Международный танцевальный конкурс - LT Dance China

Nijawwon Matthews is a choreographer, teacher, and performer for whom dance is more than technique—it’s a language through which a person speaks to their inner world.
His movement is alive, deep, and emotional. It leaves neither the audience nor the performer unmoved.
Nijawwon is a faculty member at Broadway Dance Center and the Joffrey Ballet School in New York, and the founder of XY Dance Project, where he blends classical training with contemporary physicality—strength with vulnerability, form with meaning.
His style is contemporary with the breath of theater: every movement carries a story, and every dancer becomes a storyteller.
He has worked as both performer and choreographer in theater, music, and television projects, creating pieces for companies and artists around the world. His classes are a true laboratory of emotion, where dancers learn to be honest—and teachers remember why they teach.
⸻
Why his experience is invaluable for educators and ensemble directors:
Today, audiences want more than technique—they want to feel.
Nijawwon teaches how to create dance that touches the heart. He shows how to convey emotion through physicality, how to build composition from inner impulse rather than mere effect.
This is what separates a powerful piece from “just a beautiful one.”
⸻
What participants will take away from working with Nijawwon Matthews:
• an understanding of how to unite dance with authentic acting presence;
• methods to “awaken” performers’ emotional expressiveness;
• techniques for storytelling through movement;
• new approaches to working with breath, impulse, and intention;
• the kind of inspiration that restores meaning to the teaching profession.
⸻
His master class is an experience that transforms.
There are no indifferent participants. After working with him, ensembles begin to see their choreography differently: every movement comes to life, every piece gains a story.
Nijawwon Matthews is contemporary dance you feel with your heart.
And that is why his presence on the LT DANCE CHINA jury sets a new standard for the entire festival.

When people talk about world-class contemporary street choreography, one of the first names is Carlos Neto.
A choreographer, teacher, and performer whose career spans New York, London, and Los Angeles, he is an example of how street energy becomes stage art.
For Carlos, movement is not just a style—it’s a way of thinking. He teaches dancers to see the idea behind the rhythm, the meaning behind the movement, and the personality behind the form. His pieces live on the edge between street freedom and stage precision—and that’s where the magic of contemporary dance is born.
He has taught at Broadway Dance Center (New York), collaborated with Warner Bros., Sony, Atlantic Records, and created for Britain’s Got Talent, music videos, and international shows.
Carlos has a rare quality: he doesn’t just “give steps”—he teaches artists to understand composition, to feel dramaturgy, and to harness the energy of the stage. After his classes, dancers start thinking like directors, and teachers begin to view their pieces through the audience’s eyes.
⸻
What a session with Carlos Neto gives you:
• an understanding of how to build a powerful contemporary piece;
• a fusion of street physicality with theatrical expressiveness;
• development of rhythm, impulse, and inner musicality;
• methods to ignite the ensemble and unlock performers’ artistry;
• concrete tools for stage work in hip-hop, jazz-funk, commercial, and contemporary styles.
⸻
Why you should attend his master class:
In a world where choreography has become a language of mass culture, it’s vital to speak it clearly and boldly. Carlos knows this language from the inside. He’ll help elevate your ensemble to the level where movement turns into a show—and a show becomes art.
His classes are an explosion of energy, creativity, and inspiration. After working with him, teachers and dancers go home with a clear feeling: “I realized our ensemble can do so much more.”

His movement seems to ignore the laws of anatomy—as if his joints play by their own rules.
But behind that astonishing flexibility lies not a trick, but a philosophy of movement.
Rauf “RubberLegz” Yasit is a German-Kurdish dancer, choreographer, and visual artist—one of the most innovative figures in contemporary dance—whose work blends breaking, contemporary, and visual art.
He began as a B-boy, but transformed breaking into a form of stage self-expression, fusing street freedom with theatrical aesthetics and architectural precision of form.
Today, RubberLegz collaborates with leading global institutions—Opéra National de Paris, William Forsythe, Van Cleef & Arpels, Red Bull, Nike, Puma—and his works are presented at major festivals across Europe, Asia, and the United States.
He doesn’t just dance—he creates new laws of movement, dismantling familiar ideas about the body, rhythm, and space. Each piece is a visual sculpture where the human body becomes a work of art.
⸻
Why this matters for educators and ensemble directors
Rauf shows that choreography is not only a craft, but a way of thinking.
He inspires you to seek individuality, step beyond genres, and experiment boldly with physicality, composition, and visual form. After meeting him, you begin to see familiar movements differently: what once seemed impossible becomes a field for creativity.
⸻
What you’ll gain from a master class with Rauf “RubberLegz” Yasit:
• new ways of working with the body and space;
• methods for creating original movement through improvisation;
• an understanding of how to unite street and contemporary in one piece;
• inspiration to be bold and find your own language;
• practices of mindful movement and freedom in choreography.
⸻
Rauf is more than a dancer—he is an artist who thinks with his body.
An encounter with him is a rare chance to touch the global avant-garde, see where contemporary dance is headed, and bring that inspiration back to your ensemble.
With his participation, LT DANCE CHINA is not just a competition—it’s a place where new meanings, new boundaries, and a new generation of dancers who think through movement are born.

