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2006 Jackson, Mississippi IBC Info.


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JACKSON, Miss., June 26, 2006 – ..... 32 of the world’s finest young dancers .....

I get 33, not 32, when I count up the Round 3 names. Thanks for posting the list, Natalia!

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AmaG520: ..... he came out on stage dressed in a unitard with bird feathers. ..... He turned his back to the audience and sort of squatted and bounced up and down. ..... he turned around and in his hand was a blown-up balloon representing a bird egg.

I'm quite sure I saw Daniil's father, Dmitri Simkin, perform this in Montréal at the Gala des Étoiles in 2004. He danced with a partner (a rurally dressed girl, who dance/acted a whole section before Simkin's bird came out) but the piece could stand alone.

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By the way - Daniil' Simkin has not yet won the top prize in Jackson but he's already the star of the following DVD -- Divine Dancers, 2005 Gala in Prague -- that has just been added to Amazon.com ballet DVDs. Notice how Daniil' gets the absolute-top billing, along with Zelensky, Jude & Semionova. Dad, Dmitri Simkin, also appears, in the supporting cast, along with Maria Alexandrova & Sergei Filin of the Bolshoi. That in & of itself says something about the younger Simkin. Check this out:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FVQUM...&v=glance&n=130

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heard so much About Smiikin, he is probably the next star anyoneknow how the junior competition looks, who is ahead by anyones opinion , how does it look , would love to know?

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Hi!

As I've said before, I really don't know anything about ballet; but, amazingly, I know something about Modest Musorgsky (frequently spelled Mussorgsky, but not my the most recent biographer) and "Pictures at an Exhibition". No, I don't know much about classical music either. I just happened to have created an original art gameboard (sort of "Trivial Pursuit" and "Parchessi" mixed together for a local symphony charity event!) Hence, I've done a little research. Anyway, I also happened to attend Sunday evening's IBC in Jackson, quite unexpectedly. On Friday, my husband asked what was stopping us from driving eleven hours to see Sunday's performance. I couldn't think of a thing, so we put out a pile of cat food and headed west.

I was a nervous wreck by 7:30. My child and his partner were opening the program. (Yes, I'd love to hear opinions on the junior competition by some of you more knowledgable ballet people!) Frankly, I thought it was great. Of course, not falling on ones face is "great" in my book. Come to think of it, their piece had quite a lot of falling in it but it was obviously part of the choreography. Therefore, I'm not qualified to evaluate them at all. I was also crying at the time, my "norm". (I'm told that one day I will enjoy seeing my child dance. That day wasn't Sunday and isn't likely to be coming before the end of the summer.)

Then, the South Korean junior female, Kim Je A, started dancing a piece (Haunting Vision, music from Ballet Goya by Valeria Besedina with Konstantin Uralsky choreography). It included many hyper-extended "leg lifts" (likely a more proper name, but I don't know it). Directly after one of these almost uncomfortable looking movements, she went gracefully down to the floor. She'd been on the floor before, so it seemed very much part of the choreography. In fact, I'd bet it was. However, she stayed there, curled up in a little compact ball, and only moved her arm a little bit for several dozen bars of music. Tension could almost be seen rising above the audience for a few pregnant seconds before simutaneous applause started with the lowering of the lights. The music ceased. There were a few people with flashlights quickly coming onto the stage. The curtain fell and then we could hear the anguished cries of pain.

ANYTHING can happen at these competitions. ANYTHING happened. I cried some more.

I will be buying the music that Andres Felipe Figueroa Leon danced to with his non-competing partner Diana Catalina Gomez Gonzalez. It was the pas de deux: Nous Sommes set to Marie-Joseph Canteloube's Songs of the Auvergne with choreography by Jimmy Gamonet. Stunning. As beautiful to the eye as to the ear.

I'm personally rooting for Brooklyn Mack as he's from my hometown and I've known him since he was twelve. His performance was wonderful. Fortunately, it wasn't any longer than it was as I don't think I inhaled a single breathe during it. More crying.

Then, we have Daniil Simkin. Yes, he's the most incredible dancer I've ever witnessed. I saw him in Vienna when he won the Grand Prix and again in Helsinki. Even an idiot like me knows that his talent is in a class of its own. I was so excited to see this piece. The choreography was set by his father, Dmitrij Simkin. It is not a new piece. Daniil Simkin has performed it before. It is called "Moorhuhn". "Huhn" is "chicken" in German. The music was some modern variation based on Musorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition". This segment of that famous, originally piano, score was based on Musorgsky's impression of a ballet costume sketch done by Victor Hartman. In fact, all the music was based on artwork done by Victor Hartman, a young artist who died and for whom an exhibition of his work was displayed to honor him. Modest Musorgsky went to the exhibition and then wrote the music based on several of the pieces of art. Many of the pieces are still in existance, including the one called "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks". The sketch is a perfectly horrible one of a young dancer wearing a big "egg" with a little chip of a shell on his head. Believe it or not, it was a real ballet (thankfully, lost!). I think Petipa did it. The story was at first to be set in Scotland but later moved to Switzerland. I have no idea why chickens were in it at all. Yet, the children of the Imperial Ballet were to have danced this part. (The men of the corps were to be cockatoos!) The music is impossibly fast and, like all Musorgsky's work, was meant to literally SOUND like chickens. It does. At no point in the past could I have imagined anyone actually dancing to this music. Now, I will never be able to imagine anything other than Daniil Simkin dancing to this music.

The "egg" at the end was priceless! The humor was endearing. The ease at which Mr. Simkin showcased his abilities was breath-taking. I wish I could see Round Three. I'm already nervous again.

mouse

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Thank you mouse! What great coverage! Please stay for Round 3 and tell us more. I am sure you are beaming. Who's heart is beating faster, your's or Radenko's with two young men in the finals! Columbia, S.C continues to produced quite a few magnificent dancers.

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Mouse, if you ever need a new career, I think that writing is most clearly an area of talent! Thank you for such wonderful posts - I can almost imagine the dancing (and your mom's nerves)!!

I'm sorry that you aren't able to stay in Jackson for the entire competition, but I"m so very glad that you were able to attend the other day.

All the best to you, your dancer, and all the other dancers and parents at Jackson!

m2

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Personal congratulations to BT and BT4D poster Daniil Simkin on his gold medal win -- yet another in an unbroken record of first prize wins in ballet competitions, to BT'er mouse for her son, Mathias Dingman's, "Best Couple" win in the junior division, to BT'er tango49 for her son, Joseph Gatti's, Bronze Medal win in the senior division, to BT4D poster its the mom for her son, Jeffrey Cirio's, Bronze Medal win in the junior division. We are fantastically proud of you, both mothers and their dancing children! :clapping:

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I am thrilled to see Misa Kuranaga won gold for senior women. She has been a soloist at Boston Ballet and every performance I have seen, she has been fabulous. My dd was at SAB for the summer when Misa was there and she said she was extremely hard working and very sweet.

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