Zhaoqian Peng

(Shanghai Dance School, China)


This young lady, who placed second in the finals today, was an absolute beauty in her modern dance. There were two required dance programs--first classical and then modern.

She did everything right in her modern dance--the last dance of the day.

All these dancers have some exceptional qualities. Zhaoqian Peng is certainly included.

When it came to her final program she was magnificent ! -- beautiful grace, wonderfully statuesque moves, beautiful long lines, lyrically flowing elegance, and on and on--she had everything !

Lovely, Lovely, Lovely, Lovely !


[You can now see video clips, results, etc. here--scroll down to bottom]

http://www.prixdelausanne.org/v4/index.php

Karen Johnson

I wrote a description of the very talented, young Balanchinesque contestant, Karen Johnson, at another Criticaldance topic, if you would like to take a look.

(please scroll down to January 29)

http://www.ballet-dance.com/forum/viewt ... 4&start=15


She was one of the twenty semi-finalists, but was not one of the nine 'winners'. As a point of interest the competition also sponsors immediate interviews with the visiting directors of famous dance schools and companies for the non-finalists. 45 non-'winners' in the last five years have also received scholarships and apprenticeships in this manner. I would hope that the very deserving Karen Johnson will be number 46 and that many other non-'winners', who had some exceptionally fine elements in their programs, with also receive such offers.

Video clips of the finalists' performances should be viewable. I do not have high speed internet access at the moment so I can not see these videos in order to offer an opinion as to whether they completely represent what the dancers actually did. Also many of the performances, in my mind, were more relaxed, thus more lyrical and representative, in the earlier non-finalist programs.

(please scroll down to bottom and click on "Watch The Finals 09")

http://www.prixdelausanne.org/v4/index.php

I have also included a description of the extremely fine air born performance of Rafaelle Queiroz Rodrigues at another Criticaldance topic.

(I may not have written her last name in the right order because the program lists last names first without punctuation)

http://www.ballet-dance.com/forum/viewt ... 931#196931

In the Houston Chronicle, Tara Dooley has an interview with Sebastian Concha, a member of Houston Ballet's pre-professional company, who placed sixth among 80 competitors:

Houston Chronicle

Hannah O'Neill, from Auckland New Zealand and a student at the Australian Ballet School, is the top prize winner at the Prix de Lausanne. A story in the Otago Daily Times:

Otago Daily Times