows the performance to be carried out smoothly from beginning to end. About the cantilena of dance, when the participant dances, and does not glue the gap between profitable steps, everything is also sad. But there is good news: at the end of this year, the younger group turned out to be much more interesting than the older one, which means that with the “generation of Ygrek” ballet theater will be interesting, and the digital revolution is not a hindrance.

The main trend is not new, for thirty years it has only been gaining momentum - most of the applicants are dancers from Asia - China, Japan, South Korea and Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that have joined them. Crying about the lack of men in ballet, there are many soloists at the current competition, the podium in the men's solo dance was taken by Marat Sydykov (Kyrgyzstan, 3rd place), Ma Miaoyuan (China, 2nd place), Baktiyar Adamzhan (Kazakhstan, 1st place). Ladies have the same solo hierarchy Lilia Zainigabdinova (Russia, 3rd place) and Evelina Godunova (1st place, Latvia), they decided not to award the second prize. The duet for men, in general, not too gallant, was a success for Wang Jangfeng (China, 3rd place), Okawa Koya (Japan, 1st place) and the artist of the Mariinsky Theater Ernest Latypov (2 methods), his partner from the same Mariinsky Theater neat Ekaterina Chebykina received only a diploma - as well as the American Joy Womack from the Kremlin Ballet, famous for exposing the behind-the-scenes life. For women in duets, the third prize was shared by a Japanese woman and a Chinese woman, the first was not awarded, and the second one was taken to Kazan by the explosive Brazilian Amanda Morales Gomez dancing in the local theater. At the competition of choreographers, the landscape is monotonous: the second place was shared by the Russians Nina Madan and the indefatigable Andrei Merkuriev, the third and one of the first authors from China, the only remembered choreographer, the Chilean with the endless name Zuniga Jimenez Eduardo Andres, was another first.

At the end of this year, the younger group turned out to be more interesting than the older one

The younger age group, the quivering ballet people from 14 to 18 years old, pleased me more. A common favorite was Ivan Sorokin, a native of the city of Syktyvkar and a student of an inconspicuous local gymnasium, for whom, according to rumors, a battle of prestigious ballet schools is already going on behind the scenes - everyone wants to finish his studies and bring him to the theater under his own brand. Another favorite, on the contrary, supports the honor of the Moscow school - this is a young handsome man, Denis Zakharov, trained with all care (first prize in a duet). Russian Liza Kokoreva and Korean Park Sunmi shared the first place, the jury did not award the second prize. The third place was taken by Ekaterina Klyavlina. ... Their solo counterparts - American Elizabeth Beyer, who won first place, Si Li from China, and the embodied precision and tenderness of South Korea's Subin Lee, make you think that with all the competition bias, there is both logic and justice in the podiums.

Winners of different years

The Moscow competition glorified such stars as Francesca Zyumbo and Patrice Bart, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Eva Evdokimova, Lyudmila Semenyaka and Alexander Godunov, Loipa Arauho and Vladimir Derevyanko, Nina Ananiashvili, Vladimir Malakhov, Maria Alexandrova, Alina Cojocaru, Natalia Osipova, Ivan Vasiliev and others ... The change of generations in ballet is fast, and several winners of the competition managed to become members of the jury: Vadim Pisarev, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Julio Bocca.

Origins

The origins of the Moscow ballet competition were the legends of Russian ballet Galina Ulanova, Igor Moiseev, Olga Lepeshinskaya. In 1973, the competition was headed by Yuri Grigorovich, who to this day, in his 90 years, remains the chairman of the jury. The jury in different years included Marina Semenova, Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasiliev. And also representatives of the world's ballet elite - legends of the French school Yvette Chauvire, Claude Bessie, Charles Jude, Alicia Alonso (Cuba), Birgit Coulberg (Sweden), authoritative critics Arnold Haskell (Great Britain) and Allan Fridericia (Denmark).

XIII International Competition of Ballet Dancers and Choreographers. Photo - Igor Zakharkin

This ballet show has been held in Moscow every four years since 1969.

It is held in three rounds in two age groups: junior (up to 18 years old) and senior (19-27 years old). Solos and duets compete in each group.

The Moscow competition is quite conservative, first of all it is focused on ballet traditions, although it does not ignore modernity either.

Competitors in the first round are offered a compulsory program (variations or pas de deux from classical ballets), plus a fragment from the classics of their own choice.

In the second round, the participants, in addition to the classics, perform a modern number or a fragment from ballets staged no earlier than 2005. In the third round - again the classics.

In the competition of choreographers, only numbers specially staged for the Moscow show, and in any of the styles of choreography, can participate.

This year's awards are very generous: the Grand Prix of $ 100,000 (for comparison, at the last Grand Prix competition it was estimated at 15,000 and no one got it), and three awards in each category, from five to thirty thousand. However, any award may not be awarded. Or it can be divided among the performers.

