XV Moscow International Ballet Competition
It's now officially less than 10 days until the MIBC, and, whilst we know that the jury has decided to admit 158 ​​competitors from 30 countries (Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Brazil, Great Britain, Greece, Georgia, Italy, Spain, Kazakhstan, Canada, China, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, the United States, Turkey, Uzbekistan, France, Sweden, South Africa, and Japan) to the in-person rounds, there are still no entry lists.
Notable medalists in 2022 included
Maria Ilyushkina 🥇, Dmitry Smilevsky 🥇, Wagner De Carvalho 🥇, Anastasia Smirnova 🥈, Elena Svinko 🥈, Amanda Gomes 🥈, Dmitry Vyskubenko 🥈, Ekaterina Varlamova 🥉, Maxim Izmestiev 🥉 and Nikita Korneev 🥉 in senior
and
Maria Koshkareva 🥇, Makar Mikhalkin 🥇, Yaroslavna Kuprina 🥈, Valeria Kuznetsova 🥈, Taiga Kodama-Pomfret 🥈, Roma Gudelev 🥈, Kamila Sultangareeva🥉 and Daria Chugunova 🥉 in junior.
Controversially, despite Anastasia Smirnova receiving the top score in the Senior Women's solo category she was not given the Gold medal, instead the position was left vacant and Smirnova received a joint Silver instead.
Trying to guess entries is accurately is almost impossible, but I felt like having a go anyway.
Looking at the senior women first.
From the Bolshoi, I feel like Darina Moiseeva could be a wild-card entry and end up dominating the competition- she has had a pretty light schedule recently and isn't cast in the upcoming Spartacus/Marco Spada/Bright Stream run. She is quite senior but still very young so I feel it would be similar to how Smilevsky entered the 2022 competion.
Otherwise, maybe Kamila Sultangareeva. She was a bronze medalist back in 2022 in the jr category and is well liked by the company but yet to have a break out moment? I'd like to see Margrita Tyusheva put herself out there as well, she was such a standout in her graduation but hasn't had many opportunities since joining the company. Elisabeta Nalin would have been a strong guess but she is still injured as far as I know.
From 2023, it would be a very tight turn around for both Maria Koshkareva and Yaroslavna Kuprina from the St Petersburg tour but technically possible as they are scheduled to dance on the 23rd and 24th and the MBiC starts on the 27th. Despite this, I don't think either is likely - Koshkareva as leading soloist feels too 'senior' and she isn't at the point in her career where she could use it to make a push for principal (I don't think at least). It could help Kuprina escape the soloist purgatory, but she has a very busy June schedule - Phyrgia debut, SPB Marco Spada tour + maybe Anna Karenina rehearsals. Instead, this could be an opportunity for Tasiya Konovalova or Polina Netsvetaeva-Dolgaleva to get back on the fast track. Similarly, Sofia Maimula (assuming she is still eligible) could do with a boost to get opportunities flowing again post injury return.
Over at the Mariinsky, I think Yana Peneva is 99% going (especially given the fact both Cranko boys are semi-confirmed). I also wouldn't be surprised to see a number of Tsiskaridze's graduates in attendance, especially Veselina Ilieva and Ekaterina Morozova. Yesenia Anushenkova and Maria Chernyvskaya are injured though I think this could have been a big opportunity for either of them- one of Daria Kulikova or Alisa Barinova might still be an option but I somehow doubt either of them will actually attend. Maria Bulanova is probably too old...but if not maybe she or Alexandra Khiteeva could go to try and get that extra little boost to get over the 'Principal' line -> I remember her gold medal at the 2022 edition being big for Maria Ilyushkina. However, I think they will only go if they are absolutely certain they will win. I don't think Valeria Kuznetsova will go back...idk it's just a feeling (probably wrong). Svetlana Savelieva might be an option (again depends on how old she is - limit is 27).
I'm throwing a lot of names out here, but realistically only 2 women MAXIMUM will attend from each company - 1 in the solo category and 1 in the duet category (mayyybe 3 if we are very lucky and delusional).
Outside of the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky, I can think of Sofia Valiulina, Ulyana Gritsina and/or (again a bit of wild card) Stefanija Gashtarska from the Mikhailovsky. From the Stanislavsky, I liked the little bit I saw of Daria Platonova in Diana and Acteon with Taiga Kodama-Pomfret and would be very happy to see more of her.
Mostly I'm just looking forward to getting to watch lots of fantastic professionals that I wouldn't normally get to watch on a high quality and professionally filmed stream (especially the non-Bolshoi dancers).
Looking towards the junior entries, I don't know if there is cap for entries from one particular school, but, given the hype surrounding the 2027 Vaganova cohort and fact they all received solo opportunities in the graduation performances despite not being graduates, I'd like to see how Furman, Aziz, Zhupakova, Pan, Selivanova, Akkhmetova etc all compare to each other - I'd also have like to see Sukhanova, but she seems to be injured at the moment.
I'd also like to see some of the graduating class who didn't get a fair chance to shine - like Polina Gromova and Sofia Melnik who ended up having to split their casting in Don Quixote as Cupid with Aziz and in the Bridesmain variaiton with Furman/Zhupakova - get their own moment in the sun. I'd put Lidia Sidorkina in that as well, if she is good enough to have a Bolshoi offer she should be good enough to get a solo opportunity at her own graduation - and there were a number of roles given to shorter girls from younger years so it wasn't like she physically didn't suit the roles available.
Beyond that, like with the seniors, I am very happy to just be entertained and discover some new dancers!
Okay, entries are out and I was...not entirely wrong. In that, I did at least mention most of the women (Koshkareva, Sultangareeva, Peneva, Kulikova) from the Bolshoi/Mariinsky who ended up on the entry lists - even if Peneva is actually going to be in the Junior Duet and not the Senior....which feels a little bit like sending adults to go compete against children given she and Orokhovsky are both Second Soloists at the Mariinsky and most of their competition is just finishing school.
Pretty much everything else I said can be thrown out though as the Vaganova decided not to send any??? of their much promoted 7th year class. Instead, we just have Pankova (again a big surprise given last time they didn't send any graduates) and Selivanova (who I had listed above, but is apparently actually only in her 6th year). Both girls are Kasenkova's students (she seems to be by far the most prolific senior teacher at the VBA at this point - graduating classes every other year) so maybe she decided to enter them independently?
Lots and lots of BBA students though and some relatively high profile USA based/trainer dancers including Crystal Huang, Victoria Papakalodouka and Ekaterina Pichkova. Also, I am very curious to see Xin Er Liu from China who was a finalist at the 2026 Prix de Lausanne.
