Esposito for the Junior Company

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In Prizes, Prizes, Prizes 7 Feb 2017 I congratulated the winners of the Prix de Lausanne.  The winner of the first scholarship was Michele Esposito who also won the Contemporary Dance Prize and Best Swiss Candidate award. The video shows him at the finals as Solor from La Bayadère. 

Michele has decided to join The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet (see The Prize winners 2017: their choices! 20 March 2017 Blog Prix de Lausanne).  Having followed the Junior Company almost from its inception I cannot think of a better place to launch his career.  As I said in Dutch National Ballet's New Season and a New Vlog from Tim and Salome 21 Feb 2017:

"there will be a lot of work for the Junior Company. They will begin their annual tour of the Netherlands with In the Future which will feature the work of the same name by Hans van Manen. According to the website, this work was created by Hans van Manen in 1986 for Scapino Ballet and it has also been danced by Stuttgarter Ballett and Introdans Ensemble for Youth. It is described as "an energetic, swinging, amusing and surprising work, with wonderfully inventive costumes by Keso Dekker." They will also dance Narnia: the lion, the witch and the wardrobe in which Ernst Meisner collaborated with Marco Gerris to produce a work that is described as "Hiphop meets Ballet." I saw a scene from this work in the 2015 gala and loved it. Finally, the Junior Company will celebrate its 5th anniversary in Junior Company 5 Years with a special gala at the Stadsschouwburg. Having attended one of the first (if not the first) of those galas in 2013 (see The Junior Company of the Dutch National Ballet - Stadsshouwburg Amsterdam 24 Nov 2013 25 Nov 2013) this will be a special performance for me too - if I can only get a flight and ticket for it."

I am also glad to report that three of the prize winners are coming to London:  Taisuke Nakao of Japan to the Royal Ballet School where he will be joined by Lauren Hunter of the USA while Stanislaw Wegrzyn of Poland is on his way to the Royal Ballet.

Marina Fernandes da Costa Duarte of Brazil will go to the Bavarian State Ballet, Koyo Yamamoto to the Tanz Akademie in Zurich, Diana Georgia Ionescu to the Stuttgart Ballet and Fangqi Li of China to ABT's Studio Company.

I congratulate all the winners on their selections and I wish them all the best in their careers.