The results are in for the final of the GradPro International Showcase 2026, the graduate training programme and competition founded by former Royal Ballet dancer Julie Bowers.
Twenty young dancers from eleven countries took part in the final on Sunday 24th May at Elmhurst Ballet School in Birmingham, in front of an international jury including Erina Takahashi, Georgia Bould, Ivan Putrov, Michael Corder and Gail Monahan.
The outright winner was Natsu Fukuyama, who trains at Tanz Academie in Zürich. She receives the Gail Monahan Award of £1000, 20 pairs of Freed pointe shoes and will spend a week's placement with Birmingham Royal Ballet. The London Ballet Circle Award was awarded to Ava Wease, who receives £750 and the opportunity to spend five days with American Ballet Theatre in New York in the Autumn – the first time ABT has offered a placement.
Eloy Vicente Gil won the Jerome Award for Classical Ballet, which comes with a £500 prize and a week's placement with The Royal Ballet. The Dansez Award, with a £250 cash prize and a week's placement at Estonian National Ballet, was awarded to Jana Oliveras Garcia.
In addition, the competition has been able to award a glut of week-long company placements to seven more participants, meaning that for the first time, eleven of the twenty finalists will benefit from professional placements.
Norwegian National Ballet: Ella Brownlow Ziirsen
New Adventures: Mira Grodzieckz-Makulska
Ballett Zürich: Emilia Iskenderova
Northern Ballet: Florence Lane
Semperoper Dresden: Lea Ellul Sullivan
Estonian National Ballet: Scott Millar
Rambert: Tom Waddington
GradPro was founded by Julie Bowers and Brandon Lawrence in 2021 to help new graduates leaving vocational schools without jobs to find placements. “I know from my own experiences as a professional dancer with The Royal Ballet just how demanding our profession can be,” she says. “You have to be fit both physically and mentally. Along with Brandon I wanted to come up with a way of helping graduates remain positive and to experience working alongside professionals who have a genuine desire to provide a helping hand.”
Alumni of the scheme have gone onto full time contracts with professional companies, including the 2025 outright winner, Yoli Meurisse, who has since joined BRB2.
