Competition
The chairman of the jury and the artistic director of the competition is Javier Torres, the artistic director of the Finnish National Ballet.
Representatives from well-known international ballet companies will be invited to the jury. The jury will be announced during spring 2026.
Artistic Director of the Finnish National Ballet (from 01/08/2022) Javier Torres completed his studies as a classical dancer in 1984, and in 1988 he graduated as a dance teacher of the Cuban method both at the National School of Ballet in Mexico City. From 1988 Torres continued his dance formation by participating in various classical and contemporary dance courses across Europe. In 1989 he joined the Helsinki Dance Company and in 1991 the Finnish National Ballet, where he performed until 2008.
Javier Torres has been working as a choreographer since 1984 and he has created more than 30 works: neoclassical and contemporary, like Kuukylpyjä (1991), Unen Iholta (1992), Wild Jealous Beast (1993), Boleros (1995), Poppies (2001), Nereidas (2014) and Flock (2021) and full evening ballets, like The Sleeping Beauty (2008) and The Beauty and the Beast (2014) for the Finnish National Ballet and La Bayadére (2014) for the Czech National Ballet.
Javier Torres has lectured at many international dance and medicine symposiums and conferences, e.g.in Helsinki, London, Munich and Basel. He has led international seminars focused on the psychological, physical and methodological aspects of ballet teaching. Javier Torres has been working as a freelance teacher and choreographer for professional ballet companies, including the Stuttgart Ballet, Lyon Opera Ballet, Czech, Norwegian, Spanish and Mexican National Ballets as well as Dusseldorf Ballet.
Oğulcan Borova is Head of Studio Company and Trainee Program at the Grainger Academy of the Joffrey Ballet (the official school of the Joffrey Ballet). He is also a former Ballet Master with the Finnish National Ballet and Opera and the Cincinnati Ballet, and a former principal dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, and Ballet Internationale Indianapolis.
During his career, he has been a gold medalist at the New York International Ballet Competition and the Seoul International Ballet Competition, and a bronze medalist at the Varna International Ballet Competition.
Borova has created staged productions and taught company classes at the following ballet companies: Finnish National Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Los Angeles Ballet, Turkish State Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Colorado Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet West, and BalletMet.
Prior to IBC Helsinki, he served as a judge and teacher at Youth American Grand Prix, World Ballet Competition, Burgas International Ballet Competition Bulgaria, and American Dance Competition.
Nina Ananiashvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia.
While she held the title of Prima Ballerina at the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, she also became a Principal Dancer with the American Ballet Theatre in New York City. She danced as a guest performer with The Royal Ballet, La Scala Ballet, the Royal Danish Ballet, and toured Japan extensively.
She won Gold Medals at the International Ballet Competitions in Varna and Moscow, and Grand Prix in Jackson, Mississippi.
In 2004, Nina took on the responsibilities of Artistic Director of the State Ballet of Georgia, the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre’s ballet company, as well as the Vakhtang Chabukiani Tbilisi Ballet Art State School.
She is a People’s Artist of Georgia and a recipient of the Georgian Orders of Honor and Excellence, the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity, and the Japanese Emperor’s Order of the Rising Sun, and Dance Magazine Award winner. She was named as the Honorary President of Europa Nostra Georgia, a pan-European network for cultural heritage protection.
Joan Boada is an internationally acclaimed dancer, coach, and artistic leader whose career spans many of the world’s foremost ballet stages. A graduate of Cuba’s Escuela Nacional de Ballet, he continued his training in Paris under revered masters Jacques Hamont, Pierre Lacotte, Manuel Legris, and Gilbert Mayer, refining the technical rigor and dramatic artistry that would define his career.
Boada is a laureate of elite international ballet competitions in Paris, Varna, Osaka, and Shanghai, and he has appeared as a guest artist with renowned companies including San Francisco Ballet, Ballet de Nancy Ballet de Marseille, Ballet de Manila, Victor Ullate Ballet, Australian Ballet, Royal Ballet of Flanders, and Ballet de Bordeaux. Celebrated for his crystalline classical technique, musicality, and commanding stage presence, he has earned a distinguished reputation as both a virtuoso performer and a compelling dramatic interpreter.
