RIGA - Ballet lovers will be busily swanning and swooning around over the next month, as Riga stages the Ninth International Baltic Ballet Festival at a selection of venues around the capital.
The festival's stated purpose is to try and popularize ballet by putting on a mixture of much-loved classics and more radical forms of contemporary ballet. But, best of all, it's a truly Pan-Baltic exercise that brings together ballet ensembles, dancers and choreographers from each of the three Baltic states. The program includes exhibitions of ballet art, ballet music concerts, ballet school performances, seminars and exhibitions of children's art.
It's only natural that Riga should host the event though, since the city has a rich and impressive tradition in ballet, having produced such world famous names as Maris Liepa, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Aleksander Godunov and Vladimir Gelvan.
The IBFF originally started back in 1996, when it was staged to coincide with the International Day of Dance, but it has since become an established fixture in the Baltic arts calendar.
This year the festival kicks off with a performance of Yevgeny Panfilov's "Men's Fight Club" at Riga's Congress Hall on April 20. A packed program also includes performances of "Carmen" and "The Rites of Spring," a gala concert called New Europe, a screening of Dutch dance in film at Kinogalerija, a competition for young fashion designers at the Riga History and Shipping Museum, a special performance by the Danish dance company Granhoj Dans, and more besides.
As the Baltic states get ready for their historic entry into the European Union, this festival is a timely reminder of how vibrant the three countries' cultural scene is (despite being desperately underfunded). So go and see it and take an exhilarating leap of faith along with the dancers.
The Ninth International
Baltic Ballet Festival
April 20 - May 3
Visit www.ballet-festival.lv
for more information
