Helsinki International Ballet Competition

Did you know our very own Pollyana Ribeiro, En Pointe Indiana Ballet co-artistic director, won first place at the Helsinki International Ballet Competition (HIBC) in 1991? Among other offers that came after the prestigious win, she accepted a position at the Boston Ballet, where she went on to become a principal dancer. 

What Is the Helsinki International Ballet Competition (HIBC)?

The prestigious event is so much more than a competition, it offers a professional path for young, talented dancers. HIBC is open to dancers of all nationalities and consists of both classical and modern repertoire and features two divisions: junior division (age 15 to 19) and senior division (age 20 to 25). 

The competition, which takes place every four years, offers a one-week professional journey of artistic and technical excellence for dancers. Followed by three rounds of competition performance, as well as, a Gala performance and awards ceremony on the final day. Participants, ballet enthusiasts and audience members experience the highest level of ballet throughout the course of the competition.

Doris Laine

A renowned and well-organized ballet competition with a high-class jury, HIBC is known to awakening future possibilities for top ballet dancers. Founded by Finnish Professor Doris Laine, after a career with the Finnish National Ballet. Laine held the first HIBC in 1984.

After her ballet career and jurying international ballet competitions in Moscow, Varna and other cities, she desired to draw on her exceptional international network and create an attractive ballet hot spot in Helsinki, Finland. The Finnish Theatre Information Centre was the home of the first HIBC, and the competition was held at the Helsinki City Theatre midsummer 1984. The collaboration with Finnish National Opera and Ballet started in the middle of the 1990’s.

Thereafter, Laine moved to direct the Ballet of the Komische Oper in Berlin and was named Honorary Chairman of the HIBC. The director of the Finnish National Ballet, Jorma Uotinen, started as the new artistic director of HIBC. The competition was renewed by clarifying its role and giving greater importance to the choreography.

HIBC Today

The artistic directors of the National Ballet, Dinna Björn, Kenneth Greve and Madeleine Onne, have developed HIBC even further. Today, HIBC is one of the most well-known and well organized ballet competitions in the world.

Learn more at https://ibchelsinki.fi