One of the most anticipated events of the summer - the International Festival of Ballet Art "Eurasian Dance Festival" started on the stage of the Astana Ballet Theater. Like last year, the Eurasian Dance Festival is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan and carries the idea of cultural Eurasianism as the main concept of the festival. The vast cultural landscape is clearly manifested in the festival program, which every year includes new layers of world dance space.
During its very short history, the festival managed to acquaint viewers with a variety of groups: the South Korean Contemporary Dance Troupe, the National Theater of Slovenia, the American Contemporary Dance Troupe, the Spanish Castro Romero Flamenco, the Beijing National Ballet and other top bands in the world. The audience got acquainted with the cult performances of Hans vas Manen, Yuri Grigorovich, Milko Shparemblek, Nacho Dauto, Ohad Naharin, authentic performance of Spanish flamenco, classics of Chinese choreography, discovered for themselves the names of modern choreographers.
“First of all, when selecting teams for the festival, we focus on quality, one hundred percent professionalism of the performers. Look through the repertoire and choose what will be interesting to our viewers. And the competence of the audience grows every year, so our task is not just to entertain, but to bring up and educate our audience on the best examples of classical, modern and folk dance. ”- said the festival's executive director Zhanibek Kayir.
This time the poster of the festival is no less meaningful. The program "Slavic temper", consisting of three abstract one-act ballets at the festival will perform the Prague National Theater; JIBC, a Japanese international ballet company, will present the Peri vintage ballet, staged by the best dancer of the 20th century by Vladimir Malakhov, and explores the phenomenon of the human body as the starting point in the work of the Japanese choreographer Toru Simazaki; the premieres of the Mariinsky Theater of Igor Kolb, Danila Korsuntcev and Evgeny Ivanchenko will present their choreographic works in the program “Dance, dance, dance”; In the element of folk dance spectators will involve the famous collective of Ukraine - the National Dance Ensemble named after Pavlo Virsky, who has been the visiting card of Ukrainian dance art for over 70 years.
It is noteworthy that the festival demonstrates not only foreign dance groups, but primarily the achievements of domestic theaters. And here we have what to show and is something to be proud of.
The Astana Ballet Theater opened the festival with two new productions - “A Journey of a Memory” by German choreographer Raimondo Rebeck and “Salome” by Kazakhstan choreographer Mukaram Avakhri. Two powerful performances, exploring the deep aspects of human nature made a huge impression on the audience, the audience gave a long standing ovation and expressed their gratitude to the artists and choreographers for the opportunity to get in touch with art, which not only pleases the eye with perfect lines and sophisticated plastic art, but also makes us think and look into ourselves and into the innermost recesses of the soul.
There is another premiere ahead - the Astana Opera Theater will present the romantic ballet of A. Adan “Giselle”, staged by People’s Artist of Russia Altynai Asylmuratova, and this is a guarantee that the performance will be staged in the best traditions of classical ballet, in its most competent and correct edition.
So ahead of us is a sea of new impressions and discoveries at the ballet art festival Eurasian Dance Festival!