Youth America Grand Prix 25th Anniversary

Hundreds of dancers from across the globe will join the world’s largest ballet scholarship organization – Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) – in celebrating its 25th anniversary, April 17 – 19, 2024 at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Larissa Saveliev, Founder of YAGP, says, “25 years ago, YAGP revolutionized the world of dance by changing the way the world’s dance schools and companies look for talent. 5 years ago we did it again by being a leader in taking the world of dance online. We now use our powerful social media platform not only to educate the next generation of dance artists, but also the next generation of dance audiences.”

To scout talented young dancers of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, YAGP travels country-to-country, city-to-city, to conduct auditions and provide dancers with resources and visibility to institutions, offering school scholarships and company job contracts. Those talented young dancers have turned into today’s biggest stars, dancing lead roles on the most prestigious stages around the world. Many will join YAGP at Lincoln Center in April to perform a program that includes:

The YAGP 2024 Final Round on April 17. Over 15,000 talented young dancers from 86 countries on 5 continents auditioned all over the world for a spot in the New York City Finals. The Final Round will feature some of the most promising young dancers on the planet as they audition for scholarships, job offers, and prizes. On April 17th, YAGP will also break the Guiness World Record for most dancers en pointe simultaneously in honor of 25 years!

On April 18, there will be a YAGP 25th Anniversary Gala program features two World Premieres; one by James Whiteside with American Ballet Theatre’s Isabella Boylston, Catherine Hurlin, and Jake Roxander, and live accompaniment by pianist Matthew Whitaker; a second World Premiere by Maria Konrad, with Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s Adji Cissoko and English National Ballet’s Vsevolod Maievskyi, with music by Karen LeFrak.

Stuttgart Ballet’s Elisa Badenes and Mackenzie Brown will make their New York stage debut’s, as will Mariinsky Ballet’s May Nagahisa and Paris Opera Ballet’s Bianca Scudamore.

An elegant Gala dinner will follow with chairs Paul Arnhold and Wes Gordon, Julia Arnhold, Michael and Dennis Basso, Elissa Brenner, Chelsea Clinton, Rebecca Cohen, Courtney Davis, Aly Gradone, Melanie Hamrick, Sarah Hoover, Marcella Hymowitz, Lilli Hymowitz, Lindsay Kraus, Candice Miller, Colby Mugrabi, Grace Pomeranc, Lilah Ramzi, Emily Reifel, Indre Rockefeller, Priya Shukla, Lesley Thompson Vecsler, Daniela W. Tisch, Barbara Tober, Virginia Wettlaufer Tomenson, and Lina Wallach.

YAGP Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow: Best of 25 Years takes place April 19. The program features classical, neoclassical, and contemporary masterpieces from 25 years of YAGP performances – from Don Quixote to Lady of the Camellias – as well as a World Premiere by choreographer Joshua Beamish with Benjamin Freemantle and YAGP Alumni Philadelphia Ballet’s Sterling Baca, Royal Ballet’s Melissa Hamilton, ABT’s Betsy McBride, SunMi Park, and English National Ballet’s Vsevolod Maievskyi, with music from Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms. Another World Premiere will be choreographed by Mexican choreographer Julieta Martínez, featuring dancers from the graduating classes of the world’s 4 leading dance academies: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of American Ballet Theatre (USA), Princess Grace Academy (Monaco), John Cranko School of Stuttgart Ballet (Germany), and Zurich Dance Academy (Switzerland). The program will also include some New York premieres.

YAGP celebrates its alumni as they perform for today’s leading companies worldwide and hopes, by highlighting them, to inspire the next generation of young dancers.

Visit https://yagp.org/ to purchase tickets and learn more.