Youth America Grand Prix, Grander Than Ever
What: Scholarship competition and 2 Galas
When: April 19-23, 2006
Where: Manhattan at various sites and City Center
In just seven years, YAGP has grown into a worldwide opportunity for young pre-professional dancers to gain scholarships, medals, and awards and see two galas with international stars in performance. YAGP competition categories in ballet are for seniors, 15-29 years of age; juniors, 12-14 years old; and pre-competitive entrants, 9-11 years old. Other categories include pas de deux, ensemble and contemporary dance. The opportunity to take class with faculty from American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Béjart, Franco de Vita (director of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School at ABT); Birmingham Royal Ballet and a total of 13 renown ballet masters, is in itself rewarding.
Part I, the competition. YAGP's artistic director, Larissa Saveliev and executive director Gennadi Saveliev (who performs with ABT) both founders, studied at the Bolshoi Academy in Moscow and had become members of the Bolshoi Ballet. YAGP started on a pointe shoe string and has seen over 10,000 young dancers since its founding. This year, they and their staff welcomed 700 contestants, from finals and semi-finals in major U.S. cities, Japan, Mexico and Brazil, making it the biggest competit-ion in the world. From this group, 350 soloists and 300 ensemble members were chosen from a jury including Eva Evkokimova, Gloria Govrin (San Francisco Ballet), Deborah Hess (National Ballet School in Canada), Denise Jefferson (Ailey School), Tadeusz Matacz (John Cranko School in Stuttgart), John Meehan (ABT II), Mikko Nissinen (Boston Ballet), Marilyn Rose (Australian Ballet), Galiene Stock (Royal Ballet School, Garry Trinder (New Zealand School of Dance) and others.
This year's entrants competed for scholarships to 17 American schools and 8 international schools in Australia, Canada, Stuttgart, Winnipeg, La Scala, New Zealand, Princess Grace Academy in Monaco and the Royal Ballet School in England. Finalists were: Ryosuke Morimoto, 11,Tanaka Ballet Art School, Japan; Mallory Clark, 14, Yuri Grigoriev School of Ballet in California; Mariana Layn Prado, 11 and Alberto Rodriguez Velazquez, 15; Somento Artistico Cordobas, Cuba/Mexico); Hannah Schiller, 13, Pacific Coast Academy of Dance; Steven Loch, 14, Ballet Conservatory, Texas; Shiori Kase, 14, Hirose Kato Ballet Studio, Japan; Students of Orlando Ballet School, Florida; Jeffrey Cirio, 14, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet; Isabella Maylart, 13, Pavilihao d Centro De Artes, Brazil; Jun Tanabe, 17, Rock School for Dance Education, Pennsylvania; students of Southland Ballet Academy, California; Mathias Dingman, 17, Universal Ballet Academy, Washington, D.C.; Ayano Tsuchiya 18, Setsuko Ichikawa Ballet, Japan; Joseph Gorak 16, Orlando Ballet School, Florida; and Sergei Polunin, 16, Royal Ballet School, UK. Christopher Wheeldon, resident choreographer of NYCB, as MC, took a distant interest in the announcements and was in appropriately dressed for the importance of the occasion. It all ended in a splendidly arranged grand défilé for 200 students by Carlos dos Santos, Jr. Whew.
Part II. Stars of Today, Saturday, April 22 and Sunday April 23. This part of the competition presented artists from international companies and began with a moving and ethereal performance by Julie Kent (ABT) and Artem Shpilevsky (Berlin State Opera); in "Giselle." Katrine Plantadit and Ian Carney from "Movin'Out" danced an excerpt from the musical, followed by Wendy Whelan and Sebastien Marcovici (both from NYCB) in a sensational pas de deux choreographed by an upcoming choreographer, Edward Liane; Jason Hartley of Washington Ballet then performed a solo by Trey McIntyre. The sensation of the evening was the "Grand Pas Classic" tossed off with élan by members of the Ukranian National Opera/Bolshoi Ballet, Denis and Anastasia Matvyenko. Recovery from all the technique came in the form of Yasmine Lee of Momix in her charming "The Last Vaudevillian." This was a surprise: heartthrob Igor Zelensky and boneless Yana Serebriakov from the Mariinsky Theatre in Fokine's "Scheherezade" steamed up the stage. Darcy Bussell, and David Makhateli of the Royal Ballet, performed the moving death scene from "Manon," (This entire ballet will be featured in ABT's upcoming season.) Gennadi Saveliev (ABT) performed his gravity defying "Gopak." The performance closed with a performance Mr. B would have loved: his "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux" was danced with elegance and energy, wit and charm by French-born, Sofiane Sylve (NYCB) and Brazilian Marcelo Gomez (ABT). Gomes has shown a swift and spectacular rise to artistry from his student days at Harid Conservatory, in Boca Raton.
The competition performance at City Center on Sunday, April 23, brought all the artists back including YAGP alums, Sarah Lane and Joseph Phillips in a good interpretation of the warhorse favorite, "Diana and Acteon." The Ukranian National Opera dancers performed a mystifying "Radio and Juliette" while Yasmine Lee performed her mesmerizing "Orbit," done with a huge metal ring around her waist. Irena Veterova of Wiedbaden Ballet and Gregor Hatala of the Vienna State Opera performed "La Vie en Rose," yep, by Edith Piaf and Jacques Brel; while Part and Shpilevsky returned in a weak, unsuitable "Black Swan." Cedar Lake, the new company and site in Manhattan, brought their sensational Roderick George to a ballet stage, followed by a repeat of "Scheherezade" and "Manon," for which Makhateli should receive the Olivier Award. Alas, Gillian Murphy (ABT), Matvyenko and David Hallberg (ABT), ill-matched, performed an uninspired pas de trois from "Le Corsaire." It was not a finale piece, but in summing up the two evenings, YAGP now competes with gala evenings everywhere and provides a scholarship extravaganza. Bravo. For more information: www.YAGP.org/competition.