Lee Junsu and Kim Min-Young posing for photoshoot after receiving awards at YAGP 2019 (from the left)

Lee Junsu and Kim Min-Young enrolled in School of Dance each won the top prize in respective category at the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) 2019 held in Lincoln Center in the United States from April 11 to 17, 2019. Lee Junsu won the 1^st prize for his solo in Senior Age Division and won 2^nd prize with Kim Min-Young in Pas de Deux. Winning two awards, Lee received scholarships from the Finnish National Ballet and the Berlin State Ballet School. Kim received one from the European School of Ballet.

In addition, Noh Dong-Ick received scholarships from the European School of Ballet and Albert Ballet School, and Jung Eunjun and Lim Jae-Woon received scholarships from European School of Ballet although they did not win in the competition. The judge praised, “The skills which highlighted the clear and beautiful body moves as well as delicate emotional expression presented by the participants from Korea were all very impressive. Overall, they demonstrated sophisticated style of classical dances very professionally.”

The Youth America Grand Prix is ​​the largest ballet scholarship competition in the world, held annually in New York since it was founded in 2000, open to participants in the ages from 9 to 19. YAGP has been focusing on unearthing new talented dancers from around the world where the participants compete in various categories such as classical dance, classical dance pas de deux, ensemble and contemporary. This year, about 250 people from 41 countries from 1,000 participants from the preliminary round went through to the final round in New York.