Serge Lifar Competition revived in Donetsk

On March 27 through April 2 the Donetsk-based Solovianenko National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet will host the 7th Serge Lifar International Competition of Ballet. It is held under the aegis of Ukraine’s first lady Liudmyla Yanukovych, reports the press service of the Donetsk Oblast State Administration. The competition was revived by the renowned dancer and artistic director of the Donetsk Theater Vadym Pysariev. This prestigious competition has not been held in the capital of Ukraine because neither the Kyiv City Administration, nor the Ministry of Culture and Tourism had any funds to spend on it. After the death of Yurii Stanishevsky, a famous art expert and artistic director of the Serge Lifar Competition, this project, which is important for Ukraine’s image, disappeared from the cultural scene of our country. We should be immensely grateful to Pysariev for involving sponsors, patrons and all those who love choreography, taking up the “ballet banner,” and making Donetsk Theater the new venue of the competition.

This year the dancers and choreographers will compete in two nominations: the “Ballet Dancers” (soloists and duos in three age categories) and “Choreographers.” The jury will be headed by the famous Russian choreographer Yurii Grigorovich, who was among the founding fathers of the Serge Lifar Competition. Not only professional artists of ballet and choreographers will be able to take part in the competition, but also schoolchildren and students of professional choreography schools and universities in Ukraine and abroad. According to Pysariev, a total of 160 applications from 16 countries have been submitted. This year’s prize fund is the highest yet, and amounts to 110,000 dollars. Incidentally, the organizing committee has also established prizes for journalists providing coverage for the competition.

It should be reminded that the International Serge Lifar Competition was founded by the head of the Ukrainian Academy of Dance Yurii Stanishevsky and Kyiv City State Administration (specifically Oleksandr Bystrushkin who headed the Main Department of Culture of the Kyiv City Administration). This prestigious competition was held in Kyiv every two years. In the period between 1994 and 2006 a total of six Serge Lifar competitions took place. They revealed ballet stars, such as Iryna Dvorovenko, Andrii Ivanov, Ivan Putrov, Denys Matviienko, Natalia Kalinichenko, Yana Salenko (at the moment Yana is the prima ballerina at the Berlin Opera) and others.