According to the results of the qualifying round (video recordings), 126 participants in the nomination “Ballet dancers” and 30 participants in the nomination “Choreographers” were allowed to participate in the competition. From 27 countries. It would seem that the picture is cloudless. In fact, there are problems that have arisen not for the first time.

The geography of this international competition is largely composed of Asian and CIS countries. Representatives of European ballet powers - France or Denmark, for example, do not come to Moscow. This year a large delegation arrived from Brazil. There are representatives from Ukraine and the United States.

But the Bolshoi Theater, on the stage of which the competition is being held, actually ignored it. And the ballet troupe of the Mariinsky Theater was not presented at its best.

There are also many organizational flaws. Moreover, they are permanent, wandering from competition to competition. For example, constant mistakes in the announced names of choreographers.

No, the stress is correct. But what was composed in the classics by one master was easily attributed to another. When it came to male variations in classical ballets, staged or drastically edited in Soviet times.

As a rule, the classic of the nineteenth century, Marius Petipa, who has long been nicknamed "collective pseudonym" in professional circles, was sulked for all the authors. A remark in the context of a competition (about any of the choreography styles) often turned sideways: since the jury only cares about the year of creation, and not the signs of modern dance, it means that the contestants can play the same classics on pointe shoes and in a modern performance.

But the most depressing thing - and this is also a tradition - was at the competition of choreographers. The competition has not passed an organizational scandal. Competitor Dmitry Antipov was suddenly removed from the screenings, he went on stage to protest, but the protest was drowned out by a radio advertisement.

The executive secretary of the jury, Sergei Usanov, announced to the audience that Antipov and two of his colleagues had been fired for violating the rules: their productions had already been shown earlier. The organizers were kindly informed about this by the competitors of the punished.

Formally, the awards were given to the directors. And six people received them. But in reality, from a series of plastically impersonal and similar numbers, only the gold medalist, the Chilean with the sonorous name Andres Eduardo Jimenez Zuniga, was really remembered.

He can both hear music and convey it in a non-trivial way. This was also shown by the number “Dagger”, in which the soloist in black was captivatingly balancing between seriousness and parody, accompanied by repeated Spanish words of a sweet love song.

And “Archipelago” is a triumph of the feminine principle to the music of Schubert, where three modern graceful women in T-shirts and shorts formed their own inner world. Others, including Russian participants, once again confirmed that the long-term crisis of choreographers in the world continues. Even the second gold laureate choreographer, Wen Xiaochao (China), in the duet number “Through adversity” did not go beyond the illustration of the title.

Three performer tours brought in both good and bad. In the third round, capable Alexander Omelchenko suddenly dropped out of the race: he fell on the stage and was injured.

The young miracle of the competition - Ivan Sorokin from Syktyvkar - made it to the final, but could not compete, since he did not prepare variations for the third round. Why? Because the boy did not believe that he would be able to advance so far!

Since the canonical text of the classical variations was not approved at this competition, many danced whatever they wanted, up to the sets of pas, clearly set by the teacher for the individual abilities of the student. The choice of variations also puzzled more than once: those who did not know how to rotate well, went out with a dance to spin, those who did not jump were noted in the jumping variation. Why is that?

With an understanding of music, even uncomplicated ballet, not all, thank God: the slowdown has become a spontaneous competitive disaster. The saddest thing is that many do not dance at all, but simply perform separate movements, without much sense, trying to boast of technique to the detriment of the image. Often the nominees lacked individuality. And at some point, the competition began to merge into a stream of more or less professionally clever applicants. Only by the third round did the picture, as always, become clear.

Despite her young age, Soobin Lee is an accomplished, very outstanding ballet actress. For the author of these lines, she became the undisputed leader.

A very young American woman, Elizabeth Beyer, cutely like a long-legged foal, perfectly, to the smallest detail, learned the ballet wisdom of the classics. Mark Chino and Denis Zakharov, future princes premieres. A strong Japanese couple with an understanding of choreographic styles working in Kazan - Midori Terada and Koya Okawa. And a number of good dancers from China and Brazil.

The list can be long, but it is better to refer to the names of the laureates. In the older group, they were: in women duets - skillfully twirling triple rounds Amanda Gomez Moraes (Brazil) with the second place (the first prize was not given to anyone), and Midori Terada (Japan) and Ao Dinwen (China), with her excellent stability, became third.

For men - Koya Okawa (Japan) took gold, the diligent Ernest Latypov from the Mariinsky Theater received the second prize, and Wang Jangfeng (China) - the third. Among women, Evelina Godunova from Latvia was named the best, in the final of the competition dashingly, with a high jump, she danced Kitri from "Don Quixote", the second prize was not awarded.

In men, gold was won by Baktiyar Adamzhan (Kazakhstan), who skillfully combines artistry with technique, silver by Ma Miaoyuan (China), bronze - by Marat Sydykov (Kyrgyzstan), a lover of ballet tricks.

