Near the ocean, amid the dunes of Amagansett, Elizabeth Jacoby and Richard Brand opened their home to ballet fans to meet ABT soloist Chloe Misseldine and Ukrainian dancer Vsevolod Mayevsky. The occasion was a friend raiser for Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP). The tall dancers (she is the tallest and among the most stunning at ABT) spoke of how important YAGP was to their careers and the opportunities the organization makes for dancers worldwide. Both are YAGP Alumni. Vsevolod, formerly with Russia’s Mariinsky Ballet, was able to leave the country at the beginning of the war with help from YAGP’s founder Larissa Saveliev.
Guests included, Carrie Barrett, Bonnie Comley and Stewart F. Lane, Renee Cox, Kimberly Goff, Michele Gerber Klein, Tinu Naija, Emily Reifel, and Alexis Tobin.
Youth America Grand Prix is the largest global network of dance. YAGP fulfills its mission of dance education through scholarship auditions, master classes, alumni services, performances, and education. For the past 24 years, over $4.5 million has been awarded in scholarships to the world’s leading dance schools, with up to $500,000 now awarded annually. Since YAGP’s founding in 1999, over 200,000 young dancers – ages 9 to 19 – of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds have participated in YAGP’s international workshops, audition classes, and dance awareness events. Today, more than 12,000 young dancers audition annually. More than 450 Youth America Grand Prix alumni are now dancing with 80 professional companies around the world, including American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, The Royal Ballet (UK), Mariinsky Ballet and many others. Over 100 of these alumni are soloists and principal dancers.
