Brings Renowned Performers

to Orlando for Premier Event

 

 

Vasile Petrutiu, Executive Director of the Central Florida Ballet, announced today that the internationally-renowned World Ballet Competition and All Stars Performance will be presented June 11-16 at the Bob Carr Theater in Downtown Orlando.

The World Ballet Competition (WBC), recognized as the most prestigious annual international dance event, opens with five days of intensely competitive and juried solo, partnered and ensemble performances. The elite group of ballet dancers, representing 25 countries, will compete for more than $300,000 in scholarships, cash prizes and contract offers from dance companies around the world.

The week-long “Olympics of Dance” culminates with a star-studded All Stars Performance finale on Saturday, June 16 featuring performances from So You Think You Can Dance winner Denys Drozdyuk. Guests of the finale performance are treated to a superb presentation like none other in Central Florida. Matt Palm of the Orlando Sentinel, named the evening “A steady stream of wow-wow-wow.” Central Florida Ballet, producers of the famed WBC, have selected an impressive roster of all-star performers for this year’s event:

Denys Drozdyuk, known as the Canadian winner of So You Think You Can Dance, is from the Ukraine and holds a B.A. from the world-famous Juilliard School in New York. He was also featured on NBC’s Hit Television show World of Dance.

Hannah Bettes, a native of Florida and former student of Central Florida Ballet, now a soloist at the prestigious Boston Ballet.

Joseph Gatti, a former Principal Dancer with the Cincinnati Ballet and the first American male dancer to win the prestigious gold medal at the New York International Ballet Competition.

Lauren Fadeley, trained at the Orlando Ballet School and the School of American Ballet (SAB) and performed in the Academy Award-winning film Black Swan.

Lasha Khozashvili, a Principal Dancer with the Boston Ballet whose repertoire includes leading roles in Swan Lake and Don Quixote.

Anaïs Chalendard, a Principal Dancer with the Boston Ballet who was formally trained in Germany, Berlin and Karlsruhe and premiered the leading role in Terence Kohler’s Anna Karenina.

Christye Alan, an accomplished aerialist who trained at the Tuzer Dance Center in Dallas, Texas and joined the cast of the Siegfried and Roy Show in Las Vegas as a performer.

Chris Galen, an exceptional aerialist who also performed in an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.

Orlando is the prime location for a ballet competition of this magnitude and has been the home of WBC over 12 years. Central Florida Ballet’s Executive Director Vasile Petrutiu stated, “The event has become extremely popular because of our instantaneous scoring process and internet broadcast. It’s gratifying to see after 12 years, the exponential growth in our number of participants and interest our dancers receive by being seen on a global platform.”

The World Ballet Competition is open to the public. The competition rounds held Monday, June 11 through Friday, June 15 are donation-based for spectators. Tickets for the All Stars Finale Performance on Saturday, June 16 are available for purchase at worldballetcompetition.com.

About the World Ballet Competition:

World Ballet Competition events are presented by the Central Florida Ballet and funded in part by the Orange County Government through the Arts & Cultural Affairs Program; by the Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council of Arts and Culture and the State of Florida; and United Arts of Central Florida.