Gold medallist ballerina Yuanyuan Zhang with partner Anpu Yuan (both from China) during the finals of the 2014 South African International Ballet Competition. Photo by Pat Bromilow-Downing.

Following on from our Part 1 story (read it here), enjoy these photos from the Finals and Awards of the South African International Ballet Competition, held on the Saturday night of 22 February 2014 at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town.

Magical moments from the SAIBC Finals and Awards

Don’t squint, click on a photo to open the gallery and pin your favourite dance pics to Pinterest. Look out for more behind-the-scenes ballet competition photos and videos to follow… [Update: find the sneak peek backstage photo gallery in Part 3 here.]

Back row, left to right: Seung Yeon Yang, Yuanyuan Zhang, Xu Jing Kun, Fu Yi Yang, Francois Llorente Nunez, Javier Monier, Rafael Quenedit Castro, Ramiro Samon, Mthuthuzeli November, Ga Yeon Jung.
Front row: Byul Yun, Yu Hang, Leroy Mokgatle, Lou Spichtig, Gabrielle Chock, Julia Conway.
Photo by Pat Bromilow-Downing

In a breathtaking and sometimes eye-popping display of talent, technique, strength and agility, 70 dancers from the ages of 11 to 28 competed and were systematically eliminated in what dancers labelled an “intense” week at the South African International Ballet Competition, held at Artscape in Cape Town from 18 to 22 February 2014.

In what’s said to be the highest level of performance ever seen at the South African International Ballet Competition, the final few dancers went head-to-head and toe-to-pointed-toe during the finals on the Saturday night competing for the top positions, medals and a share of R370 000 in cash prizes.

Big dreams come true for young South Africans

South African Mthuthuzeli November was a big winner of the night with a gold medal and a scholarship to the Ailey School in New York City. Photo by Pat Bromilow-Downing.

The South Africans held their own in the competition, with Mthuthuzeli November (20 years old) – a student at the Cape Academy of Performing Arts (CAPA) in Cape Town – taking gold in the Senior contemporary section. He had also won gold in the same category in the previous 2012 competition and this highly talented young man, originally from the Zolani township outside Montagu, so enchanted the audience that competition judge Melanie Person offered November a scholarship to the prestigious Ailey School in New York, of which she is co-director.

A second Ailey scholarship was also offered to another Cape dancer, Khanya Mandongana (17) from the Cape Junior Ballet who beamed onto stage, despite striding on with crutches thanks to a foot injury sustained during his final performance.

Young star-in-the-making, Leroy Mokgatle (14) from the Art of Motion school in Johannesburg was an impressive South African competitor in the scholar division and won a gold medal in the contemporary section as well as a silver medal for his striking classical performance of Don Quixote.

14 year old Leroy Mokgatle from Johannesburg wowed the audience with his performance from Don Quixote. Photo by Pat Bromilow-Downing.

Tough international acts to follow

But the night belonged to China with the biggest number of medals, six in total, with five golds and one bronze medal. The star of the night was Yuanyuan Zhang (19) from China, winning a double gold for both the junior classical and junior contemporary sections. You can see her perform with her partner, Anpu Yuan (21), at the Young Ballet Stars of the World gala events in Johannesburg on 25 and 26 February 2014.

Double gold medallist in the junior category, Yuanyuan Zhang. Photo by Pat Bromilow-Downing.

The South Korean dancers will travel home with two golds and two silvers across the contemporary and classical sections; and following just behind the Koreans, the Cubans were awarded two golds, one silver and a bronze medal. Two medals will also travel back to the USA and one to Switzerland.

The gold medal in the men’s senior classical division went to Ramiro Samon, who along with fellow Cuban and silver medallist, Javier Monier, are both currently dancing with Joburg Ballet and can be seen in their upcoming production of Coppélia at the Joburg Theatre in Johannesburg from 7 to 23 March 2014.

