Prix de Lausanne 2024

[invisiblecircus]

The list of  selected candidates has been announced:

selected-candidates-2024.pdf (prixdelausanne.org)

None of the 5 British entries were selected but there is a Portuguese boy who trains at English National Ballet School. 

Info on the number of candidates can be found here:

nombre-de-candidats-pdl-2024.pdf (prixdelausanne.org)

[Kerfuffle]

No British again, I wonder why ? Is it because most serious students are already in full time training? Looks like it would be a good employment finding opportunity. 

[Sabine0308]

After missing out last year, I see again 3 candidates from Monaco's APG (quality screams🙆), and a few from Munich and Dresden. Nice.

[Jan McNulty]

1 hour ago, Kerfuffle said:

No British again, I wonder why ? Is it because most serious students are already in full time training? Looks like it would be a good employment finding opportunity. 

 

Here's last year's (very long) thread which goes over that ground in part:

 

 

[Peanut68]

They all seem extremely young mostly…. in the UK (rightly? wrongly?) we tend not to train to the level that a 15-16 year old can produce a principal standard solo from classical repertoire as part of general training… with more emphasis on classes rather than private coaching….

Which route is better for producing successful ballet dancers who can enjoy a long performing career I wonder???

[Kerfuffle]

I would guess they are used to YAGP which requires perfecting principal solos and some will have done that since they were eight years old ! 

[Peanut68]

Can’t help but think if you can’t beat ‘em then you’re gonna have to join them! 

[Pas de Quatre]

They are divided into two age groups, with a different list of solos they can chose from which are age appropriate. Winners from the younger group are offered scholarships  by renowned schools for further Vocational training, whereas older winners are offered an apprenticeship year in companies. 

[Peanut68]

Really don’t understand why the top Uk upper schools are not coaching older students towards this…afterall, they are supposed to be getting them industry ready & if this is a good route in (& you only have tk read the biogs in any RB programme to see how many dancers benefited from PDL) surely it’s a must? Yet schools seem to act hush hush if they do enter one or two favourites.. surely they should want almost a whole year group to at least aspire to enter?

[Birdy]

It’s hard to write this without making a particular dancer known, but it isn’t about the dancer so much as it is about the process, because a beautiful dancer deserves the accolades. A big school not known for training kids for competitions sent someone to Prix de Lausanne, where the student has made the finals. The school is celebrating the accomplishment on social media. However, unit this fall the student trained at a local school known for having students, including this one, succeed at competitions. So the current school recruited a dancer from a competition and a few months later is claiming her as their own on the world stage. While I am very pleased for this dancer, I don’t know that it necessarily reflects the quality of training at the current school.

[Neverdancedjustamum]

2 hours ago, Birdy said:

It’s hard to write this without making a particular dancer known, but it isn’t about the dancer so much as it is about the process, because a beautiful dancer deserves the accolades. A big school not known for training kids for competitions sent someone to Prix de Lausanne, where the student has made the finals. The school is celebrating the accomplishment on social media. However, unit this fall the student trained at a local school known for having students, including this one, succeed at competitions. So the current school recruited a dancer from a competition and a few months later is claiming her as their own on the world stage. While I am very pleased for this dancer, I don’t know that it necessarily reflects the quality of training at the current school.

I’m very curious who this is @Birdy! 
 

I just saw the list of winners and saw that, as in previous years, Princess Grace Academy did extremely well once again. All 3 students they sent went on to be finalists and I believe all 3 are prize winners too. I recently saw snippets of their exam and the students all seem to be stunning dancers. The school must be so confident of their students (and their teaching!) to livestream exams and sometimes, I’ve seen them stream classes too.  I understand a good number of their current students are already prize winners from various competitions but then again, the same is the case for (some) other vocational schools.

Edited February 3 by Neverdancedjustamum

[Aklf]

 

Firstly-Congratulations to all of the hugely committed and talented dancers performing at the Prix this year! 

 

I was curious and skimmed through the top prize winners in the past 10 years. I believe there have been only 2 female gold medal winners in that period and the most recent 5 years have all been won by men. 

 

Can anyone who is familiar with the history of the competition  let me know whether the format has always been the same? It seems that the jury may have a tough time evaluating the dancers given the vastly different repertoire presented by men and  women and their innate physicality.

 

For me personally, it would be far easier to have separate male and female winners. The sheer virtuosity displayed by the men is hugely impressive and difficult to beat in terms of gravity defying leaps and turns- Such dynamics and power. By contrast, the women are wearing pointe shoes and presenting repertoire that often requires it to be judged against a more subtle and nuanced set of criteria and skills.

