Youth America Grand Prix 2018

Apr 20

Apr 20 Youth America Grand Prix 2018

Photo Credit: Presley Ann for PMC and Annie Watt Agency

World's largest student ballet scholarship audition - YOUTH AMERICA GRAND PRIX (YAGP) - returned to the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on Thursday, April 19th for its magnificent gala. The week of ballet festivities concluded with the critically-acclaimed "Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow" in the heart of Lincoln Center.

The annually sold-out YAGP Gala featured talented young finalists of YAGP 2018 Season onstage alongside international ballet stars. NBC's Hoda Kotb, began the program by welcoming the guests to this year's performances featuring finalists from the competition alongside international ballet stars including Dutch National Ballet principal Sasha Mukhamedov, American Ballet Theatre's Isabella Boylston and Daniil Simkin, and New York City Ballet principal Daniel Ulbricht, among others.

The program also includes Tres Hombres, originally premiered in March 2018 at YAGP's partner Gala de Danza in Los Cabos, and features New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Daniel Ulbricht, multi-award-winning ballroom champion Denys Drozdyuk and So You Think You Can Dance Season 14 winner and YAGP Alum Lex Ishimoto.

This year's Gala featured several remarkable musicians, including young piano protege Rosalia Vlaeva Malik, clarinetist Weixion Wang, world-renowned pianist Jorge Viladoms, award-winning pianist Vassily Primakov, electric violinist Sarah Charness, and drummer Caleb Spaulding. Artist and illustrator Hilary Knight, best known for co-creating the 'Eloise' books has created original illustrations that was projected on stage during the Gala performance.

Following the performances continued on to the Gala Dinner chaired by Amy Astley, Ashley Olsen, Mary Kate Olsen, Colby Mugrabi, Candice Jordan Miller, Marcella Guarino Hymowitz and Lesley Thompson Vecsler in the promenade of the David H. Koch Theater. During the Gala Dinner, the original Hillary Knight drawings was auctioned off to benefit YAGP's educational efforts.

About YAGP

YAGP is the world’s largest and one of the most prestigious international ballet competitions, as well as a New York-based 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. The mission of YAGP is to provide a global network of dance organization that provides scholarship opportunities and master classes for young dancers’ ages 9 to 19 around the world. The YAGP also holds annual competitions in multiple international and national venues that continues for nearly a full year. Each season, selected students from these competitions are invited to New York City to participate in the week-long finals. These promising dancers will receive in-depth mentoring and greater scholarship, professional, and performance opportunities. In less than twenty years YAGP has become an institution – not only for the esteem of its awards, but for the exposure it provides to young dancers to be seen by, and to make an impression on, representatives of ballet schools and companies from across the globe. For more information and how to donate to YAGP, click here.

Photos courtesy of Annie Watt Agency and Presley Ann for Patrick McMullan