International Festival Ballet aka St Petersburg Festival Ballet

(some screen shots content below are translated with browser tools for clarity

I get many questions on the background of the International Festival Ballet.

In mid december 2021 they did a performance in the military building Dom Ofitserov in Saint Petersburg. Maybe you remember it's the place where St Petersburg Ballet Theatre were housed. Dom Ofitserov is a building belonging to the Western Military District Leninggrad of the Russian Federation armed forces. They use it for cultural stuff but their "artistic leader" also hosted an exhibition of Ukrainian military vehicles bought to a square for display in Saint Petersburg.

In the first picture below you see the date December 13 when soloists from St PEtersburg Festival Ballet performed there and in the URL you see December 16 2021 when published.

Link to Dom Ofitserov news article(CAUTION):

«ЩЕЛКУНЧИК» НА СЦЕНЕ ДОМА ОФИЦЕРОВ — Дом офицеров

Another occasion at Dom Ofitserov:

Link, yes it's Russian:

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Here are pictures from when GRU and Spetsnaz veterans had gatherings and jubilees at Dom Ofitserov:

This is a serious haircut, Ivan Drago Spetsnaz Special:

Here is the exhibition of Ukrainian vehicles on exhibition hosted by Dom Ofitserov and the Western Military District Leningrad. There are more images if you visit the homepage which might not be a good idea without the proper VPN and browser setup:

So that is the place where St Petersburg Festival Ballet choose to let their soloists perform mid December 2021.

Then the full scale invasion of Ukraine happened.

St Petersburg Festival Ballet was then touring in Europe. Very quickly they were against the Russian military forces! They changed their name to International Festival Ballet:

And in June 2022 they create their new homepage:

So in mid December 2021 they perform at the military building Dom Ofitserov in Saint Petersburg and in April 2022 they "owe it all the dead Ukrainians to speak out against this terrible war" etc etc:

Russian ballet dancers in Belgium don’t dare return to Russia

“We owe it to all the dead Ukrainians to speak out against this terrible war. It has become impossible to separate art and politics,” said one of the Saint Petersburg Festival Ballet.

The Brussels Times

At this other occasion the ballet was presented with references to Ovation Events GmbH, you recognize the company name from the Facebook page screen shot above. Ovation Events has promoted them before the war and ever since. From the Russian ticket venue at this occasion at Dom Ofitserov they present the St Petersburg Festival Ballet like this:

"In 2011, the St. Petersburg director Maxim Zhuchin created the ballet band “Sankt – St. Petersburg Ballet Festival” which united young talented and ambitious artists of the theaters of St. Petersburg. The foreign side initiated the creation of the collective was the German company Ovation Events GmbH for more than twenty years successfully operating in Europe."

And who were their promotor in Sweden then? It was Julius Production AB:

In november 2021 just short before they did the performance at Dom Ofitserov they perfomed in Malmö, Sweden. Then also promoted by "Julius Biljettservice":

So if you wonder about International Festival Ballet that is their background - very Russian.

//Avel