Here are the full results from the 2014 South African International Ballet Competition:

Senior Classical – Girls
Gold: R25 000: Ga Yeon Jung (21), South Korea
Silver: R15 000: no medal awarded
Bronze: R10 000: no medal awarded

Senior Contemporary – Girls
Gold: R15 000: no medal awarded

Senior Classical – Boys
Gold: R25 000: Ramiro Samon (20), Cuba
Silver: R15 000: Javier Monier (21), Cuba
Bronze: R10 000: no medal awarded

Senior Contemporary – Boys
Gold: R15 000: Mthuthuzeli November (20), South Africa

Junior Classical – Girls
Gold: R20 000: Yuanyuan Zhang (19), China
Silver: R12 500: Lou Spichtig (16), Switzerland
Bronze: R7 500: Gabrielle Chock (16), USA

The senior classical gold medal went to Cuban dancer Ramiro Samon, currently dancing with Joburg Ballet. Photo by Pat Bromilow-Downing.

Junior Contemporary – Girls
Gold: R10 000: Yuanyuan Zhang (19), China

Junior Classical – Boys
Gold: R20 000: Rafael Quenedit Castro (17), Cuba
Silver: R12 500: Byul Yun (19), South Korea
Bronze: R7 500: Francois Llorente Nunez (18), Cuba

Junior Contemporary – Boys
Gold: R10 000: Byul Yun (19), South Korea

Scholar Classical – Girls
Gold: R7 500: Yu Hang (14), China
Silver: R5 000: Seung Yeon Yang (15), South Korea
Bronze: R2 500: Julia Conway (14), USA and Fu Yi Yang (13), China

Scholar Contemporary – Girls
Gold: R5 000: Yu Hang (14), China

Scholar  Classical– Boys
Gold: R7 500: Xu Jing Kun (13), China
Silver: R5 000: Leroy Mokgatle (14), South Africa
Bronze: R2 500: No medal awarded

Scholar Contemporary – Boys
Gold: R5 000: Leroy Mokgatle (14), South Africa

Enjoy more fantastic competition photos from the finals in Part 2 here, with a behind-the-scenes sneak peek photo gallery in Part 3 here.

Winning the gold medal for her contemporary performance at the recent South African International Ballet Competition, Yuanyuan Zhang now performs her piece with partner Anpu Yuan to Joburg audiences. Photo by Pat Bromilow-Downing.

The double gold medallist awarded at last week’s South African International Ballet Competition, Chinese ballerina Yuanyuan Zhang, will perform with partner Anpu Yuan for just two performances in Johannesburg this week.

Joined by exceptional dancers from South Korea (the Korean Youth Ballet Stars), Cuba (from the National Ballet of Cuba), along with other competition winners and upcoming South African stars (including Johannesburg’s very strong Art of Motion dancers), you can see these dancers perform at the Young Ballet Stars of the World gala events on Tuesday 25 February and Wednesday 26 February at 8pm at the Lyric Theatre, Gold Reef City.

Booking details:

Dates: Tuesday 25 February 2014 at 8pm; Wednesday 26 February 2014 at 8pm.
Venue: Lyric Theatre at Gold Reef City, Johannesburg
Tickets: R120, R250 or R360 via Computicket.com.

Photo by Photoloni via Flickr

What started as a clever marketing initiative to attract new audiences to the ballet, has now evolved into an exciting competition for ballet studios and dance groups.

South African Mzansi Ballet (SAMB) has taken their good idea – of allowing select studios to perform during their Don Quixote intervals – and created an even better initiative by creating a competition open to all ballet and dance groups in Gauteng, with various prizes and dance opportunities awarded to the winners.

The Just Dance! competition will take place during the September performances of SAMB’s new production of the classical ballet, Cinderella, at the Joburg Theatre between 13 and 29 September. Studios and groups will compete for prizes awarded in recognition of a combination of entertainment values and technical accomplishment. The competition is open to dancers across all dance techniques.

Prizes and dance opportunities:

A wide range of awards will be presented, with awards going to the winning groups as well as specific awards to individual participants for which all will be eligible, not just the dancers in the finalist groups. In addition to the cash awards and other prizes, performing opportunities will be awarded by the judges.

