Genée International Ballet Competition announces Finalists

Genée International Ballet Competition announces Finalists

Two South Africans, Mlindi Kulashe from Cape Town and Ashley Scott from Hermanus, have made it into the Finals of the  prestigious the Genée International Ballet Competition, taking place this Sunday 9th October at the Artscape Opera House in Cape Town. There are twelve Finalists in total.
 
A packed auditorium watched the second of two Semi Finals today at the Artscape Theatre that saw 36 beautifully trained dancers competing from 14 countries for a coveted place in the Final on Sunday evening.
 
The Genée International Ballet Competition is the flagship event of the Royal Academy of Dance and is dedicated to promoting and rewarding standards of excellence in ballet dancers internationally.

The 12 Finalists are as follows:

Jessica Brown,  age 15 (Australia), Si Jia Miao, age 19 (China), Sarah Mortimer, age 19 (UK), Mana Ogawa, age 17 (Japan), Lauren O'Kell, age 17 (Canada), Ashley Scott, age 18 (South Africa), William Fitzgerald, age 16 (Australia), Simon Jones, age 17 (Australia), Macbeth Kanera, age 19 (Australia), Mlindi Kulashe, age 19 (South Africa), Shlomi Miara, age 18 (Israel) and Jin Hao Zhang, age 16 (China).
 
The Genée International Ballet Competition was founded in 1931 and is one the world's top ballet competitions for non-professional dancers. All candidates must be trained in the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) method and must have attained 80% or higher in their Advanced 2 examination.
 
The judges are David Nixon, the Artistic Director of Northern Ballet (Chair), Iain MacDonald, Artistic Director of South African Ballet Theatre and Elizabeth Triegaardt, Executive Director of Cape Town City Ballet. Winners receive a gold, silver and bronze medal with cash prizes totalling R200,000. The male and female dancers are judged separately.
 
The Final takes place in the Artscape Opera House this Sunday evening at 6:30pm. The event is almost sold out with a few tickets available via 0214217695.

ENDS