For those interested, the Helsinki International Ballet Competition is taking place as I write. There's a web site here:

http://www.balcomphel.fi/english/english.html


There's a white news box in the blue left-hand nav bar. They announced the names of those who made it out of the first round. (I'm following it this year because 5 current and 2 graduates of UBA are taking part. Also, one of our posters -- Daniil -- is a competitor. All of them made it into the next round. Congrats!)

Just heard from a dancer at this competition. 2nd round results are in. Mathias Dingman (current UBA student) has made it to the finals. Both Brooklyn Mack and Melissa Hough (UBA graduates) have also passed to the third round. The full lists should appear on the website sometime tomorrow.

The finalists have been posted to the site; please see the link to the Helsinki site above.

To get to the list, click the "Read More" link in the bottom right hand corner of the page, and then "this link" under the 31.5.2005 news item. (At least of this moment it says,

"31.5.2005 31 dancers to the Semi-finals. 10 juniors and 21 seniors.

You will find the list of Finalists from this link."

but it is a link to the finalists, not semi-finalists.

Way to go Daniil, who made it to the finals!

Many, many beautiful dancers here.
Must be very tough for the jury.
The people working for this competition have been wonderul and the Mr. Simkin is indeed beautiful.

The results have been announced. I am only posting information about the people I am familiar with. I am sure it will all be put on the Helsinki website shortly. Jr. Girls - Megan Gray, Boston Ballet won a bronze medal. Jr. Boys, Mathias Dingman (UBA) won the bronze, Joseph Gorak the silver, Dannii Simkin won the Grand Prix and Brooklyn Mack won a special award. Sr. Girls - Melissa Hough (Boston Ballet, UBA graduate) won the bronze. No gold given in the senior boys, two silver medals and two bronze medals were awarded. Choreography awards went to Victor Plotnikov (Boston Ballet) and Jorma Elmo (native Finnish choreographer who also set pieces on Boston dancers). The gala is this evening. USA dancers had an excellent showing at this competition.

Grand Priix! Congratulations, Daniil!!! (Congratulations to all the other winners, as well, but Daniil posts here )

From the photo available at the site, I can see that Daniil's concern for line, which was already very, very good when he first started posting on BT and BT4D, has gotten even better! It's very heartwarming to see, and a I'm proud that he's one of us.

There's a short piece on Daniil's win in this online newspaper. It gives a little bit of info on his background and the HIBC as well.

Daniil Simkin article

Congratulations, Daniil! We are all very proud of you.

A reminder: Daniil and his father Dmitri Simkin are both on the roster of performers for this year's Gala des Étoiles at Montréal's Place des Arts on September 8th.

edited to add: I just saw that the article on Daniil was already referenced by pmeja earlier this morning in the "links" thread. Sorry for the repetition, but as they say in Estonian: "toppelt ei kärise" ("it won't rip if you double it").