Swan Lake choreography by alexander ekman. The magnificent seven and iller. - So, the theater is still more important for you than ballet.

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 are not 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 choreographic 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 faceless and similar numbers, only the gold medalist, the Chilean with the sonorous name Andres Eduardo Jimenez Zuniga, was truly 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.

For men, gold was won by Baktiyar Adamzhan (Kazakhstan), who skillfully combines artistry with technique, silver was won by Ma Miaoyuan (China), bronze was won 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.