VKIBC to host dancers from 22 countries

The 2015 Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition (VKIBC), set for May 26-30, will welcome 150 dancers from 22 countries around the world. The dancers will travel to New York for four days of ballet competition, with a round for contemporary choreography, concluding with the announcement on May 30 of the recipients of medals, scholarships and special prizes – plus a Gala Performance.

Many of the entrants are professional dancers, already members of companies around the world, hailing from Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Ukraine, USA and Venezuela. 

Entrants are divided into four categories: youth, students, juniors and seniors. All will compete with variations and duets from Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Coppelia, Raymonda, Paquita and other classics, selected from the list provided by VKIBC.

Prizes include positions with companies and scholarships to schools in the U.S., Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, Romania, Canada, France and more, along with cash prizes, costumes and other awards.

VKIBC was founded to allow student and professional dancers an opportunity to perform and compete in a positive and encouraging atmosphere before a distinguished panel of international judges.

The 2015 judges include: Andris Liepa, a principal dancer with the Bolshoi Ballet and a guest performer with New York City Ballet (NYCB) and American Ballet Theatre (ABT); Tracy Inman, co-director of the Alvin Ailey School; Deborah Hess, coordinator of student exchanges for Canada’s National Ballet School; Zhirui (Regina) Zou, ballet department president at Beijing Dance Academy in China; Miriam Messa Pelly, a former 25-year member of National Ballet of Cuba and currently faculty member at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts; and Frank Andersen, the former artistic director of the Royal Danish Ballet and the Royal Swedish Ballet.

Other judges include: Jan Broeckx, the director of Ballet-Academy University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, Germany; Pedro Carneiro, the director of National Conservatory Dance School in Lisbon, Portugal; Sergei Soloviev, a former Bolshoi Ballet dancer and current teacher at Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris; Hae Shik Kim, a former principal with the Korean National Ballet and the founding dean of the Korean National University of Arts School of Dance in South Korea; Jelko Yuresha, a former member of the English National Ballet; Charles Askegard, a former ABT soloist and NYCB principal; and Jacqulyn Buglisi, a former principal with Martha Graham Dance Company and current artistic director of Buglisi Dance Theatre.

Juilliard Dance Division Artistic Director Lawrence Rhodes, American Dance Machine Artistic Director Margo Sappington, and Washington Ballet Artistic Director Septime Webre will also be judges.

For more information on VKIBC, visit www.vkibc.org.

Photo by Yelena Yeva.