The 11th International Ballet Festival Dance Open prepared unique program that includes three different ballet galas.
14 April — BAD BOYS of DANCE SHOW, a premiere in Russia that took place at the Opera and Ballet Theatre of St. Petersburg Conservatory. Incredible energy of the dance company founded by the superstar Rasta Thomas welcomes the audiences to one of the most amazing dance shows in the world, which connects ballet and acrobatics and changes stereotype attitude towards male dance. The company gives over 150 shows a year and their show is a hit with every crowd. For example, they performed at Carnegie Hall in NYC with Sir Elton John. Dance Open showed BBD for the first time in Russia in 2011 in its annual Dance Open Gala of International Ballet Stars and in 2012 Dance Open invited the company with a full show, which was held with a huge success.
15 April — Gala Tribute to Natalia Dudinskaya (Centenary of Natalia Dudinskaya)was held at the Opera and Ballet Theatre of St. Petersburg Conservatory. Students of Natalia Dudinskaya –who are now ballet dancers and choreographers — performed at the Gala. And if some of the participants of the Gala were not the students of Natalia Dudinskaya, they are in their hearts. The world best ballet stars: Uliana Lopatkina, Vladimir Malakhov, Victoria Tereshkina, Yonah Acosta, Joseph Gatti, Natalia Osipova, Ivan Vasiliev, etc. performed the ballet parts and fragments that Natalia Dudinskaya made famous. Such as: “Dance of the Animated Frescoes” from The Little Humpbacked Horse and The Venetian Carnival from Satanella. The program of the night also included unique videos of ballet performances, photos and excerpts from Dudinskaya’s personal archive.
16 April — Dance Open Gala of International Ballet Stars was held at the Grand Concert Hall Oktyabrsky. Every year it is an important cultural event giving a rare opportunity to the true lovers of ballet to form its opinion about the level of this type of the art in the world, while they watch the best dancers from all over the world perform. The ballet stars representing the best ballet companies, such as New York City Ballet and English National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet and Staatsoper Berlin, Boston Ballet and Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, Mariinsky Theatre и Mikhailovsky Theatre (and others) participated in the Festival.
Due to the support of the Government of St. Petersburg, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and its permanent business-partners Dance Open Festival has managed to remain a high-class event presenting to St. Petersburg audiences the gala program worth the best international ballet galas.
The 3rd St. Petersburg International Ballet Award Ceremony Dance Open took place in our city. The closed Ceremony was held at the Marble Hall of the Museum of Ethnography of St. Petersburg. The Ceremony was broadcasted on the festival’s website and as always a lot of cinema stars, actors, representatives of sports, politics and business structures of St. Petersburg visited the event.
Besides wonderful gala programs, on 12-16 April there were held traditional master-classes for the students from different ballet schools. Students from the USA, Japan, Venezuela, Finland, Panama and Russia came to participate in the master-classes. On 14 April at the Theatre “Zazerkalie” there was held an annual Gala of Young Ballet Stars. Dance Open constantly supports its tradition of the master-classes. Creating new generations of world ballet stars Dance Open contributes into the future of international cultural cooperation.