After many hours of sweat and toil, and many Sleeping Beauties, Esmeraldas and Le Corsaires, the Youth American Grand Prix came to an end on Saturday. The winners were announced, true to YAGP style, to a full house at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, with the hundreds of contestants presented on stage grouped by nationality.
The winner of the top overall award -- the Grand Prix Senior award -- went to Joonhyuk Jun (17), a South Korean studying at the Royal Ballet School in London. He was a clear winner. Performing the variation from La Bayadere, he has a huge, thrilling jump and a very mature style.
The men’s senior section was won by Narcisco Alejandro Medina Arias from Cuba. Second went to Stanislaw Wegrzyn, from the Ballett-Akademie Hochschule for Musik und Theater in Germany, and third to Motomi Kiyota, from Japan. In the women's senior section (12 to 15 years) the winner was Yu Hang (16) from China. Second place went to Thays Golz (18) from Brazil, and third place went to Australian Makensie Henson (15), a pupil of Prudence Bowen Atelier. The junior boys’ category was won by Itsuku Masuda (12) from Japan. Second place was shared by Samuel Gest (14) from the US and David Perez (12) from Mexico. Third place was also shared: by Yago Guerra (14) from Brazil and Sheung-Yin Chan (14) from Hong Kong.
The junior women's section was won by Ashley Lew (12), from the US, while second went to Eri Shibata (14) from Japan and third place was shared by Kotomi Yamada (13) from Japan and Bridgid Walker (14) from the US. The Junior Grand Prix for Best overall went to Antonio Casalinho (12) from Portugal. Again, he was a clear winner, with very advanced technique and maturity for his age.
Makensie was the only Australian to receive a medal but a number were offered scholarships. Talia Fidra, from Classical Coaching Australia, has been invited for a year to the Houston Ballet Academy, Amia Mason (from Regional Academy of Performing Arts) has been offered a place to the Academy of Performing Arts in Munich, and Layla Maxine Burgess, from the Annette Roselli Dance Academy, has been offered a professional contract with the American Ballet Theatre studio company.
Madison Ayton, also from Annette Roselli, came in the top 12 junior women.
New Zealander Lilly Maskery, from the Philippa Campbell SChool of Ballet, also has an offer to go to Munich and George Liang, presently at the NZ School of Dance, received a trainee award from the Joffrey Academy of Dance in the US.
The list was as correct as possible to ascertain at the time of writing.
- KAREN VAN ULZEN (direct from NY)
See our full article, with more photos, in the June/July issue of Dance Australia.
Photos top to bottom: Joonhyuk Jun, Makensie Henson and Layla Maxine Burgess,.
