YAGP comes to Sydney!

The Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) has announced that it will be holding a full competition in Australia this year for the first time.

YAGP is a huge international competition for students up to 19 years of age. Numerous prizes are offered, including scholarships to major schools, and the competition is also the site for many an artistic director scouting for talent. While the final is usually held in the US, the competition holds qualifying rounds around the world: at this stage it has 12 participating countries including Australia.

The Australian competition will be held at the Concourse Theatre in Chatswood in Sydney over the weekend of September 22 to 24.

One of the locations in YAGP’s network is Italy. This year it collaborated with the Nervi Festival in Genova to hold a summer intensive – a week-long feast of classes and workshops with a line-up of stellar choreographers and teachers - as well as its 2023 Ballet Gala. The YAGP participants had the privilege of performing in the Gala, in a work by Mauro Bigonzetti, an extract from his ballet Rossini Cards. One of the featured (and youngest) dancers in the piece was Zara Strelen, from Prima Youth Classical Academy in Brisbane, who was chosen out of 200 dancers for a soloist part. Please enjoy a snippet of her performance below.

Dancers can register for the Sydney event here.