Billy Elliot the Forum

Since many Billys come through the ranks of competition at the YAGP, including Giuseppe, who will be competing in the NYC event again this year, I thought it might be a good idea to start a thread for it. To start off the thread, here is a trailer for the new movie, "First Position," which documents what it's like to be a young dancer aspiring to win this competition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qjlWdHi ... ture=share

Here's more information about YAGP:

http://www.yagp.org/eng/index.php

The Finals this year will be held at the Tribeca Theatre for the Performing Arts, April 22-26.

Great idea for a thread. That movie looks good.

Actually the events will be held in several venues that week. Both Giuseppe and Landon Harris are scheduled to compete on Monday 4/23 at Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.
http://www.yagp.org/eng/2012/YAGP%20201 ... hedule.pdf

The "final round" is Thursday 4/26 at the David Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. I have tickets for that evening, in the hope of seeing one or two familiar faces on stage or in the audience.

Giuseppe's mom posted this on her public Facebook regarding his schedule at next week's YAGP in New York:

Giuseppe will be dancing at the Youth America Grand Prix next weekend. Tickets can be purchased at the box office at the Skirball Center. He will be dancing on the 23rd. And the 25th. Final round if he passes is the 26th start 7:00pm at Lincoln Center

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... 16&sk=wall

Landon Harris posted on his Facebook fan page his schedule for next week's YAGP in New York:

To watch Landon Harris compete in the 2012 Youth America Grand Prix next week via the internet, click the link below:

He is schedule to dance in:
ROUND 1: Monday, April 23, 2012
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM Junior Men Soloist Classical Competition (121 – 154)

LANDON IS #139. He is dancing the classical variation Pas de Deux solo from “Le Corsaire”.

Landon Harris will dance with Next Generation Ballet at the "Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow" Gala at Lincoln Center in New York on April 27, 2012.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Landon-Ha ... 5765481338

Here is the link mentioned above that will have live video streaming:
http://www.visualartsmasters.com/

Giuseppe competed in the YAGP final round Thursday evening, and BETM fans were well represented to support him. At least nine or ten fans were in attendance, including a few who I had not previously met. Giuseppe's mom, Sonia, was very grateful for the support. At intermission she said to us: "My family can't be here, so you are my family".

YAGP is a competition consisting of international dancers. Over 5000 young dance students audition worldwide. Only 300, representing 30 countries, are invited to New York for the finals. Thursday's "final round" consisted of about 100 who had made the cuts from events earlier this week. Of these 100, they were divided into four categories: girls and boys juniors, and girls and boys seniors. Each dancer performed a routine of about 90 seconds.

So how did Giuseppe do? He performed the piece from Harlequinade, a video of which I believe was posted here last month. The link below shows two rehearsal versions, but I think he was much more impressive last night. He has a certain style and flair that is much easier to see in person. Judging from the applause he received I would say the audience definitely considered him one of the top performers in his category. At the end of the evening Giuseppe came out and thanked each of us for coming to support him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=510oq9Ft ... ata_player

Late breaking news. Hugsy2k tweeted: "Congrats @GBausilio for 2nd place in 2012 YAGP in Junior Men's portion of the competition."

Well done Giuseppe. Congratulations!!!

I went and saw the movie/documentary "First Position" today. I will start off by saying I have zero experience with nor do I follow ballet other than watching the Nutcracker and of course Billy Elliot. I was drawn to this because I have enjoyed watching so many Billy's perform onstage so I thought I should check it out when I saw it was playing at a local theater. A very interesting and at times very moving documentary that follows six kids in their "ballet journey" to the Youth America Grand Prix. I am so amazed at the talent and dedication these kids have. I would definitely recommend it to any Billy Elliot fan.

There was one young male dancer by the name of Aran Bell who I thought would make a great Billy. I googled him when I got home and discovered he was offered the role of Billy but turned it down because he feared it would interfere with his training...I couldn't believe what I read, that blew me away. You can read about him here...http://ticketsarasota.com/2011-08-21/se ... -festival/

Here is a link to the movie website:

http://www.balletdocumentary.com/

I hope this film comes here at some point. I will definitely see it. Thanks for the link to the excellent article about Aran.

Experienced a great deal of commonality with your post, 1RadBilly, in that I knew nothing about ballet, nor did I have the slightest appreciation for the skill of this artistry until BETM, and the magical performances of our leading Billies. Wow, but have I gone nuts with the genre, having now attended the Joffreys Ballet Theater's performances of Don Quixote, the Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Spring Desire in Chicago.

I guess I'm commenting here in hopes of encouraging you or any of our friends out there who have developed a latent appreciation for ballet because of Billy, that you commit yourself to seeing a top quality company's performance of a ballet. Watching the principles of such a company doing their thing will literally knock your socks off.

I never thought my respect and admiration of Billy could ever be enhanced, but seeing how they could possibly develope in big time, should that be their choice, only gives me cause to hold them in even greater awe.

Anyway, just A thought, for whatever it's worth.

Regards, Colin

The 2013 YAGP finals will be held in NYC starting next week, April 12-18.
http://www.yagp.org/eng/new_york_ny_fin ... 3_info.php

The Billy Elliot community will be well represented this year by these fine gentlemen:

Junior Contemporary Soloists:
#174 Ethan Fuller
#175 Lex Ishimoto

Senior Men Contemporary Soloists:
#328 Landon Harris
#329 Giuseppe Bausilio

Ethan and Landon will also dance as part of group 606 in the Ensembles Competition.
http://www.yagp.org/eng/2013/YAGP%20201 ... hedule.pdf

Break a leg to all!

Since this forum keeps track of all kinds of details, would it be an idea to list all the BE affiliated dancers we know who also compete(d) at the various levels of the YAGP competition program? For example I read that even one of the Korean Billies has YAGP success on his C.V.