From 12 to 15 November 2024, the semi-finals at the Teatro Comunale, Vicenza
Youth Grand Prix Europe (YGPE) returns to Italy with Vicenza as its new base.
From 12 to 15 November 2024, the Teatro Comunale will host the semi-finals for the 2025 season. It is the penultimate stop, which from August has taken in Korea, Australia, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Paris, China, Singapore, and the Philippines, and will conclude next month in Spain. The Youth America Grand Prix is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
YAGP was founded by Larissa and Gennadi Saveliev, former dancers of the Bolshoi Ballet, in 1999 and was the first student ballet scholarship competition in the United States. The first semi-finals were held in three locations in the United States. In 2001 YAGP welcomed The Royal Ballet School in the UK as its first international scholarship presenter, and it was soon followed by other leading ballet schools. By 2002, Japan was holding the first international semi-finals, and the competition visited Italy’s Spoleto Festival with a performance by its students in 2007. By the competition’s 10th anniversary, 27 countries on 5 continents were represented. A general public became aware of the grand prix in 2012 when it was featured in the well-known documentary First Position.
By the YAGP’s 20th anniversary it had reached 150,000 dancers on 6 continents with its auditions, competitions, master classes and Gala performances. $4,500,000 had been awarded in scholarships to the world’s leading dance academies, and more than 450 YAGP alumni had joined over 80 dance companies around the globe.
YAGP didn’t stop during the pandemic, creating the world’s largest completely virtual (online) scholarship audition, and some dancers even received professional job offers without leaving their homes.
In 2021 a relationship began with the Nervi Festival in Genoa, Italy. YAGP’s signature “Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow” Gala was an instant hit with Italian audiences, and the gala has now become a permanent feature of the festival.
This year, the Senate of the United States Congress recognised YAGP as America’s National Youth Dance Competition.
The glorious Venetian city of Vicenza is home to 23 buildings designed by Palladio, and 24 Palladian villas of the Veneto region are listed by UNESCO as part of a World Heritage Site named ‘City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto’. It now offers the Italian stage for the Youth Grand Prix Europe, the European twin of the YAGP.
The YGPE is a non-profit foundation (based in the Netherlands) for dance education, pursuing the mission of supporting outstanding students, between 9 and 19 years old regardless of their economic position, ethnicity, or geographical origin. Italy has been a base for five years. Genoa-Nervi and Verona are the cities that have already hosted the YGPE.
At the end of the annual search, the selected young dancers will be invited to the United States to perform in a final show, in the presence of the directors of the world’s best schools and companies who will award each one a scholarship. In 2025, the finals will be held in Tampa, Florida.
Below is the 2024 Italian jury:
Kevin Durwael: Royal Ballet School of Antwerp, Artistic Director, Belgium
Davidson Farias: Ballet Ana Araujo, Choreographer / Guest Ballet & Contemporary Dance Teacher
Lucia Geppi: Princess Grace Academy, Representative, Monaco
Susan Jaffe: American Ballet Theater, Artistic Director, USA
Jan Linkens: Royal Conservatoire The Hague, Director, Netherlands
Béatrice Martel: Paris Opera Junior Ballet, Head Ballet Mistress, France
Tadeusz Matacz: The John Cranko School of Stuttgart Ballet, Director, Germany
Ernst Meisner: Dutch National Ballet Junior Company & Dutch National Ballet Academy, Artistic Director Junior Company & Artistic Director, Netherlands
Rafi Sady: Mats Ek, Stager
Jose Carayol: The Royal Ballet School, Artistic Manager and Teacher, UK
Cristina Saso: European School of Ballet, Resident Teacher/Ballet Mistress, Netherlands
Francesco Ventriglia: Alberta Ballet, Artistic Director, Canada
Larissa Saveliev: Founder & Artistic Director YAGP, USA
Gennadi Saveliev: YAGP Co-founder, USA
The same judges will hold masterclasses in the Teatro Comunale.
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Competition
12 PM – 10 PM
Master Classes
Throughout the Day
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Competition
9 AM – 10 PM
Master Classes
Throughout the Day
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Competition
9 AM – 10 PM
Master Classes
Throughout the Day
Friday, November 15, 2024
Competition & Final Round
9 AM – 6 PM
Awards Ceremony
8 PM – 10 PM
400 students will be present from Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, France, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, the United States, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and of course Italy. About 160 Italian students are participating.
Past students at the Future of Dance Gala include Vadim Muntagirov, Kimin Kim, Daniel Camargo, Cesar Corrales, Julian MacKay, Isabella Boylston, Maia Makhateli, Hannah O’Neill, Mayara Magri, Cloe Misseldine, and more recently Antonio Casalinho and Margarita Fernandes, Brady Farrar and Elisabeth Beyer, and the Italians Francesco Gabriele Frola and Angelo Greco.
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.