Aurelian Child-de-Brocas has done it again. After winning the Gold Medal at the 2012 Royal Academy of Dance Genee International Ballet Competition at the end of last year, he has now won first prize at the Australian Institute of Classical Dance’s annual scholarship.
The prize consists of a six-week training course at the Houston Ballet Academy Intensive Summer Program, in Texas, US, including airfare, tuition, meals and accommodation.
Aurelian (15) is a New Zealander but studies at Alegria Dance Studios in Sydney. He will follow in the footsteps of previous winners who have travelled to Houston, including Joel Woellner and Rhys Kosakowski, who now have contracts with the Houston Ballet Company. He was picked from 54 entrants by adjudicator Claudio Munoz, the ballet master at Houston Ballet II.
The runner-up was Sara Adrion, from Jennifer Rogerson Studio in Sydney, while the Encouragement Award went to Rhiannon Smith, from Prudence Bown Atelier on the Gold Coast. A special award of three months’ free tuition at Houston went to Caleb Durbin, a pupil at the National College of Dance in Newcastle.
This was the fourth time the AICD has held the scholarship and this year it was held in Sydney at the Hurstville Entertainment Centre. Contestants were assessed on class work (taken by Timothy Gordon) and their solos, performed on stage.
A few days after this article was published we received the following information from Marilyn Jones, artistic director of AICD: "Unfortunately Aurelien cannot take up AICD's HBA Scholarship for personal reasons. Sara Adrlon, who was the runner up, will be going instead."