In his own words

However, do not forget that only real art touches the soul. After all boredom is not talented. There is no talent in boring things.

It is necessary to support young talents and give them the opportunity to work on the big stage.

Any stage the decision should be based on creativity. The main thing is that the ballet should be an interesting theatrical performance.

Experimental performances, modern choreography — this is what allows us to look forward all the time.

Choreographer is a unique talent, a person with an extraordinary sense of reality. As not every conductor writes music, not every dancer creates ballet performances.

Russian ballet is legendary because its classics.

The main challenge is to be interesting to the audience.

Andrian Fadeev

The success story of Andrian Fadeev, Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation, is one of the rare examples of a brilliant principal dancer from the Mariinsky theatre, adored by the public and lauded by the world's best choreographers, going on to become a no less brilliant manager of his very own troupe. In Fadeev's case, it is the St. Petersburg State Academic Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre, a young and dynamic company that builds upon many years' worth of tradition. Over the decade and a half that he spent at the Mariinsky Theatre as a principal, Andrian Fadeev got a chance to perform the leading parts in each and every cult classic of the world ballet repertoire. His versatile talent and perfectionist approach to creative work allowed him to truly shine in shows choreographed by such world-class paragons as George Balanchine, Roland Petit, William Forsythe, Harald Lander, and Christopher Wheeldon. In 2001, John Neumeier tailored the main part in his Sounds of Empty Pages ballet especially for Fadeev. The dancer's efforts were rewarded many times at prestigious contests: among other victories, he received the Golden Soffit St.Petersburg Theatre Award twice, in 2000 and 2008, and was honoured with the annual Positano Premia la Danza Léonide Massine prize (Positano, Italy, 2006). In 2011, Andrian Fadeev took the helm at the St. Petersburg State Academic Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre as art director and manager. It has taken him less than seven years to elevate his team to a whole new level in terms of artistic excellence and technique. This period has been marked not only with the meticulous restoration and preservation of the heritage left behind by the theatre's founder, the extraordinary experimental choreographer Leonid Yacobson (an undertaking acknowledged by the prestigious international Taglioni Award), but also with a pleiad of astonishing premières, staged in tandem with world-famous stars: The Sleeping Beauty (produced by Jean-Guillaume Bart) and Don Quixote (choreographed by Johan Kobborg, with stage design by Jérôme Kaplan). Under Andrian Fadeev's management, the Leonid Yacobson Ballet Theatre has been touring extensively around the world, always with resounding success and an enthusiastic response from the foreign media.

In his own words

...The only thing I've tried to do is get people's attention. I can make traditional creations, but I know the theater's going to be empty.

...You will never understand the evolution if you don’t understand and don’t know the basis.

...If we put a lot of material and a lot of flowers and many things, finally you are not seeing the most important thing, which is the body of the dancers.

Dance Open 2018: International Jury of Dance Open Award

Antonio Najarro

Internationally renowned choreographer from Spain who became famous not only as a leader of the ballet company, but also as a figure skating choreographer. Antonio staged a number of performances for the Olympic Games. Antonio Najarro began his career getting a Distinction in Spanish Dance in the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza in Madrid. As a principal dancer he collaborated with Rafael Aguilar, Antonio Gades, Alberto Lorca, Jose Antonio Ruiz, Jose Granero and others. In 2011 he became a leader of the ballet troupe of the National Ballet of Spain. Despite the fact that Antonio’s «native language» is flamenco, he manages to create works that combine classical dance with tango and jazz. In his opinion, choreography is not just a set of body movements. It is a flow of energy that controls the heart beat and the subtle movements of the soul. For the choreographer the appearance of the artist is as important as the inner state. Therefore, he also designs costumes for some of his projects. For Najarro the distinctive feature of his choreography is the abundance of «small details in movements, gestures, and expression, which are difficult to grasp and describe, but which make the work special and form its style». He is a winner of numerous awards, including Person of the Year (2017) for the Dance category, National Award Living Culture (2017), Harlequin award for best young choreographer (2009), Best Choreographer prize of the International Flamenco and Spanish Dance Competition in Seville (2008).

