Feb. 1, 2011/FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Marla Carpenter, 336-770-3337,
carpem@uncsa.edu
UNCSA BALLET STUDENT COMPETING AT
PRIX DE LAUSANNE THIS WEEK
WINSTON-SALEM –
Benjamin Rudisin, a high school
senior studying ballet in the School of
Dance at the University of North
Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), is
competing at the Prix de Lausanne in
Lausanne, Switzerland, this week.
The Prix de Lausanne is one of the
premier dance competitions in the world.
The 2011 competition is Feb. 1-6.
Rudisin, from Springfield, Va., was one
of 82 dancers selected from video
applicants from around the world. The
selected dancers will be
presented to the competition jury from
today to Friday; they will be observed
and marked as they take classical ballet
and contemporary classes. A maximum of
20 candidates will be selected to go on
to the finals
on Saturday.
For the competition, candidates must
prepare two solos, a classical variation
and a contemporary variation. With his
coach, School of Dance faculty member
Warren Conover, Rudisin has been
preparing Prince Albrecht’s variation
from the second act of Giselle,
and Christopher Wheeldon’s Commedia.
Photo by Rosalie O'Connor
Benjamin Rudisin
Conover, who has accompanied Rudisin to
the Prix, said they have been rehearsing
for the Prix since prior to the holiday
break, and every day in January.
The last time Conover took a student to
the Prix de Lausanne was in 2008, when
Kyle Davis of Green Bay, Wisc., won a
Grand Prize. Davis is presently dancing
with Pacific Northwest Ballet.
This is Benjamin Rudisin’s fourth year
of study at UNCSA. He was seen most
recently as the Sugar Plum Fairy’s
Cavalier in the UNC-TV presentation of
UNCSA’s production of The Nutcracker.
He also danced in the Snow Pas de Deux.
Rudisin is in rehearsals now for the
lead in George Balanchine’s Symphonie
Concertante, which is part of
UNCSA’s upcoming Winter Dance Concert,
Feb. 17-20 at the Stevens Center in
downtown
Winston-Salem. Symphonie Concertante
is being restaged for UNCSA by Victoria
Simon, ballet mistress for The George
Balanchine Trust.
Created in 1973, the Prix de Lausanne is
an international competition for young
dancers ages 15-18 who are not yet
professionals. It is one of a kind, and
its prime objective is to discover,
promote, and support talents among the
world’s finest young dancers.
The University of North Carolina School
of the Arts School of Dance is a partner
school of the Prix de Lausanne.
UNCSA School of Dance Dean Ethan Stiefel
won a 1989 Silver Medal at the Prix,
where he has since served as a juror.
For more
information, including multimedia
offerings, visit
www.prixdelausanne.org.
The University of North Carolina School
of the Arts is the first
state-supported, residential school of
its kind in the nation. Established as
the North Carolina School of the Arts by
the N.C. General Assembly in 1963,
UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City
of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and
became part of the University of North
Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100
students from high school through
graduate school train for careers in the
arts in five professional schools:
Dance, Design and Production (including
a Visual Arts Program), Drama,
Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the
state’s only public arts conservatory,
dedicated entirely to the professional
training of talented students in the
performing, visual and moving image
arts. For more information, visit
www.uncsa.edu.
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