Edmonds based Olympic Ballet School, under the direction of former PNB artists Mara Vinson and Oleg Gorboulev, sent three students to the 2015 Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) competition, a highly anticipated prestigious international ballet competition held each year.

YAGP is the world’s largest global network of dancers reaching 7,000 dance students annually. Their mission is to “support and develop world-class dancers, ages 9-19, of all economic, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds by providing scholarship auditions, performance and education opportunities, and by serving as the global network of dance, connecting students, teachers, schools, dance companies, dancers, and audiences.”

The 2015 YAGP semi-finals for the Pacific Northwest region attracted students from as far as Idaho and British Colombia, and was held at Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Center on January 9th-11th.

Under the guidance of Olympic Ballet directors Mara Vinson and Oleg
Gorboulev, Chessa Chalmers age 18, Lauren Zakahi age 17, and Grace
Armstrong age 16 competed against hundreds of participants in their age category (16-19). Chalmers and Zakahi placed in the Top 12 of the Senior Classical division, and Chalmers was also named Top 12 in the Senior Contemporary category.

“We are incredibly proud of our students,” says Vinson. “Not only for getting the recognition from the panel of outstanding judges, but for the growth we’ve seen from each dancer through the process of preparing for the competition.” After finishing a taxing 12 performance run of Olympic Ballet Theatre’s The Nutcracker, each girl, with only a few days off for the holidays, jumped right back in to private coaching sessions with Vinson to prepare their pieces for the competition.

With YAGP training over for the year, the girls are now preparing for Olympic Ballet Theatre’s Spring Program, to be held March 28th at the Edmonds Center for the Arts.

“We’ve seen an enormous shift in the mindset of our dancers since becoming directors of Olympic Ballet Theatre and Olympic Ballet School in 2011. We’ve come to attract new students seeking serious training that will help them in their aspirations to dance professionally,” says Vinson. Outside of daily technique classes, the dancers are kept busy with rehearsals for Olympic Ballet Theatre performances, as well as Olympic Ballet School’s annual student presentation held in June.

All three girls who competed at YAGP, along with many of their classmates, have dreams to dance professionally. This summer they will go away to various national training programs associated with professional companies, in hopes of catching the eye of the director.

Olympic Ballet School offers it’s own Summer Programs, with intensive month-long training for serious students, as well as shorter camps and classes for younger dancers. Private coaching for next year’s YAGP competition is also available.

The Olympic Ballet Theatre and the Olympic Ballet School have been mainstays in the Snohomish County arts community for 31 seasons, performing for audiences of an estimated 15,000 a year. Olympic Ballet School is also dedicated to providing professional classical ballet training under the direction of Co-artistic directors Mara Vinson, former Pacific Northwest Ballet Principal, and Oleg Gorboulev, former Pacific Northwest Ballet Soloist. For more information on Olympic Ballet Theatre’s upcoming performances and activities please visit their website at www.olympicballet.com.