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Christian Spuck

Christian Spuck is a native of Marburg, Germany and director of the Ballett Zürich since season 2012/13. After receiving his initial ballet training at the renowned John Cranko Schule in Stuttgart, he embarked on his subsequent dance career with Jan Lauwers’s Needcompany and Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Rosas ensemble. He joined the Stuttgart Ballet in 1995 and was appointed choreographer-in-residence of the Stuttgart Ballet in 2001. Choreographies for the Stuttgart ballet include das siebte blau (2000), Lulu. Eine Monstretragödie (2003), Der Sandmann (2006) and Das Fräulein von S. (2012). Christian Spuck has produced further choreographies for several renowned ballet companies in Europe and the USA. These include Morphing Games for the Aterballetto of Italy (1999), Adagio for dancers of the New York City Ballet (2000), this- for the Berlin Staatsoper Ballet (2003), The Restless (2005) for Hubbard Street Dance 2, The Return of Ulysses (2006) for the Royal Ballet of Flanders (with guest performance at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2009), Leonce und Lena (2008) for the Aalto Ballet at Theater Essen, that has also been incorporated into the repertoires of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Stuttgart Ballet and Ballett Zürich, and Woyzeck (2011) for the Oslo National Ballet, which has also been performed by the Ballett Zürich. Choreographies for the Ballett Zürich include Romeo und Julia (2012), Sonett (2014) and Anna Karenina (2014). In recent years Christian Spuck has extended his artistic reach to film and musical theatre. Amongst others, he directed Orphée et Eurydice (2009) for the Staatstheater Stuttgart, Falstaff (2010) for the Staatstheater Wiesbaden and La damnation de Faust (2014) for the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Marcia Haydée als Penelope, a 25-minute dance film featuring Marcia Haydée and Robert Tewsley, was broadcasted by ARTE in 2006. In 2005, his full-length ballet Die Kinder (2004) for the Aalto Ballett Theater of Essen was nominated for the “Prix Benois de la Danse”. And his original production of Poppea//Poppea for Gauthier Dance at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart was named one of the world's ten most successful dance productions of 2010 by “Dance Europe” magazine, and also won Germany's theatre prize “Der Faust 2011” and the Italian “Danza/Danza” award.

In her own words

It is talent that is relevant. Something that reflects passions of the society and maintains the human side in humans.

A trained body of a classical dancer can be tuned for any tasks, while the techniques and some principles of the modern dance have certain restrictions.

Many modern choreographers have lost romanticism in their works. And art in general and particularly ballet needs it, because dance and music belong to our emotional sphere.

I try to choose the performances that are creative in their essence and give us the sense of hope, not an endless catastrophe.

A critic should be able to disassemble the structure of a piece of art while keeping the trust and curiosity, as well as being knowledgeable, of course.

When one makes up the repertoire, it is necessary, firstly, to remember that the theatre works for people, for the audience. And, secondly, one has to think how to make things in such a way that the artistic company will be motivated to live, develop and move forward.

In art you cannot take anything for absolute and narrow it to some mechanical schemes. It is better to combine the principles in order to be more precise when interpreting the author’s style.

All of us, the audience, artists, critics and practitioners, need to overcome the stereotypes of our own thinking.

If you are honest with the audience, it will follow any artistic forms.

