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LAUSANNE 2021

And the winners are…

“78 out of the 82 initially selected candidates have participated in the Video Edition and 20 of them reached the Finals that took place today, via video.

At the end of the Finals, the Jury, presided this year by the Director and Choreographer of the Basel Ballet Richard Wherlock, selected 6 Prize Winners. Thanks to their scholarships, these 6 promising dancers will have the opportunity to enter one of the prestigious partner schools and companies of the Prix de Lausanne.

The 6 Prix de Lausanne 2021 Scholarship Prize Winners are:

  1. OAK FOUNDATION
    218 – António CASALINHO – Portugal
  2. BOURSE JEUNE ESPOIR
    226 – Luca ABDEL-NOUR – Egypt
  3. FONDATION ALBERT AMON
    118 – Andrey Jesus MACIANO – Brazil
  4. FONDATION CARIS – JEUNE ESPOIR
    210 – Seojeong YUN – South Korea
  5. FONDATION COROMANDEL
    236 – FUCHIYAMA Shunhei – Japan
  6. FONDATION EN FAVEUR DE L’ART CHORÉGRAPHIQUE
    231 – Ashley COUPAL – Canada

Other Awards:

NUREYEV FOUNDATION
Best Young Talent Award: 118 – Andrey Jesus MACIANO – Brazil

MINERVA KUNSTSTIFTUNG
Contemporary Dance Award: 218 – António CASALINHO – Portugal & 241 – CRUZ Rui Cesar –Brazil

FONDATION EN FAVEUR DE L’ART CHORÉGRAPHIQUE
Best Swiss Candidate Award: 226 – Luca ABDEL-NOUR – Egypt

Audience Favourite Award: 226 – Luca ABDEL-NOUR – Egypt

Finalists Award: the Finalists who have not been awarded any scholarship will each receive CHF 1,000.-, offered by Bobst SA.”

-Prix Website

This year has been beyond an exceptional year of talent at the Prix. And this year, the boys did not hold back in the Prix’s digital edition. A lot of people complained about the format this year, but I rather enjoyed it. It was nice to see each candidate individually, to see how impressive, how technically gifted, and how unique each candidate was. And while most of the world knew that Antonio was going to win, this year I was extremely impressed by the candidates from South Korea. Literally, mind-blowing.

Who were your favorite candidates at the Prix?

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Looking Forward To This Week…

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There is a lot happening in ballet this week. While the semi-finals for the YAGP are well underway, the Prix De Lausanne starts their live stream on Monday. Merde to all of the candidates competing. We get to enjoy the competition from the comforts of our own home, and then on February 5 we get to see Bolshoi’s Broadcast of Svetlana as Odette/Odile. Boom. Doesn’t get better than that if you ask me… (Book your tickets by clicking here)

Oh, and today we shoot the next cover of a Ballet Education’s Magazine. It is very exciting to announce that Ashley Baker will be photographing our cover. She is gorgeous…

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The Next Superstars of Ballet

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and the next superstars of ballet are…. (winners of the 2016 Prix De Lausanne)

126. Hang YU, 16 years old, China (Shanghai Dance School)
307. Madison YOUNG, 17 years old, USA (Houston Ballet Academy)
417. Vincenzo DI PRIMO, 18 years old, Italy (Vienna State Opera)
206. Leroy MOKGATLE, 16 years old, South Africa (Art of Motion South Africa)
314. Laura FERNANDEZ, 18 years old, Switzerland (TAZ Tanzakademie Zurich and Vaganova Ballet Academy St Petersburg)
205. Junnosuke NAKAMURA, 16 years old, Japan (Acri-Horimoto Ballet Academy)
211. Dingkai BAI, 16 years old, China (Shanghai Dance School)

Contemporary Dance Prize
314. Laura Fernandez and Vincenzo Di Primo

Best Swiss Candidate
Laura Fernandez

Audience Favorite
Leroy Mokgatle

Prix Jeune Espoir
Danbi Kim, 15 years old, South Korea (LeeWon-A Dance Academy)

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READY SET GO

Get Ready. Set. Go!

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The prestigious Prix de Lausanne has started. Every time this year the ballet community comes together to celebrate the next generation of budding superstars. There is no question that winners of the Prix are destined to be principal dancers of major companies, but there is never enough the guarantee. And, those who didn’t win at the Prix, but make the top twelve, will most likely rise to fame as well. Just because you don’t win a ballet competition doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be principal dancers. Look at the Principals of NYCB or even Misty Copeland. Though Misty did win the Spotlight Awards in Los Angeles. Apparently not as prestigious, but it was a competition under her belt. So, what attracts kids to compete in Lausanne? Like every ballet competition, they are there for one reason, and one reason only. To get a scholarship to a top school, or to join the ranks of a company.

