Kansas City Ballet School recently competed in the Youth American Grand Prix (YAGP) Semi-finals in Indianapolis. More than 10,000 students participated in the Semi-finals competitions across the country and around the world this year and only 1,200-1,400 were invited to the New York Finals held April 7-14. Several KCBS students qualified for the YAGP Finals and last Friday, after many, many competitive performances, master classes and auditions, the awards were announced.
Kansas City Ballet School Awards:
Aurora Wessel (age 10) was named one of the Top 12 Pre-Competitve Soloists out of 143 students in her age-bracket (118 girls and 25 boys).
Grady George received a Houston Ballet Scholarship
Poppy Trettel received a Royal Winnipeg Scholarship
Grady and Poppy will attend summer intensive programs at these prestigious schools on scholarship this year.
KCBS Director Grace Holmes recently had this to say about the YAGP program:
“I had never considered competitions as an important aspect of ballet training, in fact I thought it was a distraction from solid training. When I first came to KCB, one of our teachers had been taking a very limited number of students to YAGP – she was single-handedly teaching, coaching, administrating, doing makeup, and making costumes for all of the students who were competing.
When the first group went to YAGP, I could see the positive effects on our students. The students who participated learned so much from the one-on-one coaching, and the support they received from their fellow students made me realize how much this brought the kids together.
It was driven home when one of the non-competing students asked me if their class could take 10 minutes out of class time to watch the live stream of their peers at the YAGP semi-finals. She even offered me a $10 bill to cover the fee for the live stream. It meant so much to them to ‘be there’ for their friends. This made me rethink the impact of this particular competition for serious-minded students. I also recognized the impact that it would have on us as a school. The visibility and recognition that come with participating at YAGP could get the word out about how our school has evolved.
So this year we went all out and we took 31 students (last year was a trial with 18). Our efforts were well rewarded and I feel we gained national recognition in our participation. Our students were amazing ambassadors for KCBS. I am very proud of the way they comported themselves and I am proud of their achievements.”
