North Carolina School of the Arts Dance Student Wins Gold Medal at International Ballet Competition
Winston-Salem - Joseph Phillips, a rising high school senior in the School of Dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts, has won a gold medal at the 2002 USA International Ballet Competition.
The competition, which is held every four years, hosted nearly 120 dancers from more than two dozen nations. Phillips took the gold and a $3,000 cash prize in the men's junior category, for dancers 15 to 18
years of age. (Phillips was 16, but turned 17 on July 25.) Competitors in the IBC are not judged against each other, but against standards set by previous winners. The gold is only awarded by the judges when merited, and only one other gold medal was awarded this year, in the women's senior category.
The Clarion-Ledger of Mississippi called Phillips "the consistent crowd pleaser" at the competition.
Phillips was born in Montgomery, Ala., but grew up in Columbia, S.C. He began his ballet studies with Anita Ashley at Columbia Ballet School. He studied with Wrenn Cook at Hand Middle School in Columbia, as part of the Richland County School District One Arts Program. From 1999 to 2001, he studied at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, where his teachers were Stanislav Issaev, Andrea Pell and Sandra Neels. Phillips won the Youth Encouragement Award at the Helsinki International Ballet Competition 2001.
Last fall, Phillips enrolled as a high school junior at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studies ballet. He is the son of Linda Phillips of Columbia, S.C., and Stephen Phillips of Charleston, S.C.
This is not the first time an NCSA student has won at IBC Jackson. The late Edward Stierle won
gold in the junior division in 1986 before going on to a short but triumphant career with The Joffrey Ballet. Janie Parker, retired principal dancer with Houston Ballet, won gold in the senior division in 1982.
For more information, visit the School's web site at www.ncarts.edu. •