Fountain of youth

Youth America Grand Prix is always cause for celebration, not only because so many young people step up to the plate (this year 132 schools from 13 countries participated), but also because the grown-ups put on a darn good show. At the April gala at City Center, the audience screamed and cheered for every act.

Even when the lights went down between numbers, hollers and hoots lingered. The strange thing is, every act deserved it, from the rhythmically astounding Takademi by Robert Battle (keep an eve on that Ricardo Zavas of Ailey II) to the robust joy of New York City Ballet's Joaquin De Luz (above) and Ashley Bouder in Tarantella. And then Jose Manuel Carreno, partnering Lorna Feijoo in Don Quixote, topped the charts with his pirouettes that morphed into exquisitely slow pelvic swirls. We were all squealing like kids at a rock concert. See www.yagp.org.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Dance Magazine, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group