Eminent judges for SA ballet competition

Leap of faith: Hannah Bettes, a US competitor from the 2012 Cape Town International Ballet Competition, held at Artscape. Picture: Pat Bromilow-Downing

Leap of faith: Hannah Bettes, a US competitor from the 2012 Cape Town International Ballet Competition, held at Artscape. Picture: Pat Bromilow-Downing

Published May 28, 2013

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THE FOURTH Cape Town International Ballet Competition will take place from February 17 to 23 next year at Artscape in Cape Town.

Africa’s only international ballet competition was launched in 2008, with subsequence competitions in 2010 and last year.

Dancers from South Africa and around the world compete for gold, silver and bronze medals, as well as substantial monetary prices.

For next year, the competition has added a third age group for competitors. The new category, scholar, is for dancers aged 12 to 15.

The other categories are junior, for dancers aged 16 to 20, and senior, for dancers aged 21 to 20.

In line with earlier competitions, a distinguished panel of judges from around the world has been assembled for next year.

Judges confirmed so far are:

• Marcia Haydee, former ballerina and artistic director of the Stuttgart Ballet, creator of leading roles in ballets by choreographer John Cranko, and now director of the Ballet de Santiago, Chile.

• Dawn Weller, former ballerina of Pact Ballet, artistic director of Pact Ballet/The State Theatre Ballet from 1983 to 2000, and now director of Australia’s Graduate College of Dance.

• Hae Shik Kim, founding dean of the Korean National University of Arts School of Dance, former ballerina and artistic director of the Korean National Ballet, and now artistic director of the Seoul International Dance Competition.

• Xin Lili, former ballerina, now choreographer and artistic director of the Shanghai Ballet.

• Ramona de Saá, former dancer, now Director of the National Ballet School of Cuba and Associate Professor of Cuba’s Higher Institute of Art and Methodology of the National Centre for Schools of Art.

The names of the other judges will be announced following the competition’s chief executive Dirk Badenhorst’s visit to China in July, where he will be a judge at the Beijing International Ballet Competition.

• The closing date for entries is Monday, January 13, 2014. Visit www.ctibc.com for the application form and rules.

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