Prix de Lausanne 2017

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Last Sunday I saw Cesar Corraales dance Albrecht in Mary Skeaping's Giselle. I was very impressed with him:

"Her Albrecht was Cesar Corrales who was a wonder to watch. Charming and athletic I can see why Giselle begged clemency from Myrtha and danced with him to keep him alive. In other productions, I feel Albrecht gets off lightly compared to Hilarion, but not this time. His jumps were thrilling - especially some spectacular entrechats just before the bell struck 4 where his legs interweaved like shuttles."

I was so impressed with this young chap that I looked him up and noted that he was one of the Prix de Lausanne prize winners in 2013.  You can see a video of his performance on YouTube (see Cesar Corrales - 2013 Selections - Contemporary variation). Four years on he is already a first soloist in English National Ballet.

The finals of this year's Prix de Lausanne starts tomorrow and the winners will be announced on Saturday. There were 338 candidates 5 of whom came from the UK and, interestingly, a young woman from Iran and two others from Turkey (see the list of nationalities represented and selected).  Sadly none of our young dancers got through to the last stage. I may be wrong but I think Natasha Watson of Ballet West was the last British dancer to be selected (see Natasha Watson in Lausanne  15 Nov 2014). This year, the biggest contingents came from Japan (89 entered and 13 selected), Australia (48 entered and 10 selected) and the USA (45 entered and 5 selected). Rather more successful were the Chinese who entered 16 and 7 got through. Here is a list of the finalists with details of their nationality and ballet school.  I wish them all well both in the competition and their subsequent studies and careers.

It seems a very interesting programme, particularly on the last day when there will be performances by the German National Youth Ballet who will perform an original creation of John Neumeier called “John’s Dream” (see 2017 Interlude) and Lauren Cuthbertson and Alexander Jones of the Zurich Ballet (see 2017 Interlude II). There will also be talks, an exhibition, networking, cocktails and doubtless much more. All the great and the good from the ballet world are going. I wish I was.