 

As the vast majority of classical

Ballets feature separate male and female Solos and also PDD, I feel there is space to celebrate the best of each. The repertoire has been choreographed and designed to showcase the different strengths of each so it would be wonderful to reflect that in an equitable way in the prize giving. 

 

[Neverdancedjustamum]

On 03/02/2024 at 17:47, Birdy said:

It’s hard to write this without making a particular dancer known, but it isn’t about the dancer so much as it is about the process, because a beautiful dancer deserves the accolades. A big school not known for training kids for competitions sent someone to Prix de Lausanne, where the student has made the finals. The school is celebrating the accomplishment on social media. However, unit this fall the student trained at a local school known for having students, including this one, succeed at competitions. So the current school recruited a dancer from a competition and a few months later is claiming her as their own on the world stage. While I am very pleased for this dancer, I don’t know that it necessarily reflects the quality of training at the current school.

Based on what I’ve read in another part of this forum and what I’ve seen on Instagram, I guess you meant one of the prize winners from ABT JKO School. In quite a unique move (I thought) I’ve never seen an AD of a well-known vocational school do, Stella Abrera posted on her Instagram and publicly acknowledged the candidate’s former school for the “wonderful training received prior….”.

[Pas de Quatre]

That is refreshing. I was a bit disappointed that in her acceptance speech  for her lifetime award Alessandra Ferri didn't mention any of her teachers or training. She said her ballet journey started at the PdL, but how did she get there? It sounded as though like a butterfly, a fully formed dancer had emerged from a chrysalis!

[LinMM]

Do you think she meant that her recognition as a dancer started at the Pdl? 

[Aurora3]

On 04/02/2024 at 11:11, Aklf said:

 

Firstly-Congratulations to all of the hugely committed and talented dancers performing at the Prix this year! 

 

I was curious and skimmed through the top prize winners in the past 10 years. I believe there have been only 2 female gold medal winners in that period and the most recent 5 years have all been won by men. 

 

Can anyone who is familiar with the history of the competition  let me know whether the format has always been the same? It seems that the jury may have a tough time evaluating the dancers given the vastly different repertoire presented by men and  women and their innate physicality.

 

For me personally, it would be far easier to have separate male and female winners. The sheer virtuosity displayed by the men is hugely impressive and difficult to beat in terms of gravity defying leaps and turns- Such dynamics and power. By contrast, the women are wearing pointe shoes and presenting repertoire that often requires it to be judged against a more subtle and nuanced set of criteria and skills.

 

As the vast majority of classical

Ballets feature separate male and female Solos and also PDD, I feel there is space to celebrate the best of each. The repertoire has been choreographed and designed to showcase the different strengths of each so it would be wonderful to reflect that in an equitable way in the prize giving. 

 

Yes, Prix de Lausanne cleary favours boys! That´s one of the reasons I don´t like it (the other is that I am not a fan of the French style, I like Vaganova much better)!

 

[Sophoife]

22 hours ago, Neverdancedjustamum said:

Based on what I’ve read in another part of this forum and what I’ve seen on Instagram, I guess you meant one of the prize winners from ABT JKO School. In quite a unique move (I thought) I’ve never seen an AD of a well-known vocational school do, Stella Abrera posted on her Instagram and publicly acknowledged the candidate’s former school for the “wonderful training received prior….”.

 

To see the post in the *other* PdL thread (in Ballet news and information)...

[Peanut68]

On 05/02/2024 at 22:05, Aurora3 said:

Yes, Prix de Lausanne cleary favours boys! That´s one of the reasons I don´t like it (the other is that I am not a fan of the French style, I like Vaganova much better)!

 

I think it very much reflects the recruitment difficulties in employing enough male dancers…. So giving more prizes to males helps secure them for companies who all compete for the make talent…. Not always even just about getting the best….just getting enough with required skill set. It’s a buyers market for male dancers…look how many fully funded opportunities there are in early years training to encourage boys to enter dance…. Rarely a freebie for girls as the numbers starting/continuing to advanced level are so much higher!  I am not by any means suggesting the make dancers are not worthy winners or any less talented. They are all amazing. Just reflecting that at high desirability level where companies/top schools all vying for the best talent, there are perhaps 1 male dancer to maybe 50 girls? That’s just a wild stab in the dark from me…. Has anyone got any accurate idea if numbers? Be interesting to know if so! I do feel the balance is getting better… as in more make dancers…. Bit of course there are not fewer girls… so, based on a typical classical rep company, there are still way more girls available for each company position than boys. In more contemporary fields I think it’s more likely to be getting ever closer a 50:50 split as time rolls on and becoming a more even playing field….