Almost exactly one year after last year’s competition, on November 20th, the third Budapest Ballet Grand Prix’s final took place at the National Dance Theatre. The junior category of the event brought the highest quality 90 minutes in the history of the BBGP, but many excellent talents showed their skills in the other categories as well.
40 participants made it to the final, so the program was long but enjoyable.
Before the final, the jury members unanimously said that they had seen many talented dancers in the past three days. Accordingly, – to our information – many 10-point ratings were received. It was also interesting to see how much the national character is visible in each dancer, which can be the work of the ballet artist, but of course it can also be the work of the master. It is worth emphasizing here: behind each competitor stands the serious work of many people. The role of the school and the masters is just as important as the performance of the competitor.
Photos by Adrienne Horváth
Several of the entrants said that they had rarely experienced so many opinions, styles and points of view, which helped them develop. The competition clearly supports ballet artists in gaining new perspectives.
The participants received feedback from a prestigious jury this year, but beyond the personal results, the consensus was that the artistic standard was the highest ever. The National Dance Theatre is a great venue, as always, but it is certain that the host of Friday’s gala show, the Müpa Festival Theatre, will also be an honorable venue of this high standard event, as always. Besides, the bests of the finalists will certainly create a great dance experience.
The question on Thursday afternoon was who would be the best? We had to wait until 9 pm to find out. That was when the BBGP competition director, Tamás Nagy, announced the jury’s decision, the top three places.
The Chairman of the Artistic Council of the Hungarian Dance University, the BBGP Competition Director, thanked the interest, which was not only great on site, as the final was followed by hundreds of people on the university and competition Facebook pages, where the afternoon symposium and the accompanying event on Stress Management were also broadcasted live.
18 competitors competed in the junior category, 4 couples in the pas de deux, and 18 competitors in the senior category. It is worth highlighting that 17 of them are students of the Hungarian Dance University, the organizer institution! Another aspect is that 23 foreign competitors participated in the best performances.
After 8 pm, the jury met and made its decision, chaired by Mária Aradi. The results were then announced in the auditorium of the National Dance Theatre. The top three winners in each category are listed below, but the winners of the numerous and valuable special awards, sponsorships and grants from national organizations will also be revealed at the Friday evening gala.
The final results of the 3rd Budapest Ballet Grand Prix:
Junior category
- Victoria Carrillo (Master Ballet Academy – USA)
- Alexandra Grigore ( National College Of Art Octav Bancila Iasi – Romania)
- Abilmansur Syrmanov (Kazakh National Academy of Choreography – Kazakhstan)
Senior category
- Kenshin Kimura (John Cranko Schule – Japan)
- Karen Satomura (Hungarian Dance University – Japan)
- Daeun Joung (The City Ballet – South-Korea)
Pas de deux category
- Emese Lilla Varga (Hungarian National Ballet Institute – Hungarian), Nathaniel James Lillington (out of competition)
- Clémence Rhode, Sámuel Gribovszki (Hungarian Dance University – France, Hungary)
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