Entrants will also receive discounted tickets to SAMB’s new production of the classical ballet, Cinderella. The judging panel will feature well-known personalities from the dance and entertainment field and the judges will be looking for a “wow!” factor and dance that combines entertainment with solid technique.

SAMB dancers Claudia Monja and Nelson Nunez. Photo by Susanne Holbaek courtesy of SAMB.

Competition and application details:

The closing date for applications is Friday 2 August 2013, after which auditions will be held at the Joburg Theatre and, facilitated by SAMB’s Development Programme, also in Soweto, Mamelodi, Olifantsfontein and Alexandra to choose the competing groups who will perform at the Joburg Theatre in September.

Competing groups must commit to performing in the preliminary rounds as well as in the finals and performing in both rounds is a condition of participation. Semi-finals will take place in the SAMB studios at the Joburg Theatre.

Groups must comprise of five or more dancers; all dance styles are welcome and each work may be no longer than 4 minutes. No sets or props will be allowed and basic stage lighting will be provided onstage.

Three selected groups will perform at each Cinderella performance, either before the show or during the interval. Six semi-finalist groups will be selected to perform at the final performance of Cinderella and the winners will be announced after that performance. On the final day of the programme, Sunday 29 September at 11am, all groups that participated in the programme will re-assemble for a performance featuring all groups; and later that same day the finalists will perform in the intervals of the season’s final Cinderella performance.

For more information or for an application form please call Edgar Moagi on 011 877 6898 or email him on edgar@samzansiballet.com.

South African dancer, Kathleen Videira, has competed in both the YAGP and the Cape Town International Ballet Competition. Photo by Pat Bromilow-Downing.

For aspiring young ballet dancers wanting to follow in Michaela DePrince or Joan Sebastian Zamora’s grand jeté steps – two dancers who excelled at the Youth America Grand Prix competition, as seen in the movie First Position – you’ll want to be at Montecasino in Johannesburg for South African auditions on Sunday 30 June.

The next Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) takes place in New York between 3 and 11 April 2014 and is one of the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competitions, awarding over $250 000 annually in scholarships to leading dance schools worldwide.

Ballet competition details:

The competition is open to dance students of all nationalities between the ages of 9 and 19 years old.

The auditions are not open to the general public, and will take the form of a classical ballet class to be given by Gennadi Saveliev, a former dancer of the world-renowned Bolshoi Ballet.

Gennadi and Larissa Saveliev launched the Youth America Grand Prix in 1999, with a mission to provide extraordinary educational and professional opportunities to young dancers and act as a stepping stone to a professional dance career.

Watch Gennadi Saveliev in action in this short video clip, where he danced a special performance for So You Think You Can Dance…

Now preparing for its 15th Season, YAGP has awarded over $2 million in scholarships to leading dance schools around the world and over 300 YAGP alumni are now dancing with 50 ballet companies, including New York City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, among others.

Audition details:

If you can see yourself competing in New York in April next year, then make sure to register yourself for the audition in Johannesburg at the end of June.

Date: Sunday, 30 June 2013 at 10am
Venue: Teatro at Montecasino, Johannesburg
Registration information: For more information or to register for the Johannesburg auditions, contact Jonathan Hurwitz on 011 877 6901 or jonathan@samzansiballet.com. You can also learn more about the competition on the YAGP website here.

And here’s one more video to enjoy – this one has some great backstage and onstage footage featuring dancers in the junior division (ages 12 to 14) at the 2012 YAGP finals.

Five minutes on stage will change their lives forever…

To find out more about the movie, the dancers and their dreams, read the story here.

Click on a picture to open the gallery.

Rebecca Houseknecht waiting backstage. Photo courtesy First Position Films.

“At least 5000 enter the competition, and then only a couple hundred make it to New York. You have five minutes on stage to prove why you deserve this chance.”

These words, heard on the First Position movie, refer to the Youth America Grand Prix finals, one of the world’s most prestigious ballet competitions and also one of the most grueling.

