Nicole Ciapponi, 14, of Surrey, B.C., has won a spot in the finals of prestigious dance competition. Two young Canadian dancers have made the cut for the Genée International Ballet Competition, one of the world's most prestigious competitions for young dancers.
It was announced Friday that Alexandra Bertram, 19, of Calgary and Nicole Ciapponi, 14, of Surrey, B.C., will dance in the finale of the competition, a flagship event of London's Royal Academy of Dance.
They are among 16 finalists in the competition, which is being held in Toronto this year, its first staging in North America.
A total of 53 dancers, including 10 from Canada, have been competing for the past week for a spot in finals.
Ciapponi is one of the youngest competitors in the event, which includes dancers up to age 19. She trains at the Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver in the professional program, which has sent several finalists to the Genée over the last 20 years.
That is the same school that produced National Ballet principal dancer Chan Hon Goh, who won a silver medal at the Genée in 1988, the first Canadian ever to win a medal.
Ciapponi was awarded her Solo Seal in March 2008 and has twice been a provincial champion. She also has studied, on scholarship, at the Royal Winnipeg and Pacific Northwest Ballet school summer programs.
Alexandra Bertram, 19, of Calgary is already training with the Boston Ballet. Bertram has studied several dance disciplines and began to concentrate on ballet in her teens. She studied at the International School of Ballet in Calgary and has been training for the last year at the Boston Ballet. She received the Solo Seal in 2007.
The Genée, held for the past 80 years by the Royal Academy in London, is held on alternate years in the U.K. and overseas.
The gold medal winner gets $11,000 and the potential to leap onto the world stage — international choreographers and directors regularly attend the Genée to scout out young talent.
The other finalists come from Australia, the U.S., Japan, Brazil and China. They are:
Chelsea Andrejic, Australia. Jasmine Brown, U.S. Yuki Hirota, Japan. Ariele Ribeiro, Brazil. Nana Shimada, Japan. Liana Vasconcelos, Brazil. Madeleine White, Australia. Ya Xuan Xu, China. Andrea Yorita, U.S. Jack Bertinshaw, Australia. Jarrad Cramp, Australia. Yuma Kozuki, Japan. Hong Tao Lin, China. Aaron Smyth, Australia.They will all perform in the finals at Toronto's Four Season's Centre for Performing Arts on Saturday.
They will be dancing to win the hearts of the audience as well as the approval of a panel of judges that includes Antoinette Sibley, president of the Royal Academy of Dance, Karen Kain of the National Ballet of Canada, dancer Rex Harrington and Joffrey Ballet artistic director Ashley Wheater.
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