Nine dancers from High Points Youth Ballet (HPYB), a Belfast-based ballet school and youth company, traveled to Paris in November to compete in YAGP’s International Youth Grand Prix Semi-Final.
Image description: The nine HPYB dancers who competed at YGP Paris in Nov 2023 in their handmade classical costumes at The Merchant Hotel in Belfast (from L to R): Leah McNally, Lucy Dunbar, Georgia Crawford, Kristina Murphy, Tess French, Zara Crawford, Madison Crawford, Aoife Finnieston, Amelia Larmour. Photo by Sofia De Vasconcelos of Khali and Me Photography.
Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) is the world’s largest student ballet scholarship audition. It reaches over 15,000 dance students annually, and its alumni are now dancing with 80 professional dance companies around the world. One of its alum is Melissa Hamilton, a First Soloist with The Royal Ballet in London, who grew up in Dromore, Co. Down. Melissa won the Grand Prix award at YAGP in 2007 and following that joined The Royal Ballet. HPYB is the only school on the island of Ireland to be sending dancers to this competition.
At the Semi-Final event in Paris, the team was awarded Top 12 in the ensemble category for their piece, Initiation, choreographed by Argyro Tsampazi. ‘Initiation’ is based on the book ‘Women Who Run with the Wolves’ written by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, a Jungian psychoanalyst, poet, and cantadora. The dance piece, as well as the book, explore the concept of the ‘Wild Woman,’ an archetype of the female instinct passed down from mother to daughter through generations. The piece explores how challenging moments in a woman’s life constitute a call to re-discover and re-connect with the female instinctual nature. The choreographic process involved the dancers as co-creators, using methods like drawing, automatic writing, and movement improvisation in the investigation of deeper fears, human relationships, and introspection in order to re-connect with the female instinct. This process gave the young dancers the opportunity to generate movement material for the piece.
In addition to being awarded Top 12, the dancers were invited to present this piece at YAGP Finals in New York City in April. This is a particularly special opportunity as this year is the 25th Anniversary of YAGP, with gala performances and special events taking place at Lincoln Center. HPYB will be hosting fundraising activities in the coming months to support students to make this trip.
Additionally, one dancer, Madison Crawford (age 14) was selected as one of 36 finalists out of 150 dancers in the Junior Classical Category. Following her performance, she was awarded scholarships to short-term intensives at The Royal Ballet School and Alberta Ballet School, as well as an invitation to attend YAGP’s international summer programme at the renowned Nervi Festival in Italy.
Image description: HPYB dancers performing ‘Initiation’ by Argyro Tsampazi at YAGP Semi-Finals in Paris. Photo by LK Studio.
Image description: HPYB dancers performing ‘Initiation’ by Argyro Tsampazi at YAGP Semi-Finals in Paris. Photo by LK Studio.
Help High Points Dancers Travel to New York City for YAGP Finals!
High Points Youth Ballet is thrilled to announce that we have been invited to Youth America Grand Prix’s Finals in New York City! This invitation came following our being awarded Top 12 Ensemble at the YAGP Paris Semi-Final. We are the FIRST EVER ballet school from Northern Ireland to be invited to present an ensemble at finals! But we need your help! It’s 3,170 miles from our Belfast-based ballet studio to NYC. We need to raise £15,000 for this trip. Every £5 takes us 1 mile closer to our goal!