The Ballet Competition Varna 2012 Shows Signs of Slowing Down.
Online, August 12, 2012 (Newswire.com) - For immediate release:
Two First Prizes
Brooklyn Mack USA; The first black Afro-American to win the first prize and gold medal.
Denis Cherevichko Austria; was the other ballet soloist to win the first prize and gold medal.
"The Varna Grand Prix" was not AWARDED.
The relative unimportance of the Varna International ballet Competition 2012 was illustrated by the disappointed acts of dance by all the winners. There was a lack of pure classical ballet from the obligatory repertoire, created by the end of the 19 th century. The performers all suffer from wan and inexpressive gestures and weakly developed mimicry. The ballet dancers pleased the audience, who had come to see and love the purity of classical dance. At this stage of the Varna Ballet Competition, they saw a different kind of dance, an explosion of acrobatic complexity of tricks, from physical culture, was the only true response to the times.
The criteria to judge the dancers, isn't up to date and without transparency. Members of the jury in these competitions today should discuss what exact will be the criteria. When dancers must dance fragments of pieces from Petipa, Perrot, Coralli, Vainonen and Lev Ivanov. There was no news conference or official discussion of the nuances of the dancers situation and its historical context. The extreme acrobatic tricks the dancers perform within these classical academic solo's or duets, they consciously violating the model of the academic variations. It should be wise for the jury to consider and adjust some of the rules. The original choreography and how they must be performed,is totally neglected by the jury members of the Varna ballet competition. Dance is physical, like sports, but, in many ways it is the opposite of sports!
The classical ballet, the purpose is to blend with and mirror each other. Ballet dancers perform for audience and they offer a gift of emotion. What we see on the stage of the Varna open air theatre in 2012, ballet dancers like athletes respond to one other and spectators are just there to witness and cheer.
It seems that all the talented young dancers of today have forgotten how to dance the fragments of the repertoire of the 19 th century; La Bayadere, Raymonda, La Fille Mal Gardee, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker and Swan lake. We know that trends in the ballet competitions are not born in an instant, and that every step in the development of any art is measured in years, this is especially true of choreography. And each of these steps is conditioned by preceding stages. Of course, during these solo's and pas de deux, dancers throughout the whole competition smile in warmth and friendship. This is the problem with the ballet fragments of variations or codas from ballets of the classic legasy showing in the Ballet Competition Varna 2012.
Benjamin Feliksdal
CID Member,
Former Principal Dancer "Het Nationale Ballet"
Int. Independent Jury Member
Author, of Methodic Dance Books