International Ballet Festival DANCE OPEN

2013-04-19 - 2013-04-22

Night of One-Act Ballets (19, 20 April)
Three different short ballets by three of today’s most attention-grabbing choreographers promise ballet as you’ve never seen it before. A hundred years on from the disastrous premiere of Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’ and it has become one of the undoubted masterpieces of the ballet canon; this new choreography by Edward Clug is acclaimed for making something entirely new out of a work that has been the subject of quite a number of interpretations. Italian choreographer Jacopo Godani’s ‘Spazio-Tempo’, set to music by 48nord, an experimental electronic acoustic band, in the words of the choreographer hopes to ‘widen your mind’. To end the evening is a setting to dance of Prokofiev’s ‘Classical Symphony’, one of the composer’s most recognisable works. Like the music itself, Yuri Possokhov’s choreography is gracious and dotted with humour, more classical in nature than the other two ballets of the programme, but with original twists that betray its modern roots.

Gala “History of Russian Ballet” (21 April)
If there’s one thing that Russian does well, it’s ballet. Russian composers have given the world many of its best-loved ballets, from ‘The Rite of Spring’ to ‘Swan Lake’, and Russian ballet companies have become worldwide legends. This evening takes its audience on a journey through the illustrious history of Russian ballet and, with the help of archive videos, narration and today’s top ballet stars will try and bring back to life great ballets of the past and masterpieces of Russian choreographers as they would first have been seen.

Gala of International Ballet Stars DANCE OPEN (22 April)
A star-studded night of Russian and international ballets performed by no less than twenty different international troupes, including of course those of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theatres. The Gala promises to be a chocolate box of ballet giving a flavour of choreography throughout the ages; this year the focus is on innovative modern dance, though there will still be plenty of classical ballet on hand. Highlights include a fragment from Prokofiev’s ‘Cinderella’ choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, which appear for the first time in Russia at this gala, which will serve as the grand finale to the Dance Open International Ballet Festival.

Tickets 400 - 5,500Rbl.