Irina Chernomurova

The head of the Department of Strategic Planning of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, artistic director of the DanceInversion, International Contemporary Dance Festival, the Merited Art Worker of Russia, Honourary Art Worker of Moscow, Associate Professor of the Moscow State University and Russian Academy of Theatre Arts (GITIS). For over 17 years she had been the head of the International Relations, Press and Communications Department at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre. She initiated exchange tours between the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Chernomurova brought John Neumeier’s ballets The Seagull (2007), The Little Mermaid (2011) and Tatiana (2015) to the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, for the latter project she was awarded with the title of the Person of the Year. She was the first one in Russia who actively started to work with the Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato who staged his ballets Na Floresta and Por vos Muero for the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre. Another important project by Chernomurova is the Evening of Ballets of Jiří Kylián (Petite Mort/Sech Tanze/ Sleepless/Wings of Wox) that was also taken on tour to the Mariinsky Theatre and Latvian National Opera (Riga) and broadcasted all over Russia. Petite Mort/Sech Tanze and Por vos Muero were awarded with the Golden Mask as the best ballet productions of the season. Her other projects, Napoli by Bournonville and Neumeier's Seagull and Little Mermaid won the Awards "Hit of the Season" and "The Star of Theater-goer" in Moscow. She was in charge of the tours of opera and ballet companies of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre in the USA, the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Latvia, South Korea and China. She was the producer of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (МАМТ/France/Chekhov Festival) and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (МАМТ/ENO). She also initiated the launch of Peter Stein’s production of Aida by Verdi that went on stage of La Scala. Additionally, she has been the author of many promoting campaigns of the theatre and films about it. She is one of the organizers and artistic director (from 2009) of the DanceInversion, International Contemporary Dance Festival (founded in 1997). In almost 20 years the festival presented to the Russian audience the works of many prominent international choreographers, such as Angelin Preljocaj, Carolyn Carlson, Josef Nadj, Karine Saporta, Claude Brumachon, Montalvo-Hervieu, Murad Merzuki, Michael Le Maire, Itzik Galili, Emio Greco, Jiří Kylián, Sol León/Paul Lightfoot, Alexander Ekman, Richard Alston, Akram Khan, Candy Co., Trisha Brown, Doug Varone, Paul Taylor, Stephen Petronio, Aszure Barton, Shen Wei, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dayton Dance Company, Complexions, Wim Vandekeybus, Jan Fabre, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Ballet C de la B, Gideon Obarzanek and Sydney Dance Company, Amanda Miller, Sasha Waltz, Youri Vámos. In the programme of the festival participated such choreographers and companies as Édouard Lock (Canada), Jo Strømgren (Norway), Mauro Bigonzetti (Italy), Ohad Naharin (Israel), Cie Salia Ni Seydoy (Burkina Faso), Corpo (Brazil), Mao Group (New Zealand), The National Ballets of the Czech Republic and Portugal, the Polish Dance Theatre from Poznan; Rocio Molina, Rafaela Carrasco and Israel Galván from Spain. The festival originally represented Russian choreographers, such as Yevgeny Panfilov, Tatiana Baganova, Olga Pona, Sergei Smirnov. Numerous master classes of foreign choreographers were part of the festival. Festival programmes were presented in Volgograd, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Yaroslavl, Novosibirsk and St. Petersburg. Before she joined the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, she worked for several years for the Russian Federation’s Union of Theatre Workers where she organized international seminars for theatre directors (three cycles of the Russian-Dutch seminar). She was one of the organizers of the Golden Mask Award and Festival. From 1978-1988 she worked at the Bakhrushin Theatre Museum where, as the Deputy Director of Research and Development, she organized the following exhibitions: “Dodin. Nekrošius. Vasiliev”, “Korovin" — from Impressionism to Expressionism”, “Theatre of the Pushkin Era”, “Maya Plisetskaya”, “Alexandra Exter”, “Soviet Theatre of the 1920-s – 1930-s” (for Moscow Days in Munich). She was an author of various lectures and thematic evenings at the museum. As a theatre critic she has written many articles and reviews for important Russian newspapers and magazines. She took part in many professional seminars on opera direction. Since 1988, she has been teaching at the GITIS, Moscow State University, Moscow Arts Theatre Studio-School (American Studio) and G.G. Dadamyan Graduate School for Theatre People.