Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) recently celebrated its 25th anniversary with a sold-out gala performance and black-tie dinner at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater. The evening attracted an international crowd of balletomanes and dancers, as well as celebrities, fashion designers and prominent philanthropists.

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YAGP, founded in 1999 by former Bolshoi Ballet dancer Larissa Saveliev, has transformed the ballet and contemporary dance world by opening its doors to more students of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The organization hosts a prestigious international competition and travels the world to discover and support young dancers who don’t have financial or geographical access to elite institutions.

Over the past quarter century, $5 million has been awarded in student scholarships, with up to $500,000 awarded annually.

Roughly 450 YAGP alumni are now dancing with eighty professional companies around the world, including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet and Mariinsky Ballet. More than a hundred of these alumni are soloists and Principal Dancers. Those are some impressive numbers.

Earlier in the week, around 500 young dancers from all over the world came to New York to compete for prizes, scholarships and job offers in the YAGP Season Finals after beating out about 15,000 students at the YAGP semi-finals. The end-of-week gala performance, during which the finalists perform alongside some of the best professional dancers in the world, is definitely a highlight for performers and spectators alike.

The mood in the theater was lively.........

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