The seventeen-year-old student at the Cuban National Ballet School Fernando Alonso competed in the prestigious dance event’s three rounds with two classical variations, Don Quixote and Diana and Actheon, and a third contemporary piece, specially created for him by Victor Alexander, director of the Chicago based Ruth Page School of Dance.

The Cuban dancer went to New York with the director of the Havana based Cuban Ballet School, maestra Ramona de Saá, who also participated as a jury member. Medina is the son of choreographer, Narciso Medina, and dancer professor, Idalmis Arias and has won other international competitions in Havana.

The second position went to Polish dancer, Stanislaw Wegrzyn, representing Germany’s Ballett-Akademie Hochschule fur Musik und Theater, while Japan’s Motomi Kiyota, of the Mitsuko Inao Ballet School, was third. Joonhyuk Jun, from Korea and a student of the UK based Royal Ballet School, won the Grand Prix in the senior category. The YAGP is considered the largest international dance students competitions in the world.

Edited by Damian Donestevez