Prix's president-elect prepares dancers for future - Presstime News - Brief Article

Dance Magazine, May, 2002 by Gail Mangold-Vine

"Aye, aye, aye"--a typical audience reactionat this year's Prix de Lausanne finals on February 3 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The awed "aye, ayes" said it all about the rich and varied styles of the 15 teenage finalists selected from 115 entrants from twenty-one countries. But this year's Prix was marked by more than fantastic dancing. It was also Jan Nuyts's final year as the Prix's artistic committee president. He shared artistic direction this year with Mavis Staines, artistic director of Canada's National Ballet School in Toronto, who takes the reins in 2003.

As a Prix juror and president of the jury, Staines helped to implement Nuyts's vision. She sees her job now as gradually building on his initiatives. Under Nuyts's direction, Prix dancers began spending a full week at the event, attending master classes and seminars as well as competing--a practice Staines plans to continue. This year she brought in Deborah Bull, a former Prix de Lausanne winner and principal dancer with The Royal Ballet for twenty years. Bull, now a BBC presenter and writer, moderated three seminars addressing "balanced and effective training with a view to enhancing performance and lengthening careers."

Like her predecessor, Staines is passionately committed to education and health issues "and increasing the sense of what's relevant in today's dance world and how to prepare for it." Being able to dance in modern idioms as well as the classical is definitely relevant, said Staines.

The finalists' facility with a range of styles was certainly evident this year. Some had done their own choreography for their "free" selection. Matthew Golding, 16, a Canadian training at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in Washington, D.C., blew the house away with a flamboyant ballet/jazz mix and came in second at this thirtieth annual edition of the Prix. Another great moment was provided by Milena Sidorova, 15, from Ukraine, whose self-choreographed interpretation of a spider mixed a classical vocabulary with a touch of the gymnast's. Sidorova came in sixth, and also won the Viewers Prize.

First prize overall and the Contemporary Dance Prize went to Yuhui Choe, 17, a Korean dancer training at the Centre d'art choregraphique franco-japonais in France. Choe was as elegant and commanding in Raymonda as she was in the expressive O! Mere, danced to traditional Jewish songs, and the pared-to-essence movement of Allegro Energico (Vasks/Kudo).

In all, eight apprentice and training scholarships to major companies and schools, like American Ballet Theatre and The Royal Ballet, were awarded to finalists aged 17 and over. A ninth Hope scholarship went to Hitomi Takeda, 15, from Japan, while the six other finalists (including just one American--Ginger Smith of the Arizona Ballet School) received "encouragement" prizes. In the absence of any Swiss finalists, semi-finalist Carrie-Ann Vail (15), won the Best Swiss Candidate prize.

The Prix de Lausanne is unique, said Staines, because for the top winners, "there are no cash prizes. The focus really is on promoting education. People who are committed to the dance and are really gifted are gifted intellectually, as well. They have the commitment, the discipline, and rigor. We must see to it that the best traditions are honored and the counterproductive and at times destructive traditions [such as lack of education, or jeopardizing health] are not. We have too much knowledge to collude with that kind of attitude."

Next year's Prix runs from January 26 to February 2. For more information or to register, visit www.prixdelausanne.org, write to Prix de Lausanne at Palais de Beaulieu, Avenue Bergieres 6, 1004 Lausanne, Switzerland, or call 41 21 643 24 05 (fax 41 21 643 24 09).