From October 29 to November 1, 2018, the VI International Inclusive Dance Charity Festival of Inclusive Dance was held in Moscow. As before, it was organized by the Center for Social and Cultural Animation “Oduhotvorenie” with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation, the Moscow Public Relations Committee and the Foundation for Supporting Children in Difficult Life Situations.

For 6 years of its existence, the festival Inclusive Dance has united 2.5 thousand dancers from 250 groups of 52 regions of Russia, as well as 26 groups from 18 countries of the world. And every year more and more new participants join this movement.

The festival “Inclusive Dance” is four days full of events of different format, united by the philosophy of inclusive dance. In addition to the gala concert, its program in 2018 included a conference on the development of inclusive dance in Russia and in the world, two-day competitions of inclusive couples and groups for the awards of the Big Inclusive Dance Cup, as well as master classes by leading European experts in the inclusive dance. The festival events were held in the Museum-Reserve Tsaritsyno, the Hall of Church Councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the conference hall of the Ibis Kievskaya Hotel.

The final stage of the festival was attended by a record number of dancers, about 700, including more than 70 people in wheelchairs, as well as 200 volunteers and 60 organizers from all over Europe. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. In total, more than 2000 dancers took part in this year's contests. 101 teams applied for an online contest, and another 80 participated in 6 interregional stages, which took place in St. Petersburg, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Saratov and Vladivostok.

The online competition was held in 45 nominations. This made it possible to find a own niche for teams, working in almost any direction of inclusive dance. In 10 nominations the winners were revealed - laureates of the I degree. They were 2 teams from Moscow, 2 from theKrasnoyarsk Territory, one each from Lipetsk, Voronezh, the Ivanovo Region, Cherepovets, Kirov and Saratov. They took part in a gala concert, which took place on November 1 in the Hall of Church Councils of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In addition, teams from Austria, Belarus, the Netherlands and Estonia participated in it.

At the gala concert was competed for the Grand Prix of the festival. His fate was decided by an international jury composed of Corrie van Hagten (Netherlands) - the first woman who in the late 60s of the last century began to dance in a wheelchair with professional dancers; the lead soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Andrei Merkuriev; the main choreographer of the festival, Natalia Golovkina; coach of wheelchair dance teams of Germany and Malta Pippa Roberts; the head coach of the dance and sports club "Sozvezdie" Maria Korneeva; the leader of the inclusive band from Austria “Ich bin OK”, in the past - the ballet dancers of the Vienna Opera Hana Zanin; the head of the dance and sports club "Favorit" from Belarus, Alexander Shablovsky; artistic director of the Center for Contemporary Dance “Tsekh”; formerly Ballet Moscow soloists Alexandra Rudik and head of the festival organizing committee Leonid Tarasov.

As a result, the Grand Prix went to the tremendous comic duet Maria Pelevina - Ilya Shutov from the dance group of the inclusive Dance Magic studio of the modern sports dance Hobby-Shans, who works in the town Rodniki, Ivanovo Region. The decision of the jury caused a storm of delight among the audience - it was evident that this year their opinions coincided.

This award was not the only one at the festival. After all, one of its many tasks, as the organizers consider, is encouraging teams working in the area of inclusive dance. 10 teams received diplomas of laureates of the 1st degree, 16 became laureates of the 2nd degree, 43 received laureates of the 3rd degree and another 28 teams won awards. Winners and prize-winners in each of the 25 nominations of the Grand Cup competition received their awards. And on October 29, a solemn presentation of the awards “For the Contribution to the Development of Inclusive Dance in Russia” took place in the nominations “Debut of the Year”, “Discovery of the Year”, “Promotion of the Year”, “Leader of the Year”, “Teacher of the Year”, “Choreographer of the Year” About 50 best teams and specialists in inclusive dance were nominated for these awards.

Almost all the participants of the festival left Moscow, determined to develop their creativity and meet a year later at the next festival Inclusive Dance. Here is a review of one of them, the head of the ensemble "Vdohnovenie" from Saratov Anatoly Timofeev.

“We are not the first time participating in the festival, but for the first time we received the right to perform in a gala concert, which the ensemble members are very pleased about. In addition, we won in two nominations of the “Big Cup”. This festival gives us a positive charge, which lasts for a whole year! It helps teams to find new goals and objectives for their development. Here we saw a lot of interesting and strong dancers from all over the country, we became friends with many of them. We have something to learn from each other! The number of participants in the festival grows from year to year, their skill level grows, and this is a new challenge for each of us. ”