Winners and Some Questions

The Prix de Lausanne 2026 crowned fourteen young dancers in its finale held at the Théâtre de Beaulieu in Lausanne, selected from 78 candidates who took part in the competition’s selection rounds. The jury this year was presided over by Kevin O’Hare, artistic director of the Royal Ballet.

Prix de Lausanne 2026 finalists. Photograph by Gregory Bartardon | Prix de Lausanne

At the centre of the stage stood William Gyves, an 18‑year‑old American dancer who offered a classical variation drawn with clean, unforced lines and a contemporary solo that seemed to open inward rather than outward: a deep interiority that is definitely striking in such a young artist.

Gyves also left with the Best Swiss Candidate award, a nod to the education he has absorbed at Zurich Dance Academy: his trajectory across the week suggested a dancer who has learned to trust the space between steps.

Winner of the second Prize, the 17‑year‑old South Korean dancer Dayeon Yeom, trained at Seoul Arts High School, delivered an Esmeralda variation that was bright, musical and unapologetically present. The audience responded instantly, awarding her both the Audience Prize and the Web Prize, a rare alignment between the theatre and the digital crowd. Her contemporary variation was maybe more contained, but her artistic imprint is unmistakable.

Next to these, the competition awarded fourteen bursaries that give winners the opportunity to join partner schools or companies, alongside a set of special prizes that highlight contemporary interpretation, audience favourites and national distinction. Bursary winners include:

- Huang Jingxinyu (China): 3rd bursary, Bourse Astarte 301.
- Qin Yihan (China): 4th bursary, Fondation Maurice Béjart 314.
- Dragos Gramada (Romania): Aud Jebsen Scholarship, Prix d’interprétation contemporaine and Prix Beaulieu

The audience prizes (online and in-theatre) crowned the abovementioned Yeom Dayeon and Pietra Rego de Souza, who, at 15 years old only, showed she can go from sparkly to intense with a maturity that leaves space for her to focus on the little details of her dancing from now on.

William Gyves, 1st prize winner at the Prix de Lausanne 2026. Photograph by Gregory Bartardon | Prix de Lausanne 2026

These distinctions matter because they shape the immediate career options for winners: bursaries open doors to partner schools and companies, while special prizes raise a dancer’s profile with directors and casting teams. But the Prix’s experience is crucial for non-winners as well: working with esteemed teachers, performing onstage and attending the annual Networking Forum, that allows all candidates to meet with directors from the Prix’s partner schools and companies, opening the possibility for more scholarship offers.

Two clear currents emerged from the 2026 edition. First, there is a strong presence from South Korea and the People’s Republic of China, underscoring the region’s sustained investment in classical technique and international training pathways. Second, the awarding of the contemporary interpretation prize signals the competition’s continued embrace of dancers who can bridge classical virtuosity and contemporary expressiveness: a skill increasingly prized by major companies. Winners were not only technically secure but demonstrated musicality, intelligence and the capacity to adapt to different choreographic demands.

Dayeon Yeom, 2nd prize winner at the Prix de Lausanne 2026. Photograph by Gregory Bartardon | Prix de Lausanne

And yet, beneath the polish of the 2026 edition, a familiar pattern resurfaced: a male dancer has now won the Prix de Lausanne every year since 2020.

This is not an indictment of Gyves, whose win was deserved. It is a question that the ballet world has been slow to articulate: why do the results keep tilting this way? Is it because the competitive repertoire favours male-coded virtuosity? Because male dancers are more likely to receive more individualized coaching because there are fewer of them? Or because of the good old unconscious biases?

Whatever the reason, several female finalists this year left without scholarships: their absence is a reminder of how narrow the margins have become.

For sure, the Prix de Lausanne is not responsible for ballet’s gendered history, but it is one of the few institutions with the visibility and the authority to interrogate it. Every year it reveals a generation of dancers who move fluently between classical and contemporary worlds and carry within them the possibility of a more expansive ballet: the question now is whether the institutions around them will keep pace.

Greta Pieropan

Greta Pieropan likes to define herself as ‘your friendly neighbourhood dramaturg’. She works as a dance dramaturg with artists, collectives, and communities to build thought, structure, and narrative within creative processes. She believes in dramaturgy as a relational practice—one that generates context, listening and accessibility. She’s also a professional shapeshifter: from dramaturgy in the rehearsal room, to project development, to moderating public conversations, to workshops, digital and traditional communication for live performance, she’s always backstage ready to support the dance scenes.

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