#ballet competitions

[dancerdiaries]

Ok I did it!

It was not my best run-through, for sure, but at least I nailed the balance at the end, and that's all I was hoping for.

[ballet-symphonie]

my pet peeve for competition variations is 14 yo girls dancing black swan or raymonda variations. like, i'm sorry, there's pretty much zero dancers who have the emotional depth to pull off those variations before age 25 or so. children, no matter how technically skilled, do not have the poise for those roles.

Oh for sure...but when competitions are now treated as simply a technical exam 9 times out of 10...the number of pirouettes and the arch of the foot seems to matter far more than the music or the character -_-

[dancerdiaries]

SOMEBODY ELSE IS DOING CUPID TOO AKSKSJWNDHDFW 🤬😆

[mariaspir]

If you were a young promising ballet dancer would you rather:

🥇) first place YAGP of any country

🎖️) first place Vaganova Prix

🏅) first place Prix de Lausanne

🏆) first place Moscow Ballet Competition

Depends on what you want honestly. And your age.

YAGP is good for young kids who want stage experience and to be seen by schools at 12-16. Vaganova Prix is not as prestigious outside Russia, but if your goal is to get attention in Russian schools or companies it's the way to go. PdL is the same thing but for the rest of the world, and arguably harder because the pool of candidates is much much larger. Moscow (and Varna) are for professionals. I wouldn't go to them under 17-18 years old. They are the opportunity for young professionals to be seen by big companies and get a contract.

Personally, depending on my age as a "young student," I'd rather win gold in Vaganova or Moscow. Moscow is number 1, but not if I were 16, I wouldn't enter MIBC that young, I'd wait a couple of years. Then I'd rather win PdL and lastly, YAGP. I don't know truly how much YAGP can offer you outside of the US. Yes visibility is one thing, but it's lost so much reputation in the past few years that idk if it's the place to go.

[scriptballerina]

So are there like professional ballet competitions? If so what can you tell me what they're like?

Hi there!

Absolutely. There are lots of ballet competitions, both national and international, even though not all of them are directed to professional dancers, that is dancers that are already under contract or that have been. 

I would probably spend pages describing what a dance competition is like, mostly because they can differ greatly both in the way they are carried, in the way they are approached, and in the result and prizes that they grant. This blog however is dedicated to writers, so if you need this kind of information for one of your characters then I would need to know something more about them, like their experience, aspirations, and intentions. If you only have a genuine curiosity about ballet competitions, on the other hand, you could try to google some of the competitions I’ll be listing at the end of this post: they are considered, as far as I’m concerned, the most prestigious and important from an international point of view, but since, as I said, they differ from each other in terms of participants, prizes, resonance etc., I think that this post is not the place to describe each one of them profusely. 

Take the Prix de Lausanne, Switzerland. Many consider it the most important ballet competition in the world and it is held every year since 1973. However it is directed specifically to pre-professional dancers who want to pursue ballet as a career: good placement in the Prix grants the winners a scholarship with prestigious ballet schools and free classes to refine their technique. During the prix, participants take part in daily lessons and workshops and come to know the judges and share their experience with the other competitors over the span of roughly one week, and, of course, they also perform in the actual competition. This is not really the type of competition that a professional will take part in, also because it is only open to candidates between the ages of 15 and 18. A lot of professional etoiles participated in the prix and won a scholarship, like Gillian Murphy, Alessandra Ferri, Diana Vishneva, Carlos Acosta and Hee Seo. If you wanna know more about it, the prix has a very nice youtube channel.

Other prestigious international ballet competitions are the ones listed below, I only limited myself to international competitions, but every country will also have its own specific competitions, of course:

Prix Benois de la Danse (held in Moscow): http://benois.theatre.ru/english/

The Genée International Ballet Competition (held by the Royal Academy of Dance of London but hosted worldwide): https://www.rad.org.uk/achieve/the-genee/genee-home-page

The Varna Grand Prix (Varna, Bulgaria) http://www.varna-ibc.org/site/?lang=en

The USA International Ballet Competition (Jackson, Mississippi): https://www.usaibc.com

and of course the Prix de Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland): http://www.prixdelausanne.org/

Hope this helps!

Script Ballerina

[mysylphwrites]

Patrick Armand Q&A with Patrick Armand 2014 from Indianapolis City Ballet on Vimeo.

[dreamingofballet]

To anyone who knows about ballet competitions for dancers 18+

PLEASE HELP

[eliteballettheatre]

Competitions

A warm congratulations to all of our competitors at Showstopper this past Memorial Day weekend. After only two months of rehearsals, we couldn't have been more proud of our girls. Hard work does pay off! 

8 years and under Category Jeanie Lai, Overall 7th

12 to 14 years Category Alexandra Ling, Overall 1st Jessica Xu, Overall 3rd

Pointe Category

Jessica Xu, Platinum and Overall 1st  Alexandra Ling, Double Platinum and Overall 1st Rebecca Xu, Gold and Overall 4th Tiffany Chiang, Gold and Overall 4th Sandy Jiang, Gold and Overall 6th

Carolyn Chen, Platinum and Overall 1st Heidi Yen, Platinum and Overall 1st

Ballet Category Jessica Xu, Platinum and Overall 1st Alexandra Ling, Platinum and Overall 1st

Jeanie Lai, Platinum and Overall 2nd Angela Lee, Gold and Overall 8th Nicole Yang, Gold and Overall 11th Nicole Liu, Gold and Overall 11th Nancy Tao, Gold and Overall 11th

Halina Kwan, Platinum and Overall 2nd Kerria Pang-Naylor, Platinum and Overall 3rd Alana Barasorda, Platinum and Overall 6th Sesylia Koh, Platinum and Overall 6th 

Learning variations for competitions isn't all about rehearsals. It's about having a solid foundation in basic technique-what is learned in class. By having basics to work off of, students only need to learn the steps and refine minute details, such as their expression, style and character. So, only two months of rehearsal are necessary. 

All of our students are given an equal opportunity to go compete. This time, sixteen of our students wanted to give Showstopper a shot. They did great! Our Artistic Director encourages every students to go on stage and compete. Competitions, he says, are "a great way to learn to express yourself on stage and show off everything you have learned thus far." Of course, there are many girls who are shy and don't feel they are ready to compete. However, with our immense support system-the parents, teachers and students-they eventually say yes to going on stage! In the end, it's a learning process. It's learning to perform, to interact with the audience, to express yourself. The girls who went to Showstopper this past weekend said they can't wait to go back to Nationals in July! 

Competitions are all about discipline and hard work. Students learn focus and determination in learning their variations. They work harder in class because they have a goal to work towards. When the arrive at the competition venue, they learn to concentrate on their own corrections, so that they can perform the best they can. Finally when they step out into the lights on stage, they can relax, be themselves and just dance. 

In two weeks, two of our students will be flying to Orlando, Florida for the World Ballet Competition finals. This professional ballet competition accepts students based on DVD auditions first. There are two to three rounds of competitions, each containing up to three variations! No matter what the results end up being at WBC, there's one thing that you'll take home with you-the experience. The EBT family will be cheering you on back at home. Good luck girls!