In 1999 Boada joined San Francisco Ballet as a Principal Dancer, excelling in full‐length classics such as Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, The Sleeping Beauty, and Don Quixote, as well as in signature works by Frederick Ashton, George Balanchine, and Jerome Robbins. His versatility led to collaborations with many of today’s most influential choreographers, including William Forsythe, Mark Morris, Roland Petit, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon.
Following his acclaimed performance career, Boada served as Rehearsal Director for Spain’s Compañía Nacional de Danza before becoming Artistic Director of the Kirov Academy of Washington, D.C. In 2019, he staged Leonid Yakobson’s Vestris for Boston Ballet, later joining Boston Ballet as Associate Director of Boston Ballet II and as a main faculty member of Boston Ballet School, where he continues to mentor the next generation of artists.
Julie Kent joined Houston Ballet as Artistic Director in July of 2023. The longest serving ballerina in American Ballet Theatre’s 84-year history, she danced a vast repertoire of classical and neo-classical roles from 1985–2015, working closely with choreographers John Neumeier, Twyla Tharp, Lar Lubovitch, Stanton Welch AM, Alexei Ratmansky, Mark Morris, Nacho Duato, James Kudelka, Jorma Elo, Kevin McKenzie and others.
Ms. Kent also danced as an international Guest Artist with the Mariinsky Theatre, New York City Ballet, Teatro alla Scala, Stuttgart Ballet, Berlin Staatsballett, Australian Ballet, Houston Ballet, Bayerisches Staatsballett, Teatro Colon, Ballet de Santiago and Tokyo Ballet.
She won the Prix de Lausanne (1986), Erik Bruhn Prize (1993) and was the first American dancer ever to win the Prix Benois de la Danse (2000). In 2012, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Performing Arts from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a “Lifetime Achievement Award” from Dance Magazine and was conferred an Honorary Doctorate from American University’s College of Arts and Sciences in 2023.
Ms. Kent also starred in the films Dancers (1987) and Centerstage (2000). From 2016–2023, she was Artistic Director of The Washington Ballet where she brought important classical and contemporary masterworks into the repertoire, commissioning over 26 world premieres.
Mário Radačovský graduated from the Dance Conservatory in Bratislava and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He began as a soloist with the Slovak National Theatre (SND) Ballet and briefly danced with the National Theatre Brno (NdB). Internationally, he excelled in the Dutch companies NDT II and NDT I, later becoming a principal dancer with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal.
From 2006 to 2010, he was the Artistic Director of the SND Ballet. He then founded and directed Ballet Bratislava. Since 2013, he has been the Artistic Director of the NdB Ballet. In September 2028, he will take over as Artistic Director of the National Theatre Ballet in Prague.
His choreographic career began in 2002 in Montreal. Internationally, he has created works for Jeune Ballet du Québec (Bolero, 2006), Grand Rapids Ballet (Romeo and Juliet, 2011; Black and White, 2012; Beethoven, 2015), Diablo Ballet (Compulsive, 2013), Royal New Zealand Ballet (Black and White, 2019), National Theatre in Belgrade (Michelangelo, 2021), and Theater Plauen-Zwickau (Masken, 2023).
In Slovakia, his SND repertoire includes Zmena (2005), Stretnutie s labuťou I., Warhol (2007), 68 (2008), and Everest (2009). For Ballet Bratislava, he created Monos (2012), Queen, and the musical Mata Hari (2013).
In Czechia, he guest-choreographed for the Prague Chamber Ballet and J. K. Tyl Theatre. Crucially, he has enriched the NdB Ballet with key productions: Osudové lásky (2012), Black and White (2015), Spolu, Beethoven (2016), West Side Story (2017), Romeo and Juliet (2019), Beethoven (2021), Rossini I and II, Unanswered Question, On the Beautiful Blue… (2022), Symphony No. 7 Allegretto (2023), and Coco Chanel (2024).
Ana Pavlović is a principal ballet dancer who was born in Belgrade and graduated from the Lujo Davičo Ballet High School in 1991. In the same year, she began her professional career at the Opera in Graz, Austria.
In 1993, she returned to Belgrade to join the National Theatre in Belgrade, where she was promoted to principal ballet dancer in 1999.
From 2022 to February 2026, Ana Pavlović also served as the Artistic Director of Ballet of the National Theatre in Belgrade.