In the younger group in duets: girls Park Sunmi (South Korea) and Elizaveta Kokoreva shared the first prize, and the skilled Ekaterina Klyavlina (Russia), who is good at Princess Florina from The Sleeping Beauty, took the third.

Denis Zakharov won the boys' duets, there is no second award, the third place went to the Brazilian Victor Kaishet Goncauves. In the girls' solo, the best jury is Elizabeth Beyer, and Soobin Li won the second prize, as did the Chinese Li Si.

Among the youths in the solo section, Mark Chino was the first, Igor Pugachev, who was not so distinguished, was the second, for whom this place was an advance for the future, and the third was Karlis Tsirulis (Latvia), frankly speaking, who did not impress with anything.

It takes a long time to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the laureates, as well as the competence of the jury's decisions. According to the author of these lines, the younger group was much more interesting than the older one, and there were too many awards. It was not such an outstanding competition. And the hierarchy of those awarded in some cases is quite open to dispute. But it speaks for itself that not all awards have found owners. And the Grand Prix is ​​not awarded to anyone.

The International Ballet Competition in Moscow has become a strong and fruitful tradition, an integral and important part of the life of world ballet. Born in 1969, he quickly acquired a high professional reputation, a serious creative reputation, and the status of a responsible and brilliant forum for young performers. The irresistible magic of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR (and now Russia) has always attracted young dancers from different countries of the world, and a successful performance on its famous stage opened the way for them to the future.

Each Moscow competition gives the world a new galaxy of outstanding performers. It becomes an invaluable creative experience for young dancers, and most of the winners of the competition will have a brilliant career in the art of ballet.

Jury in different years

At the origins of the creation of the Moscow ballet competition were such legends of Russian art as Galina Ulanova, chairman of the jury, Igor Moiseev, who headed the Organizing Committee of the first competition, Olga Lepeshinskaya, chairman of the Organizing Committee of many subsequent competitions. And from the second competition in 1973 to the present time, the great choreographer of our time - Yuri Grigorovich, has been the permanent chairman of the jury and its Artistic Director.

The jury of the competition in different years included: Marina Semenova, Galina Ulanova, Sofya Golovkina, Maya Plisetskaya, Irina Kolpakova, Natalya Kasatkina, Mikhail Lavrovsky, Vladimir Vasiliev and other famous ballet figures of Russia, as well as Yvette Shovire and Claude Besy, Cyril Atanasov, Charles Jude (France), Alicia Alonso (Cuba), Arnold Haskell (UK), Alan Fridericia and Kirsten Ralov (Denmark), Brigit Coulberg (Sweden), Rudy van Danzig (Netherlands), Robert Joffrey and Natalia Makarova (USA), Konstanz Vernon and Dietmar Seifert (Germany), Doris Laine (Finland) Julio Boca (Argentina) and other representatives of the world's ballet elite. In the entire history of the Moscow competition, only four artists were awarded the Grand Prix: Nadezhda Pavlova (USSR) at the II Ballet Competition in 1973, Irek Mukhamedov (USSR) at the IV Ballet Competition in 1981, Andrey Batalov (Russia) at the VIII Competition of ballet dancers in 1997 and Denis Matvienko (Ukraine) at the X Competition of ballet dancers and choreographers in 2005.

Discoveries

The Moscow competition opened to the world, in addition to the above-named Grand Prix winners, such names as Francesca Zyumbo and Patrice Bart, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Eva Evdokimova, Lyudmila Semenyaka and Vyacheslav Gordeev, Alexander Godunov, Loipa Arauho and Vladimir Derevyanko, Nina Ananiashvili and Andris Liepa, Vadim Pisarev Julio Bocca and Vladimir Malakhov, Maria Alexandrova, Alina Cojocaru, Nikolay Tsiskaridze, Natalia Osipova, Ivan Vasiliev and many others.

Choreographers Competition

Since 2001, a competition of choreographers has been added to the competition of ballet dancers. The Moscow competition paid tribute to the outstanding figures of Russian and world ballet three times: the VII Moscow Competition of Ballet Dancers in 1993 was dedicated to the choreography of Marius Petipa, the IX International Competition of Ballet Dancers and Choreographers in 2001 was held in honor of the great Galina Ulanova, the XI International Competition of Dancers ballet and choreographers in 2009 - in honor of the outstanding Russian ballerina Marina Semenova.

Within the framework of the competition, there is a press center, creative meetings, seminars, master classes and exhibitions.

Meaning

The Moscow competition is important not only as an arena for professional communication of creative youth, but also as a serious platform for the exchange of experience between teachers and choreographers, a territory for discussions and the development of ballet studies and critical thought, a basis for the rapprochement of cultures of different peoples.

The International Competition of Ballet Dancers and Choreographers in Moscow is held every four years. It has state status and plays a significant role in the development of world culture.