First Position – Bess Kargman’s award-winning ballet documentary – follows the lives of six young dancers aged 10 to 17, as they prepare themselves for this competition, pursuing their dreams for a chance to enter the world of professional ballet.

Lights, Camera, Action! Photo courtesy First Position Films.

First Position Films

Peek backstage

However, the movie is so very much more than seeing if the dancers win or lose. Instead, it gives us a backstage peek into the onstage and offstage lives of the dancers, including their everyday habits and routines – what they eat, how they train, when they play, how they train, how they train and how they train.

Yes, these youngsters are performing at such a high level, that they’ve sacrificed many aspects of their childhood and replaced it with sheer dedication and focus. Nothing short of perfection is expected, but we get to see how the dancers fight exhaustion, injuries, home-sickness and their own self-confidence in their never-ceasing achievement of that perfection.

It’s sometimes edge-of-your-seat, sometimes heart-in-your-throat viewing, where you anxiously watch the dancers slip and fall but also triumphantly succeed. It all makes for the most thrilling, exhilarating and deeply heart-warming true story.

See this trailer for an excellent introduction to the movie:

Meet the six young and tremendously talented ballet stars

Apart from their obvious talent and charm, the dancers also seem to have been purposely selected to challenge and break old ballet stereotypes – showing that not all boy dancers are gay, not all girls are anorexic divas, dancers aren’t all privileged and rich, and you don’t have to be white to succeed.

The beautifully dynamic Michaela DePrince. Photo courtesy First Position Films.

In fact, Michaela DePrince, an adopted war-refugee from Sierra Leone who was 14 at the time of filming, wanted to prove to the competition judges, and the world, that black dancers could be just as graceful as any of her fellow white competitors. South African audiences were certainly wowed by her beautiful grace and strength when she was invited by SA Mzansi Ballet to perform as Kitri in select performances in their recent season of Don Quixote.

At just 12 years old, Miko Fogarty – half-Japanese, half-American – has a strength that startles, not just in her ballet technique, but in her absolute determination. However, despite her mother’s best persuasive efforts, Miko’s younger brother Jules just doesn’t see his ballet career in quite the same way.

But like Miko, we see a similar dedication from Aran Bell, 11, who has to travel two hours every day from his father’s military base in order to attend class with (the slightly eccentric) Denys Ganio in Rome.

The movie had us rooting for the humble and talented Joan Sebastian Zamora. Photo courtesy First Position Films.

The handsome Joan Sebastian Zamora, 16, needed to travel much further though. He had to say goodbye to his family and home in Colombia, through great sacrifice of his parents, to allow him to train in New York. He’s working incredibly hard, hoping to be noticed by the Royal Ballet – and the movie has you tightly crossing every finger and toe on his behalf too.

Self-proclaimed American ‘princess’, Rebecca Houseknecht, 17, is a strikingly beautiful blonde with an equally beautiful ballet talent. She’s faced with the choice of either attending college, or finding a job with a professional company. She desperately wants the latter, but that heavily depends on her performance at the upcoming competition.

As a bonus character, we also get to see the delightful Gaya Bommer Yemini, 11, from Israel, as she develops a wonderfully touching and supportive friendship with Aran on the competition circuit.

Best supporting roles

Talking of support, the documentary wouldn’t be a documentary if we didn’t also hear the perspectives of the teachers and parents, which adds much to the emotional depth and breadth of just what’s at stake for these families.

With all the right touches of drama, suspense and feel-good inspiration, First Position makes for a marvelously uplifting film.

If you missed the recent South African screenings at the Joburg Theatre, you can either buy the DVD or ‘rent’ it via Amazon here: First Position

P.S. This is an affiliate link, meaning that BodyMindBallet will receive a small commission if you use this link to make a purchase, helping us fund the work on this website. Of course, we’ll only ever share high-quality products that we think you might enjoy.

P.P.S. If you want to see more pictures from the movie, head over to the photo gallery here.