Canada’s Erin Alarie wins Genée gold at the 2026 Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition
The 17-year-old from Oakville also won the Dancer’s Own Choreographic Award, after finalists danced Ashton variations at the London Coliseum before a panel including Darcey Bussell and Kevin O’Hare.
Erin Alarie, a 17-year-old Canadian dancer, has won the Genée Gold medal at the Royal Academy of Dance’s Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition, whose final took place at the London Coliseum on Sunday 8 November.
Alarie trains at the Oakville School of Classical Ballet with Amanda Paterson. Her gold medal is sponsored by Freed of London, and she had already picked up the Dancer’s Own Choreographic Award at Friday’s semi-finals.
The medallists
- Genée Gold medal: Erin Alarie, 17, Canada – Oakville School of Classical Ballet, taught by Amanda Paterson
- Silver medal: Tsz Ho Ting, 18, China – Berlin State Ballet School, taught by Wong Ka Yan Cynthia
- Bronze medal: Chi Kok Ip, 18, China – Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, taught by the school’s faculty
- Bronze medal: Siena Murphy, 17, United Kingdom – English National Ballet School, taught by Nicola Simpson, Senri Kou and Lynne Charles
Chelsea Humm, 19, from New Zealand, received the Margot Fonteyn Audience Choice Award, and Gonzalo Toledo was named winner of the Musicality Award at the semi-finals.
Ashton on the programme
This year the RAD joined forces with the Frederick Ashton Foundation to bring Ashton’s choreography into the competition, giving candidates from around the world first-hand experience of a style known for its elegance, lyricism and expressive musicality. In the final, as well as Classical Repertoire Variations and their ‘Dancer’s Own’ solos, the finalists danced an Ashton variation, coached throughout the week at the RAD’s headquarters by Ricardo Cervera and Helen Crawford.
The audience also saw two guest performances from The Royal Ballet: soloist Marianna Tsembenhoi danced the Shadow Variation from Ashton’s Ondine, and principals Fumi Kaneko and Vadim Muntagirov a pas de deux from Sylvia.
The judges and the week
The final was judged by Dame Darcey Bussell DBE, Francesca Hayward, Kevin O’Hare CBE, Mthuthuzeli November and Lynn Wallis OBE. The semi-final panel was Ana Maria Campos, Leanne Cope and Mthuthuzeli November.
The week-long competition attracted 71 candidates from 19 countries, coached by a faculty that included the RAD’s artistic director Alexander Campbell, Carrie Taylor Johnson, Cira Robinson, Helen Crawford, Johannes Stepanek, Justine Berry and Ricardo Cervera. The pianists were Martin Cleave, Rebecca Leshures, Matthew Mills and Richard Norriss.
A launchpad since 1931
The Fonteyn – known until recently as The Genée – is one of the oldest ballet competitions in the world and the pinnacle for young dancers trained in the RAD syllabus. Founded in 1931, it has toured the globe, and past medallists include Claudia Dean, Leanne Benjamin, Steven McRae and Francesca Hayward – now on the other side of the judges’ table.
All this year’s candidates have also been considered for tuition scholarships at dance schools around the world, to be awarded in due course.
