XV International Ballet Festival "Mariinsky"

Mariinsky Ballet Festival 2015

13 March - 22 March 2015
Mariinsky Theatre and New Mariinsky Theatre 
Artistic Director: Maestro Valery Gergiev

The XV International Ballet Festival "Mariinsky" 2015

The annual Mariinsky ballet festival will run for the fifteenth time from 13 – 22 March 2015. 
In line with tradition the festival will open with a premiere. The first ballet premiere of the season will be an evening of one-act ballets choreographed by Anton Pimonov – Bambi to music by Andrei Golovin and In the Jungle to music by Alexander Lokshin (13 and 14 March). The festival marathon will continue with performances by lead soloists from the world’s best ballet companies in Mariinsky Theatre productions. This year’s guest stars include Isaac Hernandez representing the Dutch National Ballet, Sae Eun Park from the Opera de Paris and Ruslan Skvortsov from the Bolshoi Theatre. 
One of the Mariinsky ballet festival’s traditions is to host galas for the company’s principal dancers. The artistic evening on 19 March will focus on Viktoria Tereshkina. A Mariinsky Theatre prima ballerina and recipient of numerous awards and prizes, she has been appearing in repertoire productions for more than ten years now and practically every Mariinsky Ballet premiere involves her. Adored by the public and critics alike, Viktoria Tereshkina will be performing the roles of Mekhmene-Bahnu in Act I from The Legend of Love, Zobeide in Scheherazade and the lead in “Paquita” Grand Pas. 
Also in line with tradition, one of the festival evenings will see the stage transformed into a space for new dance ideas. On 21 March at the Creative Workshop new ballets will be presented by the young choreographers Vladimir Varnava, Ilya Zhivoi, Xenia Zvereva, Maxim Petrov, Maxim Sevagin and Yuri Smekalov. These young choreographers are being stimulated by a plan conceived by the theatre’s management in line with which the best pieces enter the theatre’s repertoire. Having been performed at previous workshops, Anton Pimonov’s Choreographic Game 3x3 and Yuri Smekalov’s Camera obscura are now in the repertoire, while Vladimir Varnava’s miniature Keep Calm from last year’s festival will be performed as part of the programme for the final gala concert this year. 
The Gala Concert on 22 March will feature Mariinsky Theatre soloists Ulyana Lopatkina, Yekaterina Kondaurova, Oxana Skorik, Alina Somova, Zlata Yalinich, Timur Askerov, Kimin Kim, Xander Parish and Vladimir Shklyarov as well as Opera de Paris soloists Ludmila Pagliero, Joshua Offalt, Audric Bezard, Marie-Agnes Gillot, Hugo Marchand, Leonore Baulac and Jeremy-Loup Quer. 

About International Ballet Festivals "MARIINSKY"

The international ballet festival is one of the most significant events in the ballet season, drawing ballet-lovers from all over the world to St Petersburg. The main strategy of the festival is to attract stars of world ballet to Russia’s cultural capital. Regular participants in the festival include Mariinsky Theatre stars Diana Vinevsha, Ulyana Lopatkina, Alina Somova, Viktoria Tereshkina, Yekaterina Kondaurova, Igor Zelensky, Leonid Sarafanov, Andrian Fadeyev and Vladimir Shklyarov. Since it was established, the Mariinsky international ballet festival has seen performances by such internationally acclaimed stars as Vladimir Malakhov, Agnes Letestu, Aurelie Dupont, Mathieu Ganio (Opera National de Paris), Roberto Bolle, Maria Kowroski, Manuel Legris, Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg, Paloma Herrera, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Svetlana Zakharova at the theatre. In line with tradition, each festival opens with a ballet premiere and it concludes with a gala concert featuring stars of international ballet.