YOUTH AMERICA GRAND PRIX Awards 649 Scholarships at Australian Competition

Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), the world's largest student ballet scholarship competition, has announced the winners of its Australian regional competition, held this past weekend in Sydney, Australia.

'Every year, we look forward to coming to Sydney. There are so many talented, wonderful dancers here in Australia, and it is always exciting to see their passion and potential,' said Larissa Saveliev, Founder and Artistic Director of Youth America Grand Prix. 'We are so happy to celebrate this year's winners and so proud of every dancer who shared their talent and hard work with us. What makes this experience especially meaningful is what comes next: 649 scholarships have already been offered to dancers, opening doors to further training and new possibilities. More offers come in every day! It is incredibly rewarding to know that our time in Australia can be the beginning of such important journeys for these young artists.'

The scholarships are to elite schools and companies around the world including ABT Studio Company, ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, Accademia Teatro alla Scala Ballet School, Australian Ballet School, Dutch National Ballet Academy, John Cranko School of the Stuttgart Ballet, Princess Grace Academy of Monaco, School of the Hamburg Ballet, San Francisco Ballet School, Zurich Dance Academy, and many more.

531 young dancers participated in the competition, representing leading dance schools and academies from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Taiwan. The weekend offered dancers the opportunity to perform before an internationally renowned panel of dance professionals and compete for top honors in classical and contemporary dance, as well as Pas de Deux and ensemble categories.

In the Senior Classical Dance Category for Women, Holly Robinson, 16, of Dance North Academy, Australia, took First Place, followed by Xirui Xu, 15, of Queensland Dance Centre, and Sophie Simonds, 15, of Amanda Bollinger Dance Academy, who tied for Second Place. Kasia Macdonald, 16, of Papilio Atelier in New Zealand, received Third Place. In the men's category, Angus Fraser, 16, of Amanda Bollinger Dance Academy, won First Place, with Jiaze Yue, 16, of Tanya Pearson Academy, in Second, and Reuben Pitchforth, 19, of The Graduate College of Dance, in Third.

In Senior Contemporary Dance, Kayla McKinnon, 17, of The Academy Australia, was awarded First Place among the women, followed by Abbie Crozier, 15, of Bergen Lavelle Classical Coaching, and Holly Robinson, 16, of Dance North Academy. Among the men, Brent Helm, 16, of TJS Dance Academy, took First Place, followed by Cristian Van Den Broek, 19, of Dance North Academy, and Jiaze Yue, 16, of Tanya Pearson Academy.

The Junior Classical Dance Category saw Cindy Xinyi Zhang, 14, of The Grand Ballet of Hong Kong, take First Place, while Annie Li, 12, of Australia, and Venus Sarabia, 13, of Hong Kong, tied for Second Place. Finlay Hunter, 14, of New Zealand, and Maci Smith, 14, of Claudia Dean Academy, tied for Third Place. In Junior Contemporary Dance, Shelby McAuliffe, 14, of The Perth School of Ballet, won First Place, followed by Maci Smith and Beatrix Griffiths-Witt.

In the Pre-Competitive Classical Dance Category, Eliza Goodwin, 10, of Claudia Dean Academy, took First Place, with Avianna Neilson, 11, of The Perth School of Ballet, in Second and Yu Tian Lim, 10, of Pei School of Dance in Singapore, in Third. The Contemporary category was won by Avianna Neilson, followed by Willow Campbell, 11, of Bergen Lavelle Classical Coaching, and Maisie Skye, 11, of Claudia Dean Academy.

The Hope Award was presented to Yu Tong Lim, 11, of Pei School of Dance in Singapore. Additional honors included First Place in the Senior Pas de Deux category for Coppélia, performed by Sophie Simmonds and Angus Fraser of Amanda Bollinger Dance Academy. In the Ensemble category, Dance North Academy took First Place for Hallelujah, followed by Pei School of Dance in Singapore with Envision and Whitney Schofield Dance Academy with Shadows.

The competition was adjudicated by an international panel representing some of the world's leading ballet and contemporary dance institutions. Judges included Megan Connelly, Artistic Director & Head of School of The Australian Ballet School; Matthew Dibble, Repetiteur for Twyla Tharp Dance; Era Jouravlev, Artistic Director of the Ballet Trainee Program at Joffrey Ballet School; Kenta Kura, Director of K Ballet Academy; Ashley McNeil, Director of Alberta Ballet School; Robert Parker, Artistic Director of Elmhurst Ballet School; Garry Trinder, Director of the New Zealand School of Dance; Natalia Bashkatova, Assistant Artistic Director & Head of the Scholarship Department – USA at YAGP; and YAGP Co-Founder Gennadi Saveliev, Ballet Master of ABT Studio Company, alongside YAGP Founder & Artistic Director Larissa Saveliev.

The weekend provided hundreds of young dancers with an opportunity to perform, receive feedback from leading international dance professionals and connect with peers from across the region.

About Youth America Grand Prix

Youth America Grand Prix is the largest global network of dance. YAGP fulfills its mission of dance education through scholarship auditions, master classes, alumni services, and performances. Over the past 27 years, $5 million has been awarded in scholarships to the world's leading dance schools, with up to $450,000 now awarded annually. Since YAGP's founding in 1999, over 200,000 young dancers – ages 9 to 19 – of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds have participated in YAGP's international workshops, audition classes, and dance awareness events. Today, more than 12,000 young dancers audition annually. 450 YAGP alumni are now dancing with 80 professional companies around the world, including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Mariinsky Ballet and many others. Over 100 of these alumni are soloists and principal dancers. Larissa Saveliev founded YAGP after training and touring with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, before moving to the United States in the early 90's.