The winners of Prix du Nord 2021 were Erle Østraat, 15 years, (junior division) from the Norwegian National Ballet School, Norway and James (Chun Hung) Yan, 17 years, (senior division) from the Oslo National Academy of Arts, Norway.
Erle Østraat performed two classical variations, Le Corsaire, gulnare pas d’ esclaves variation act 1 and a female variation from Harlequinade. James (Chun Hung) Yan performed a variation from Santanella and the contemporary solo Halo over Me.
There are 3 winners in each division. Third place, second place and first place. The winners share the amount of 10.000 EUR.
1# place and the winner of the Junior Division
07 Erle Østraat, 15 years old
Norwegian National Ballet School, Norway
Award: €2.500
2# place of the Junior Division
09 Akvilė Šulcaitė, 15 years old
National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art, Lithuania
Award: €1.500
3# place of the Junior Division
13 Sofia Blok Lysvåg, 15 years old
Norwegian National Ballet School, Norway
Award: €1.000
1# place and the winner of the Senior Division
28 James (Chun Hung) Yan, 17 years old
Oslo National Academy of Arts, Norway
Award: €2.500
2# place of the Senior Division
32 Jieun Shim, 17 years old
Oslo National Academy of Arts, Norway
Award: €1.500
3# place of the Senior Division
22 Joakim Visnes, 16 years old
Norwegian Ballet School & Academy, Norway
Award: €1.000
We would like to congratulate all the winners. The winners of the first place of the senior and junior division will be invited as guests, at the next year’s edition of Prix du Nord.
We would also like to compliment all participating competitors for their work and for participating in Prix du Nord 2021.
The Competition 2021
Two years ago, talented youngsters met in Falun for the 32nd time. Last year we were unable to do the competition due to the pandemic, but this year we have had time to prepare, so we could do it digitally.
13 pre-professional schools in the Nordic and Baltic countries have participated in this year´s competition. This year each school had pre-recorded their competitors and sent their videos to the competition coordination team.
Prix du Nord is a non-profit event whose task is to create a context where the next generation of dancers can meet, share experiences and dance together. The purpose of the competition is to motivate young dance talents in the Nordic and Baltic countries and contribute to their dance elite education.
Even if this year we could not meet in person students across the Northern Europe could instead show their hard work in the same competition and be inspired by each other.
We are happy that we could make the competition happen even if we could not travel and meet. It is also important that this generation who are already much effected by the pandemic can get opportunities to develop their dance technique towards a specific goal like Prix du Nord.. Says Sebastian Michanek, Artistic Director of the Prix du Nord.
The chairman of the jury was Jonas Kåge, former artistic director for Prix du Nord, and later the Nordic Baltic Ballet Competition between 2012 and 2020. The other jury members were, Madeleine Onne, artistic director of the Finnish National Ballet. Micol Mantini, dancer at the Gothenburg Opera Dance Company. Nadja Sellrup, principal dancer at the Royal Swedish Ballet.
The jury members traveled to Gothenburg where they could watch and judge all solos on screens in the same manner as if it were a live event.
The digital competition is divided into three parts. Semifinal for the junior division, semifinal for the senior division and the final.
Next year the competition will again be live, and for the first time the competition will take place on the main stage of the Gothenburg Opera House.
The semifinal will take place on Tuesday June 14th 2022, and the grand finale will be held as a gala performance on Wednesday June 15th 2022. Information will be presented at our website prixdunord.org.
We look forward to seeing you all next year!
The Result of the semifinals
This year we had 46 competitors, 20 of them competed in the junior division and 26 of them in the senior division. 15 competitors were selected in the semifinals to compete in the final, 7 competitors were selected from the junior division and 8 competitors was selected from the senior division.
Junior Division
03 Ieva Repšytė – National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art, Lithuania
05 Alexander Mockrish – Royal Swedish Ballet School, Sweden
07 Erle Østraat – Norwegian National Ballet School, Norway
09 Akvilė Šulcaitė – National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art, Lithuania
12 Unai Celis Peribanez – Swedish National Ballet School, Sweden
13 Sofia Blok Lysvåg – Norwegian National Ballet School, Norway
17 Sonja Svanberg – Royal Swedish Ballet School, Sweden
Senior Division
22 Joakim Visnes – Norwegian Ballet School & Academy, Norway
25 Emma Skår – Oslo National Academy of Arts, Norway
28 James (Chun Hung) Yan – Oslo National Academy of Arts, Norway
32 Jieun Shim – Oslo National Academy of Arts, Norway
36 Siri Van Schijndel – Oslo National Academy of Arts, Norway
37 Carl Sjögren – Royal Swedish Ballet School, Sweden
44 Nathanaël Plantier – Royal Swedish Ballet School, Sweden
48 Henri Frey – Royal Swedish Ballet School, Sweden
Participating Schools
Here are the participating schools for this year’s edition.
Alhanko Academy of Ballet / BASE23, Sweden
The Classical Dance School, Iceland
Dance Academy City Ballet Odense, Denmark
Finnish National Ballet School, Finland
Helsinki Dance Institute, Finland
National Ballet School, Iceland
National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art, Lithuania
Norwegian Ballet School & Academy, Norway
Norwegian National Ballet School, Norway
Oslo National Academy of Arts, Norway
Royal Swedish Ballet School, Sweden
Swedish National Ballet School, Sweden
Tivoli Ballet School, Denmark
Foundation and organisation
The competition was made possible through
CARINA ARI FOUNDATION
CITY OF GOTHENBURG
SWEDISH NATIONAL BALLET SCHOOL
Photo: Joerg Wiesner / PDN