Miko Fogarty, a 15-year-old pre-professional ballerina training at Carmel’s Indiana Ballet Conservatory, earned a gold medal and Laureate title at the 2013 Moscow International Ballet Competition.
Fogarty competed in three junior division rounds that included variations from classic ballets and a contemporary piece specifically choreographed for this competition.
“When I was bowing to the audience after my last solo performance in the finals, I felt so relieved and happy that I did all my solos exactly how I wanted them to be,” Fogarty said. “I was especially anxious about the second round because it had the two hardest solos in it.”
The jury included 17 international ballet figures such as choreographer Yuri Grigorovich, Russian prima ballerina Uliana Lopatkina and France’s Director of the Ballet Bordeaux Charles Jude. Though 180 dancers participated, the jury chose not to award the Grand Prix.
Elvina Ibraimova and Ksenia Rychkova of Moscow’s Bolshoi Academy were among Fogarty’s formidable competitors. Ibraimova earned a Laureate title and Grand Prix of the 2012 Mikhailovsky Theatre Competition while Rychkova earned top prize at the 2012 Young Ballet Competition organized by head jurist Grigorovich. The Moscow International jury awarded gold medals to Ibraimova and Rychkova as well as Fogarty.
“It was the most amazing experience,” Fogarty said. “The whole theater was so beautiful, and it honestly felt like I was dreaming.”
Moscow’s historic Bolshoi Theatre is renowned for its acoustics and its main 2,200-seat auditorium. Though she expected the building to be large, Fogarty was still surprised.
“It was like a labyrinth backstage, and we got lost many times,” she said.
Fogarty will be preparing for a gala performance in Japan this August.
“I would love to come back to the Indiana Ballet Conservatory in Carmel to work with Alyona (Yakovleva-Randall), Tatiana (Pali), and Alexei (Moskalenko) again,” she said.
This spring, Fogarty relocated from California to train with Indiana Ballet’s Moskalenko, Pali, and Yakovleva-Randall in preparation for the Moscow competition. She was a featured dancer in the 2012 documentary First Position and has gained a dedicated group of fans in the world of ballet.