The name Larisa Polunina is familiar to anyone who followed the country’s flagship dance project, “Dances” on TNT. Her pieces are always a boiling point of emotion—where the body stops merely moving and starts speaking. Larisa is a choreographer-director and teacher of contemporary dance styles who fuses stage drive with on-camera expressiveness.
She knows how to see the individual in every dancer. In her rehearsals, students don’t just learn—they open up. Polunina speaks a language understood by both teenagers and professionals: the language of the body, rhythm, and sincerity. Her approach is not about copying trends, but crafting original solutions rooted in the performer’s inner truth. That is why her work always “hooks” the audience—not only technically, but emotionally.
⸻
Why this matters for educators and ensemble directors
For ensemble leaders, meeting Larisa is a chance to breathe contemporaneity into familiar vocabulary. She shows how to turn any movement into a statement, how to transform a piece into a story the audience lives through. Polunina works with dynamics, lines, impulse, and space—and teaches how to subordinate all of it to meaning.
⸻
What you gain from working with Larisa Polunina:
• an understanding of how to build choreography that “works” both on stage and on camera;
• fresh ideas for directing and the plastic composition of a piece;
• methods to unlock performers’ artistry and individuality;
• a sense of modernity without sacrificing taste or professional standards.
⸻
Why it’s important:
Today, contemporary dance is not just a genre—it’s a language that unites generations. Leaders who allow this language into their ensembles gain not only new forms, but new energy that keeps both dancers and audiences engaged.
Larisa Polunina is the kind of teacher who makes you want to stage, experiment, and create immediately after the master class. Her appearance at LT DANCE CHINA is an opportunity to step into a living laboratory of contemporary movement—where everything breathes freedom, yet is honed to the millimeter.

Evgeny Kuznetsov is a choreographer, teacher, and director for whom folk dance is not just a form, but a living art—capable of speaking about the person, the era, and the national character.
He represents a new wave of folk-stage choreographers who preserve tradition while infusing it with contemporary directing and stage dynamism.
A laureate of all-Russian and international competitions, he is an instructor whose students win at the country’s major festivals.
His productions are marked by precise stage patterns, powerful ensemble work, and a clear directorial concept—every piece carries logic, development, character, and national temperament.
Kuznetsov is a teacher who can explain how to make folk dance come alive. He shows that even traditional material can feel fresh when you work with meaning, rhythm, composition, and energy. His master classes are a system through which every director gains practical tools for a troupe’s growth.
⸻
What you gain from studying with Evgeny Kuznetsov:
• techniques for building ensembles and directing large group scenes;
• methods for working with character and the plasticity of folk movement;
• an understanding of stage patterning and musical dramaturgy;
• ways to refresh the repertoire without losing tradition;
• inspiration and professional confidence.
⸻
Evgeny Kuznetsov is 21st-century folk choreography.
He unites the depth of tradition with contemporary stage thinking. His pedagogy restores energy, character, and taste to ensembles—and gives audiences the genuine pleasure of dance that is born from the people and lives on the stage.
It is masters like him who make LT DANCE CHINA a venue where the Russian folk school resonates at a world-class level.

When you see precise “patterns” on stage, the power of large-scale formations, and genuine folk energy—there is almost always the Igor Moiseyev school behind it. Sergey Anikin is one of its keepers and continuers: Honored Artist of the RSFSR and a leading instructor at the School-Studio of Folk-Stage Dance of the Igor Moiseyev State Academic Folk Dance Ensemble.
His pedagogy is not about pretty “forms” for their own sake. It’s about ensemble thinking: how the troupe breathes together, how the score of movements is constructed, where the dramaturgy of a piece is born. Anikin works with the “small things” that add up to great art: the set of the torso, the cleanliness of the step, masculine virtuosity without bravado, feminine plasticity without affectation, precise facial expression, and stage energy that holds the audience.
⸻
For ensemble directors, meeting Anikin is a chance to connect with the source of the folk-stage tradition. He explains complex things in clear language, offers workable frameworks, helps you see structure and rhythmic pattern in the material—and a single, living organism in the ensemble. It’s the standard of quality you want to reach, because beyond it lie jury recognition, audience applause, and a new level for your dancers.
⸻
Why this matters right now. Competition on stage has grown: those who win are the ones who combine the folkloric nature of movement with today’s demands on directing a piece—cleanliness, ensemble, dynamics, image. The Moiseyev school provides that foundation. Anikin helps you lay it quickly and reliably.
⸻
What you’ll take away from working with the master:
• criteria of “cleanliness” and ensemble that the whole troupe can grasp;
• practical principles for building large group scenes and formations;
• techniques of male and female style that read instantly in the hall;
• ways to “animate” the stage pattern through musicality and accents;
• ideas for polishing a finished piece to competition level.
If your ensemble works in the folk-stage tradition, this is a rare chance to check your course against the benchmark. Encounters like this turn festival participation into a serious leap forward.