8th SA International Ballet Competition Will Be Performed at the Artscape Opera House in July

The 8th South African Ballet International Ballet Competition (SAIBC) will be taking place at the Artscape Theatre Centre in Cape Town from 19-24 July 2021, exactly one year after the first SAIBC virtual event took place. Named as the SAIBC Online and managed via an App called ArtOfLife, the entirely digital event was an outstanding success and lauded as a groundbreaking achievement in global dance circles.

This year the SAIBC will be conducted as a hybrid event with some dancers competing via pre-recorded video submissions and others taking part onstage at the Artscape Opera House, the world class venue that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and that has hosted the competition since inception in 2008. Recorded entries will be adjudicated the week before the competition begins and the dancers competing at Artscape will be adjudicated by the Jury Panel via Zoom sessions during the competition week.
The SAIBC is open to dancers throughout the world and it has been decided that the 2021 SAIBC will add a new Novice category for entrants aged 6 to 8 years of age, from Africa only. Commenting on the new section, SAIBC Founder and CEO Dirk Badenhorst said, "The reason for the Novice section is to find and place young talent in Africa in good schools to ensure African dancers stand a better chance in the International dance world in the future." The other categories are Scholars age 9 to 11, Juniors age 12 to 15 and Seniors age 16 to 19.

The Jury is once again made up of luminaries in the ballet world, some of whom will be present in the theatre as per all previous competitions bar 2020. The panel os made up of Hope Keelan (UK), ballet teacher at The Royal Ballet School and Artistic Manager at White Lodge; Michaela DePrince (USA/Netherlands), soloist with the Dutch National Ballet; Alexei Ilin (Russia), Senior Lecturer at The Vaganova Academy of Russia; Viviana Durante (Italy/UK), Director of Dance at English National Ballet School; Professor Geung Soo Kim (South Korea), President of the World Dance Alliance Korea; Charmaine Hunter (USA), Principal of the Orlando Ballet School; Andile Ndlovu (RSA/USA), dancer with The Washington Ballet; Cooper Rust (USA/Kenya) from the Dance Centre Kenya; Sheryn Lister (RSA/Australia), Founder of Kinderballet; Wei Wu (China), Ballet Master at Liaoning Ballet; Allison Hendricks (RSA), Executive Artistic Director at Dance for All.Christoph Bӧhm (Germany), from the Berlin State Ballet School; Oscar Cordoba (Spain/Switzerland), on faculty at the Zurich Dance Academy; Sean Bovim (RSA), Founder- Director of Bovim Ballet; Magaly Suarez Cuba/USA), the Founder-Director of the Art of Classical Ballet; Ioshinobu Navaro Sanler (Spain/Cuba), from the Alicia Alonso Dance Institute and the Alicia Alonso Dance Foundation and Tanya Howard (RSA/Canada), soloist with The National Ballet of Canada.

The closing date for all entries is 25 June 2021.

The SAIBC at the Artscape Opera House will be open to the public, with the competition taking place daily from Monday 19 to Friday 23 July at 17h00, and on Saturday 24 at 14h00 that will be followed by the closing performance and awards ceremony at 19h00. Tickets for all SAIBC performances will be available via the ArtOfLife app and through Computicket.

For information regarding entry fees, guidelines and all other details, please visit www.saibc.com. Follow the competition on social media on Instagram and on Facebook via https://www.instagram.com/saiballetcomp/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/saibc/about/. Download the ArtOfLife app via the iStore https://apple.co/3vHDhfg and the Google Play Store https://bit.ly/3nLJjc9 .

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