6 Americans chosen for 45th Prix de Lausanne

The Prix de Lausanne, an international ballet competition for young dancers, recently announced its 2017 selected candidates. The event, which will take place on January 29-February 5 at Théâtre de Beaulieu in Lausanne, Switzerland, accepted 74 competitors.  

There were 338 candidates (244 girls and 94 boys) from 36 different countries who applied for video selection. See the complete list of the 2017 selected candidates here. The six candidates chosen to represent the United States are: Bret Coppa of the University of North Carolina’s School of the Arts; Max Follmer of the School of Richmond Ballet; Lauren Hunter of the Peninsula School of Performing Arts; and the Houston Ballet Academy’s Daniel McCormick, Caroline Perry and Andrew Vecseri.

Artistic Director Shelly Power wishes to acknowledge the valor of each applicant. She stated, “This year is a remarkable year due to the unprecedented amount of applicants wishing to take part in Prix de Lausanne. A lot of preparation goes into these videos and we wish to applaud each student’s efforts. The jury was careful to recognize the potential of each candidate and although only a select few were chosen it should not discourage others in their future goals. The Prix offers a unique experience unlike any other competition and has done so for 44 years. We congratulate those selected and look forward to the 45th anniversary of Prix de Lausanne.” 

In addition to Power, the jury who made the video selections was made up of: Jason Beechey, rector of the Palucca University of Dance Dresden and coordinator of the A.N.C.E Programme; Nicola Biasutti, teacher at the John Cranko School in Stuttgart; Kathy Bradney, co-director and co-founder of Igokat Academy and former principal dancer at Béjart Ballet Lausanne; Patrice Delay, co-director of the École de Danse de Genève and Ballet Junior de Genève; Clairemarie Osta, an Étoile of the Ballet de l’Opéra de Paris; Igor Piovano, the co-director and co-founder of Igokat Academy; Samira Saidi, director of Dance for the English National Ballet School; and Sean Wood, co-director of École de Danse de Genève and Ballet Junior de Genève.

At the end of this evaluation, the panel selected 72 young dancers representing 18 different nationalities to go through to the next stage of the competition. In addition, Jullie Pinheiro and Erivan Rodrigues Garoli of Brazil were chosen after the pre-selections in La Plata, Argentina, which took place from October 7-9.

Tickets for all of the 2017 Prix de Lausanne events will go on sale from December 15 at www.prixdelausanne.org.

Photo: Dancer competing at the 2016 Prix de Lausanne. Photo by Gregory Batardon.