The 2nd Russian competition of ballet dancers and choreographers started in the Natalya Sats Musical Theatre in Moscow. The soloists of the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre Nadezhda Panfilova, Anastasia Belonogova and Daniil Kostyilev are going to take part in the creative contest. They’ll contend for winning the nomination “A character dance in a music theatre”.

The first qualifying round of the competition was held by correspondence over video recordings. More than 100 applications from different parts of Russia were sent to the contest, 88 of them were approved.

Nadezhda Panfilova: “The contest has recently appeared. And that’s a real great event, since little attention is paid to the character dance nowadays.

I would describe this dance as intelligent and thought-provoking, no one could dance it after one rehearsal only - you need to live with it, savour the dance, seek out for a while, and I really love this process. For me, the contest of the character dance is an opportunity to open new colours, to learn interesting nuances from other theatres’ artists and their teachers, to compare our theatre’s level of the character dance with others. A competition is always pushing your way out of the comfort zone - this leads to a personal and professional growth”.

Anastasia Belonogova: “A competition is a professional growth of artists, an opportunity to show oneself, to see how others dance, to learn something new. Every step on the stage is exciting. Fighting with our emotions we get invaluable experience. While preparing for the contest, I learned a lot of useful and interesting things and I am very glad that during the first year of my working in the theatre I have danced so many unique and different roles”.

Daniil Kostyilev: “Taking part in the competition is a great opportunity to show yourself and the level of our theatre to the jury from other cities. Thanks to the contest, new skills are acquired in the character dance. This is an opportunity to prove to myself that I can perform the dance at the highest level and continue to grow professionally, to move forth”.

The head of the competition jury is People’s Artist of the USSR Yury Grigorovich. The jury also consists of such masters of Russian ballet as the artistic director of the Igor Moiseev Folk Dance Ensemble, People’s Artist of Russia Elena Shcherbakova, the principal of the Moscow State Academy of Choreography, People's Artist of Russia Marina Leonova, the Kremlin Ballet Theatre’s artistic director and chief choreographer Andrei Petrov, the chief choreographer of the Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theatre Konstantin Uralskiy, the artistic director of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic Dance Ensemble “Kabardinka” Igor Atabiev, the artistic director of the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, Honoured Artist of Russia Sergei Bobrov, and others.

On November 24, the 2nd Russian competition of ballet dancers and choreographers will be concluded with a ceremony of awarding winners and a gala concert of laureates.