The Russian Competition of Ballet Dancers and Choreographers 2021 was held in Yaroslavl between 15 and 20 June. Soloists, teachers, choreographers of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre scored several notable victories at it.

Georgy Bolsunovsky won the first award and the gold medal again, as in November 2020. Matvey Nikishaev and Anastasia Nigmatulina took second place having won the silver medal. The artists performed in the senior group of the nominated category Character Dance. The head of the Krasnoyarsk Theatre ballet company Natalia Matus-Marchuk received an award as a choreographer in the category “For the best choreography of folk dance” for the dance piece Furlana; Demid Zykov was awarded a special prize for teachers “For the successful preparation of participants in the competition”.

The Russian Ballet Dancers and Choreographers Competition is the brainchild of Yuri Grigorovich; the legendary ballet master is the artistic director of the event. The competition has been running since 2013 in cycles of 4 years. The event in 2021 is dedicated to character dance and folk dance stage adaptations. The competition programme consisted of three rounds, one of them in absentia (the contestants submitted video recordings). The contestants were to present two various pieces for both the second and third rounds. Young artists brilliantly coped with their tasks surpassing the level of skills of representatives of theatres from various cities of Russia, including Moscow.

Today, June 20, at 18.00 Moscow time, the online broadcast of the winners' gala concert will begin; you can see it on the competition website in the “Broadcasts” portion. The performances of Georgy, Matvey and Anastasia are also available there: on the website of the competition in the portion “Broadcasts”, there are videos of the second and third rounds.