Organization

The Organizer of The Competition is The Ballet Foundation (Fundacja Balet) from Poland, which undertakes initiatives and multidirectional activities promoting ballet and other stage arts for nearly 30 years, including patronizing, supporting and granting impresario services.

The Foundation’s achievements consist of granting numerous artistic scholarships in the fields of ballet and music, organizing concerts, dance shows and courses. It has also awarded several dozens of ballet competitions’ winners, including the winners of the Golden Pointe Shoes and Ballet Stars Gala, which is the finale of the competition. Among the invited guest You can meet Jennifer Rivera Lara – the soloist of Grand Theatre Poznań, born in Mexico, Marcin Krajewski – international soloist, Kaori Fukui and Jun Tanabe – the dancers of Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, Mary Carmen Catoya – the soloist of Miami City Ballet, coming from Chile Hernan Montenegro and talented brothers, Marcin Kupiński – the first principal dancer of The Royal Danish Ballet and Dawid Kupński – first soloist of The Royal Swedish Ballet.

The Idea

The Idea of the competition is to present and promote art created by ballet students from all around the world and, above all, to help them at the beginning of their professional careers. The Golden Pointe Shoes is not only a great opportunity to become known among critics and a wider audience, but it’s also a chance to fight for an amazing prize of € 5,000!

The Golden Pointe Shoes is one of a few international competitions dedicated to ballet school graduates. It’s very popular in the ballet community in Poland and abroad. In the beginning, it was meant only for Polish ballet school graduates, but since 2008 students from all around the world can participate in it.

History

International Ballet Competition Golden Pointe Shoes has, since 2002, awarded 19 winners who, thanks to the victory, could begin their international careers in theatres and opera houses all around the world. The winners of the Golden Pointe Shoes are the principal dancer of the Royal Danish Ballet – Marcin Kupiński, the first soloist of the Royal Swedish Ballet – Dawid Kupiński, the first soloist of The Lithuanian National Opera – Daria Olefirenko, the balletmaster of the Finnish National Opera – Michal Krčmař, the principal dancer of the Hungarian State Opera – Gergo Armin Balazsi, the winner of the Eurovision Young Dancers 2015 – Viktoria Nowak and the first soloist of the National Opera of Grand Theatre in Warsaw – Patryk Walczak.

Online form

This year, the XIV edition of The International Ballet Competition Golden Pointe Shoes has to be hosted entirely online, due to the global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2. Amazing shows will be available via streaming platform.

The entire situation doesn’t help in organizing cultural events, including ballet competitions, and it takes personal contact with the art away, but the online form makes it accessible for a much wider audience.

The ambassadors

This year’s ambassadors of the Golden Pointe Shoes are Shoko Nakamura and Wiesław Dudek – the icon of the Japanese ballet and the Polish dancer of international fame. They’re admired by ballet lovers and acknowledged by the best choreographers all around the world.

Shoko Nakamura is known for the most beautiful leading roles. A shining star of Vienna State Opera, Staatsballet Berlin, Hungarian State Opera and others. Wiesław Dudek, a remarkable dancer with an amazing stage history, soloist chosen by the best choreographers. Known and respected, danced throughout the whole world, from the Dominican Republic, through Mexico, Canada, USA, Germany to Russia. The first Polish guest of The Bolshoi Ballet to perform in “Onegin” of John Cranko.

The Jury

The jury team consists of recognized teachers, dancers and choreographers – tremendous artists and experienced specialists with a great sense of aesthetics and sophisticated form but also extraordinary characters. Among them, You can find Spanish choreographer and flamenco dancer Rosa Olympia Estrella, professor of musical Arts Ewa Wycichowska, leading principal dancer of the Finnish National Opera Michał Krčmař, the dancer and teacher Piotr Nardelli, ballet master Vladimir Issaev and also Beata Książkiewicz, the professor of the Chopin University of Music.

The Jury will rate submitted recordings in two stages. The first one will focus on the analysis of classical and contemporary dances, which will lead to choosing a group of dancers qualified for the second stage, during which the Jury will choose only 5 winners that deserve the awards. These performances will be included in the Gala available on 20 June 2021.

The Grand Prix of the Golden Pointe Shoes 2021 € 5,000

1st place € 2,000
2nd place € 1,000
3rd place € 500
4th place € 500

Honorable patrons

Honorable patrons of The Competition are the President of City of Szczecin (Prezydent Miasta Szczecin), Westpomeranian Voivodeship Marshal (Marszałek Województwa Zachodniopomorskiego) Olgierd Geblewicz and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego).

Co-organizer

Artistic Education Center (Centrum Edukacji Artystycznej)

Partners

Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, Polish Society of Authors and Composers ZAiKS (Związek Autorów i Kompozytorów Scenicznych ZAiKS), Intitute of Music and Dance (Instytut Muzyki i Tańca), Polish Society of Scenic Artists ZASP (Związek Artystów Scen Polskich).