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The Prix de Lausanne started in 1973 by Philippe Braunschweig, his wife Elvire, and Rosella Hightower. But in 1984, the Prix began to be something bigger than just a competition. It became a power house for schools to recruit talented young students. There are almost thirty schools tied to the Prix, and now the Prix serves as a platform for the world’s finest young talents. Of the ballet competitions, the Prix is arguably the hardest.

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This year the Prix will have 74 candidates compete from today till February 7, 2016. They will be going through numerous classes in both ballet and contemporary in hopes to compete in the finals to win one of the Prix prizes. Now, last year we went over the racial profiles of the Prix, so I thought I would touch on that really fast. Of the 74 competing, South Korea has the most competing this year with 13 candidates. Originally, there were 21, so more than half made it into the competition. The United States entered with 27 but was narrowed down to 4; all women. Japan will have 12 candidates competing, with Australia also have 12 competing of the 37 that originally submitted for the competition. There are 3 candidates competing who are most likely favorited to win, two from Brazil and one from Argentina. These candidates were selected during the preselections.

May The Odds be Ever in your Favor… Winners of the prix 2015

Really, the odds are never in your favor

So, as we watch the live feed February 1-6, which you can find by clicking here, we wish all of the competing candidates, “Merde!”

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Photos from http://www.Prixdelausanne.org MULTIMEDIA PRESS, photo by Gregory Batardon, concept and photo montage by loupdesign.com
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GIVEAWAY!

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a ballet education cover

Order a digital copy for $39.99 or a hard copy for $29.99 plus shipping.

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May the odds be ever in your favor… Prix de Lausanne

Well, it seems like human nature that we watch kids rise to glory, or fail miserably. In fact, over the past week, I have been glued to my computer watching the live streaming of the Prix de Lausanne. If you don’t know what that is, it is the yearly competition in which kids travel to Switzerland for a week and go through grueling classes, and interviews in hopes to be 1/20 finalists selected. All these students are competing for scholarships at one of the partnered/sponsor schools of the prix. Literally, if you win the prix you are kind of on the fast track to principal.

This year has been quite surprising, as the usual country contenders are the US, Japan, China, Korea, and of course if a Russian is competing they usually win… It is rare to ever see a French candidate compete. But this year has a surprising line up for the finalists… Australia has quite a few finalists… which is nice since the last Australian we really saw was Steven McCrae (principal at Royal now). There are quite a bit of US competitors this year, which is a good follow up since Precious Adams from the US won a scholarship and the contemporary prize last year (currently at English National Ballet). There is always a swiss candidate in the finals, as a prize always goes to the best swiss candidate. In the mix there is also Portugal this year… Now the prix has gone through a variety of phases, to announce winners, they used to hand out gold-bronze medals, cash prizes, different levels of competition… it goes on and on.. now the prix hands out six massive scholarships, along with the prizes for audience favorite, contemporary, and best swiss candidate. If you are 17+ you may also win an apprentice spot…

Why is the prix so important? Besides the fact that winners include Darcy Bussell, Marcelo Gomes, Maria Kotchekova, Laetitia Pujol etc… The prix is one of the major competitions that kids compete at in hopes to make a name for themselves as a part of ballet history.

Among the 67 candidates who took part to the Prix de Lausanne’s selections, the jury has selected 20 finalists:

GIRLS

102, Scudamore Bianca, Australia
105, Armstrong Sierra, USA
106, Park SeonMee, South Korea
107, Ray Amber, USA
108, Blenkinsop Rebecca, Australia
301, Kanehara Rina, Japan
302, Park Jisoo, South Korea
306, Spichtig Lou, Switzerland
320, Lee GaYeong, South Korea

BOYS

202, Coppa Bret, USA
203, Acevedo Austen, USA
204, Lee Harrison, Australia
205, Turnbull Navrin, Australia
210, Curley Jarod, USA
401, Pinheiro Miguel, Portugal
402, MacKay Julian, USA
406, Thomas Jack, USA
409, Ito Mitsuru, Japan
416, Hayami Shogo, Japan
419, Garcia Syvert Lorenz, Norway
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