After welcoming about 130 dancers from Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Korea, Ukraine and Japan for a whole week, the 30th edition of the International Dance Competition ends on Saturday 21 with the Winners Gala at the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti.

‘An important spin-off for our city,’ explains Danilo Chiodetti, Councillor for Culture, ‘and a pleasure these days to meet so many young people around Spoleto. There is a special atmosphere during this event‘. The name of Spoleto resonates throughout the world thanks to the international dimension regained after the blackout imposed by Covid on dance. “The Spoleto Competition is recognised worldwide for its quality,” says Artistic Director Irina Kashkova, “and we aim to do better and better every year“.

Also present at the Gala was the jury, which over the course of the week has worked tirelessly at the various stages of the competition to award medals, prizes, scholarships and special mentions to the young dancers and their choreographers. Maria Grazia Garofoli, former etoile of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and Director of the Arena di Verona Corps de Ballet, presented the gold medals to the Istituto Alta Formazione Coreutica of Genoa for the group section, to Umbrian Francesco Giammattei, Hungarian Mira Jaszovics, Franciska Yuki Bonecz and Cecilia Porkolab for the classical section, and to 13-year-old Emiliano Fiasco for the modern section.

Julio Bocca, former International Etoile and principal dancer of the American Ballet, and Kathryn Bennetts, former Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders and current Stage Director of Willians Forsyte worldwide, presented the second and third prizes while Kim Jung A, President and Artistic Director of the MutDance company, and Serge Bondur, Ukrainian People’s Artist Emeritus, teacher and maitre du ballet at the National Opera of Kiev, presented the bronze medals.

Oleksi Bessmertni handed out no less than six scholarships at the Tanzolymp International Dance Festival in Berlin, which he directs, and Sara Zuccari, journalist, historian, dance critic for Tgcom24 Mediaset and Director of the Giornale della Danza, awarded three Critics’ Prizes to choreographers Nicola Benedetti and Anna Gasparini and the young talent Emiliano Fiasco.

General Director Paolo Boncompagni explained how complex it is to organise an event of this calibre, ‘impossible without the support of a number of entities such as: MIUR, Comune di Spoleto, EMAS, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto, Fondazione Antonini, International Federation of Ballet Competitions, IDC China Spoleto, Monini, Castello delle Regine, Rotary Club Spoleto, Giornale della Danza‘.

Also on stage was Dario Pompili, President of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Spoleto, who has always been at the event’s side and witnessed the ‘growth of the event, its quality and popularity in Italy and abroad‘.