YAGP FIRST POSITION CLUB’S ‘JEWELS’ CELEBRATION

Youth America Grand Prix's (YAGP) First Position Club celebrated Friday night with ballet dancers from around the world at Susan Gutfreund's Upper East Side residence. The party followed the Lincoln Center Festival's performance of 'Jewels' featuring the Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, and Bolshoi Ballet, each dancing one act. Mrs. Gutfreund's famous hospitality ensured that guests from more than a dozen countries were not only made to feel at home but were greeted in their own language.

Dance patrons swanned through her Fifth Avenue duplex including Amy Astley, Barbara and Gary Brandt, Amy Fine Collins, Joanna Fisher, Olivia Flatto, Judith Hoffman, Allegra Kent, Kristina Allegra Kingston, Regina Kudoyarova, Lillian Kraemer, