Courtney Muscroft of Columbus Youth Ballet
Columbus Youth Ballet advanced pre-professional dancer Courtney Muscroft, 14, of Worthington, took home a gold medal award at the Youth America Grand Prix finals in New York City on May 6.
The Youth America Grand Prix is an international ballet competition, created in 1999 by former Bolshoi Ballet dancers Gennadi and Larissa Saveliev. An international panel of judges juried the event, which featured more than 250 dancers from the United States, Japan and Europe. The young dancers, who ranged in ages from 8 through 19, qualified from regional competitions held earlier this year.
Muscroft won her First Place in the Junior Grand Prix division, which featured dancers ages 12-14, who performed both classical, and contemporary ballet pieces. In addition to her medal, Muscroft, who has studied with CYB since the age of 6, was awarded a full, one-year scholarship from the Stuttgart Ballet School in Germany. She also won Grishko Modeling Search Award.
Said CYB founder and artistic director Shir Lee Wu, Muscroft is the first North American dancer in recent history to be awarded such a scholarship: "Stuttgart is one of the top classical ballet companies in the world. This is just such a tremendous opportunity for Courtney."
Wu founded the Columbus Youth Ballet Academy in 1986 and its performance company, the CYB Project, in 1989. All the dancers performed in the Grand Prix gala at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, which was attended by dancers, choreographers and artistic directors from such world-renowned companies as the American Ballet Theatre, the New York City Ballet and the Royal Ballet of London.
For more information about the Youth America Grand Prix competition, visit their Web site at www.yagp.org. For more information about Columbus Youth Ballet, please visit their new Web site at www.columbusyouthballet.com. •