REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Youth America Grand Prix offers dancers an invaluable opportunity to perform in front of an audience and to be seen by judges. It also highlights the warm support young dancers offer one another.
POISE ARE US: Bedazzled dancers wait offstage for their turn to perform at Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), the world’s largest ballet scholarship competition, in Purchase, New York.Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
| Purchase, N.Y.
The young dancers wait silently in the wings, their eyes tracing the graceful moves of the single ballerina who is fluttering onstage. Until the music stops, they hold their collective breath.
The ballerina curtsies and rushes offstage into the arms of friends – friends who are also her competition. Air kisses are exchanged, as none of the dancers wants to smudge their makeup. Within seconds, a new dancer struts onto the stage for her turn to shine. “Cue music,” says the stage manager.
This is Youth America Grand Prix, the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition, where distinguished judges identify promising young talent who will receive tuition to elite dance schools and programs around the globe. YAGP holds 32 regional auditions in the United States and Canada, plus 14 worldwide, with about 15,000 dancers total competing each year. In 26 years, scholarships worth $5 million have been awarded.
Here at The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, in a large room behind the stage, Daoyuan Chen gives some last-minute corrections to two dancers who are warming up. This event is an invaluable opportunity to perform in front of an audience, explains Mr. Chen, artistic director for N&D Ballet, a school in Lexington, Massachusetts. The dancers also can be seen by judges, who dish out scores and feedback, including compliments.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/StaffSTEP RIGHT UP: Daoyuan Chen, from N&D Ballet in Lexington, Massachusetts, works with a dancer in the warmup area.
Besides the judges, a smattering of parents, dance teachers, and friends sits watching the action in the huge theater. Polite applause follows each performance, with occasional loud cheering and outbursts of awe.
What are the judges looking for? Tony Award nominee Karine Plantadit, a former soloist with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, says that in addition to technique and skill, “I’m looking for how much enjoyment they have in self-expression. ... They need to say something.”
It’s sometimes hard to remember that these poised creatures are still children. Onstage, they project a maturity beyond their years, especially as they pirouette, twirl, leap, and extend their legs beyond what seems humanly possible. But downstairs, where a labyrinth of hallways leads to dressing rooms with Hollywood-worthy lighting, their adult veneers fall away to laughter, chitchat, and excitement as bedazzled costumes are donned and hairstyles perfected.
Back upstairs, more dancers await their moment. Many have the jitters, but not Kennedy Thompson, a student from CityDance Conservatory in North Bethesda, Maryland.
“I can express real emotion,” she says. “The stage is my second home.”
Melanie Stetson Freeman/StaffREACH FOR THE STARS: Kennedy Thompson, a student from CityDance Conservatory in North Bethesda, Maryland, performs a contemporary dance routine for the judges.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/StaffFACING OFF: Dancers from Ballet Central New Jersey, a school in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, apply makeup before they perform.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/StaffGOING FOR THE GOLD: Ballet shoes are pictured in a bag. In 26 years, YAGP has awarded $5 million in scholarships.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/StaffROSE TO THE OCCASION: A dancer performs for the judges.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/StaffSHE’LL JUMP FOR JOY: Judge Karine Plantadit jots down her critique of a dancer during the competition. Besides assessing performers’ skill and technique, Ms. Plantadit looks for them to be joyful.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/StaffA LEG UP: A dancer from France stretches in her dressing room. About 15,000 young people a year compete worldwide in contemporary and classical ballet at YAGP auditions.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/StaffTOE-STOPPING PERFORMANCE: A dancer on pointe warms up alongside her competition. Girls do not go on pointe until their feet and legs are strong enough, usually after age 11.
For more visual storytelling that captures communities, traditions, and cultures around the globe, visit The World in Pictures.
Page created on 6/9/2025 2:02:40 PM
Last edited 6/9/2025 2:23:29 PM
