16-year-old Youn Jae Park is the first male South Korean to win the prestigious ballet competition, Prix de Lausanne, held over the weekend.
Open to dancers aged 15–18, 445 ballet students from 42 countries entered the Prix de Lausanne this year. After selection via video screening, only 20 advance to the finals.
Park follows only two other Korean winners of the event: Kang Sue Jin in 1985 and Park Sae-Eun in 2007.
Male dancers made a strong showing among the winners, with Eric Poor (US), Shinnosuke Yasuumi (Japan), Hector Jain (US), Ryan Handa (US), and Jakob Wheway Hughes (UK) taking 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th and 9th of the 9 scholarships on offer.
Female dancers winning scholarships were Hanxi Wang (China), Hono Hamasaki (Japan) and Bogyeong Kim (South Korea), taking 4th, 7th and 8th. Each scholarship enables the winning student to enrol in one of many ballet academies and schools who partner with the Prix de Lausanne.
The chair of the judges, Laurent Hilaire, former étoile of the Paris Opera Ballet was also formerly director of dance at Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, resigning in 2022. He is currently the artistic director of the Bayerisches Staatsballett in Munich. Former winners of the Prix de Lausanne include Jean-Christophe Maillot, Darcey Bussell, Carlos Acosta, Laetitia Pujol and Benjamin Millepied, among others.
