UNCSA School of Dance faculty and students are recognized at Youth America Grand Prix Regional Semifinals

The School of Dance at UNCSA received an Outstanding Teachers Award at the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) Regional Semifinals, held Feb. 17-20 at Reynolds Auditorium in Winston-Salem. In addition, six UNCSA high school dance students and two students from the Preparatory Dance Program placed in the junior, senior and pre-competitive categories.

YAGP is the world’s largest international student dance competition. Regional semifinals are held each year in January through March in U.S. cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston. Internationally, regional semifinals take place in Paris; Barcelona, Spain; Berlin; and Osaka, Japan; among other locations. Winston-Salem has been a host city since 2018.

High school freshman Will Gyves of Winston-Salem placed first in the junior classical men’s category and second place in the junior contemporary men’s category, while high school sophomore Jett Lecamu of Winston-Salem placed third in the senior classical men’s category and second in the senior contemporary men’s category. Both are alumni of the Preparatory Dance Program.

Gyves, Lecamu, Jacob Duehring of Greensboro and Julian Pecoraro of Winston-Salem won first place in the small ensemble category performing the four cavaliers from “Raymonda.”

Dancers Emma Cilke of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Ava Grace Williams of Wilmington, North Carolina, placed in the top 12 dancers in senior classical and senior contemporary categories; Duehring placed in the top 12 in the senior classical category.

Lennon Sullivan, a dancer in the Preparatory Dance Program at UNCSA, won third place in the junior classical women’s category and was among the top 24 in the junior contemporary category. Preparatory Dance student Lucius Hamblen was among the top 12 in the pre-competitive contemporary/open category.

“Once again UNCSA dancers excelled at Youth American Grand Prix, and we are so proud of their achievements. What this substantiates is a consistency of dedicated, quality training in both the classical and contemporary disciplines,” said Dean of Dance Endalyn Taylor. “We are particularly grateful that UNCSA has been honored with an Outstanding Teachers Award. It is a testament to the hard work of our renowned faculty, and it is so well deserved.”

UNCSA faculty members who coached the winning dancers include Misha Tchoupakov (Will Gyves, Emma Cilke, Jacob Duehring and the “Raymonda” cavaliers ensemble), Ilya Kozadayev (Jett Lecamu and Julian Pecoraro) and Jared Redick (Ava Grace Williams).

Several UNCSA students who competed at the regional level will be invited to compete at the YAGP Finals taking place in Tampa, Florida, in April 2022.

The School of Dance and its students have been recognized at the regional competition since it was established in Winston-Salem. Lecamu, Gyves, Pecoraro, Cilke and Williams are among previous winners from UNCSA.

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