NEW YORK, NY (SMI-ENTERTAINMENT-ARTS-JUNE 21-24, 2022)-The Valentina Koslova Dance Foundation, a non-profit dance conservatory performance project organization that provides training, scholarships and artistic partnerships to aspiring professional ballet dancers from around the world, concluded its 2022-11th edition " The Valentina Koslova International Ballet Competition " with a sensational gala finale, announcing the classical and contemporary medal winners, and scholarship awardees at the Symphony Space Theater in Manhattan, New York City. 


Valentina Kozlova, founder of VKDF and VKIBC was a former professional and Principal Ballet Dancer at the renowned Bolshoi Ballet Company in Russia where she danced all classical performances from 1975- 1979, until she defected to the United States in 1979. While in the US, Kozlova became the principal dancer for the New York City Ballet Company from 1983-1995, dancing as well classical performances with leading roles in works by Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, Eliot Feld, Richard Tanner.

Valentina Kozlova resume expands to an extensive guest appearances with major international ballet companies from Spoleto, La Scala, Florence Opera House, English National Ballet, Paris Opera, Basel Ballet, Australia, Ballet de Santiago (Chile), Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires) and Hong Kong and Ballet galas in Africa, Greece, England, India, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Don des Etoiles in Canada, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

The gala finale of the three day ballet competition opened with a special performance from the founder Valentina Kozlova who enchanted the audience dancing along with
" Et si tu n'existais pas ", and followed by her newly formed Studio Co in Petipa's dances created for Glinka's opera Russian and Lyudmila and contemporary work "Overcome".

In addition to the 2022 contestants dancing performances, former medalists Nikita Boris(Gold), Jillian Schubert (Silver) and Clement Guillaume (Gold )  also performed during the gala and closing-out the 2022- International Ballet Competition with an award ceremony announcing the classical & contemporary medal and prize winners of the competition.

 

 

The 2022 VKIBC Contemporary Medal Award Winners are:
 

Division 1 Solo

Gold:- Linzi Huang, USA & Ekaterina Pichkova, USA

Silver: Sarah Kusek, Poland

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Division 2 Solo Girls

Gold: Michaela Fairon, South Africa
Silver: Sadie Weintraub, Ireland
Bronze: Christie Anderson, United Kingdom

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Division 2 Solo Boys

Silver: Victor Sampaio, Brazil

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Division 3 Solo Girls

Gold: Riha Kim, South Korea

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Division 3 Solo Boys

Gold:MinSeo Kim, South Korea Chaewon Lee, South Korea

 

Contemporary Duet

Gold: Barbara Dias, Marcos Silva, Brazil

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Contemporary Ensemble

Gold: Ensemble Italy

Bronze: Ensemble USA

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