From July 13^th to 21^st, the 5^th Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition (IBCC), hosted by the NCPA and organized by the Beijing Morning Star Ballet Foundation, will kick off at the NCPA. Thus far, a list of judges has been finalised for the classical ballet group and the choreography group respectively, with 14 professional artists in international dance circles to pass judgment on this year’s competition and provide guidance for the 116 players. Meanwhile, 21 world-class ballet stars will appear together at the gala.

In 2019, the 5^th IBCC will be held under the theme, “Salute to Chinese Ballet”. It is worth mentioning that in this year’s classical ballet competition, assigned “modern dance works” will be performed, as was done for the first time last year. Four choreographers, including Johan Inger, Yuri Zhukov, FEI Bo and ZHANG Disha, have been commissioned to create modern dance works for the players. Besides, this year’s choreography finals will be held under a specifically assigned topic with the Organizing Committee to provide designated copyright music. Part of Life As A Play, a master-grade musical piece composed by composer CHEN Qigang, will be selected for choreographing under the same title to spark the players’ inspiration and talents.

In this year’s IBCC, 14 artists from the international dance circle will form a high-level final jury: Julio Bocca, artistic director of the Uruguayan National Ballet, who chaired the jury of last year’s classical ballet group, will continue to shoulder heavy responsibility. For the choreography group, Valentin Elizariev, artistic director of the Belarus Grand Theatre, will serve as chair of the jury.

Beyond the competition, three orchestrated opening and closing ceremonies and two performances of various styles of ballets are also remarkable “highlights” in each year’s event. The opening ceremony to be held on July 13^th will be jointly hosted by TAN Yuanyuan, Principal Dancer of the San Francisco Ballet, CAO Chi, Principal Dancer of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, ZHANG Jian, Principal Dancer of the National Ballet of China, and YIN Fang, a young dancer and actor, who will perform 13 wonderful works in conjunction with ballet learners from the Affiliated Secondary School of Beijing Dance Academy and students from the Morning Star Arts Centre. 21 world-class ballet stars will be invited at the gala, hich which will be the most luxurious and longest variety performance of ballets since 2011. Ballet stars from around the world will gather on the NCPA stage from July 19^th to 21^st to congratulate the 5^th IBCC with classical, neoclassical and modern ballets.