This year, as usual, the XI International Ballet Festival DANCE OPEN will take place in St. Petersburg. The organizers prepared unique program that includes three different ballet galas.

14 April - BAD BOYS of DANCE SHOW , premiere in Russia. The performance will be held at the Opera and Ballet Theatre of St. Petersburg Conservatory. The dance company was founded by dance superstar Rasta Thomas and today their show is one of the most amazing dance shows in the world. It connects ballet and acrobatics. The company gives over 150 shows a year and their show is a hit with every crowd. For example, recently they performed at Carnegie Hall in NYC with Sir Elton John for a Rainforest charity event. DANCE OPEN showed them in Russia last year in its Annual Dance Open Gala of International Ballet Stars . This year DANCE OPEN is bringing the company to Russia with a full show.

15 April – Gala Tribute to Natalia Dudinskaya (100th Anniversary). The Gala will be held at the Opera and Ballet Theatre of St. Petersburg Conservatory. Students of Natalia Dudinskaya –who are now ballet dancers and choreographers – are going to perform at the gala. The world best ballet stars: Uliana Lopatkina, Vladimir Malakhov, Victoria Tereshkina, Yonah Acosta, Joseph Gatti, Natalia Osipova, Ivan Vasiliev – will perform the choreographies that Natalia Dudinskaya made famous. Such as: “Dance of the Animated Frescoes” from The Little Humpbacked Horse and The Venetian Carnival from Satanella. And if some of the participants of the Gala were not the students of Natalia Dudinskaya, they are in their hearts. The program of the night will also include unique videos of ballet performances and photos from Dudinskaya’s personal archive.

16 April– DANCE OPEN Gala of International Ballet Stars. This Gala held at the Grand Concert Hall Oktyabrsky is an important cultural event giving a rare opportunity to the true lovers of ballet to form its opinion about the level of this type of the art in the world, while they watch the best dancers from all over the world perform.

Due to the support of the Government of St. Petersburg, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and its permanent business-partners DANCE OPEN Festival has managed to remain a high-class event presenting to St. Petersburg audiences the gala program worth the best international ballet galas.

The ballet stars representing the best ballet companies likeNew York City Ballet и English National Ballet, Dutch National Ballet и Staatsoper Berlin, Boston Ballet и Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, Mariinsky Theatre и Mikhailovsky Theatre etc.will participate in the Festival.

Besides wonderful gala programs there will be held master-classes for the students from different ballet schools. Students from the USA, Japan, Venezuela, Finland, Panama and Russia have already applied for participation in the master-classes 2012.

In 2012 Сthe III St. Petersburg International Ballet Award Ceremony DANCE OPEN. will be held at the Marble Hall of the Museum of Ethnography of St. Petersburg on 16 April at 10 pm. The Ceremony will be broadcasted on the festival’s website. .