The Grand Audition, which has been held in Paris and Barcelona for several years, will return to Budapest this weekend on Friday and Saturday. The event has become a tradition at the Hungarian Dance University. Last year’s first “selection” brought many contract offers for the young ballet students, so it is not surprising that this year, following the pre-selection, 145 young contestants will participate in the event.
As you can read it on Grand Audition’s website, for young talents it is indeed worth visiting Budapest as they can once again present their skills to renowned company directors.
The Grand Audition will take place at the ifj. Nagy Zoltán Theatre Hall, and experts who will attend the event include Ernst Meisner, Junior Company Director of the Dutch National Ballet, Raimondo Rebeck, Director of the Staatsballett Karlsruhe and Nicolas Le Riche, Director of the Royal Swedish Ballet.
The clear goal of the Hungarian Dance University is to get back on the map of the international ballet world. The Grand Audition is a major opportunity towards taking this step, and Harangozó Gyula Prize-winning Hungarian ballet artist Tamás Nagy, who helps the institution in his role as President of the Artistic Council of the Hungarian Dance University, has played a significant role in achieving this aim.
“We are very proud that the Hungarian Dance University is now traditionally hosting this major international ballet event. Since the model change, the Rector Professor Márta Fodor-Molnár and I have considered it a very important task to bring this event to Budapest,” said Tamás Nagy, former principal private dancer of the Hungarian State Opera and the Dutch National Ballet. “The company managers and directors have the opportunity to select the dancers they like best from a pool of young people who meet the required criteria, selected by the Grand Audition’s highly professional team, based on two days of stage performances. Last year’s event brought many contract offers, which is perhaps why there is so much interest in the 2024 edition. We hope that once again many will be able to join a company of outstanding artistic quality as a result of the weekend in Budapest.”
In 2023, the Grand Audition Budapest and the Budapest Ballet Grand Prix were successfully launched, which was a significant step forward for HDU and the Hungarian dance scene. Not only in terms of international and national professional recognition, but also for young Hungarian ballet artists who can now prove their skills and attract the attention on their home ground.
Tamás Nagy added that raising international awareness is also important for the foreign visitors coming to the university.
“It has taken years of work to build up the association that when someone hears the name Hungarian Dance University abroad, she or he associates it with high quality training, professional development and the possibility of moving on. It is good to be part of such a work and join such an ambitious goal. This is why we are working very hard here at the Hungarian Dance University.”
