The participating companies are: The Wienna Konservatorium Opera House Dance Company (Austria), The “Fouette” Tanz Ensemble (Poland), the Odense City Ballet (Denmark) and Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida (USA) having as special guests, the Ballettschule Pirouette ( Germany ) and D-1 Dance from Lima, Peru.

The idea for these annual, rotating performances came to life after several meetings between four artistic directors with a long history of international dance experience. These professionals, Vladimir Issaev (Florida - USA), Maxim Abzolov (Austria), Beata Ksiazkiewicz (Poland), Bogusia Gauden (Denmark), have worked together in the past as dancers, and maintain an artistic relationship. This has produced a magnificent opportunity for these international ballet masters to showcase the talents of their companies on a world stage.

This International Festival is an annual performance by four international ballet companies, structured so that each country hosts the event on a rotating basis. In 2004 and 2005 Denmark was the hosting country, following Poland in 2006. In 2007 it is Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida’s turn to bring this festival to South Florida.

“This years celebration will not only be about performing together - says Vladimir Issaev - we are also preparing a series of activities that will make this encounter a little bit more dynamic. All participants will have to opportunity to take Master classes not only in Classical Ballet, but also in Modern, Character, Flamenco and a little bit of Salsa, so they benefit from the diversity of cultures that South Florida offers. We are also planning a visit to the MOCA Museum to have them enjoy the magnificent exhibition of Merce Cunningham, followed by a conference where these participants can discuss the different styles of ballet that each country brings and other types of dance. However, they are all looking forward to enjoy the beauty of our beaches and local attractions of South Florida.

The program for the performances is very diverse, while Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida will be offering a classical and neo classical ballet repertoire, Poland is bringing a ballet mixed with character dance with music of Chopin and a couple of modern pieces.

One of the highlights of the evening will be the performance of Arts Ballet Theatre’s dancers Yoshie Oshima and Andrey Konkin dancing “Spring Waters” and a new Pas de deux from Issae’v choreographic work “The Season” which was premiered last summer at the Mariinsky Theater in Russia.

The performances will take place Saturday, April 7 at 7 pm at the North Miami Beach Theater and Sunday , April 8 at 3:00 pm the Broward Center for the Performing Arts

For tickets 1 800 4948497 and www.boxofficetickets.com for Miami and 954 462 0222 and www.browardcenter.org for Broward.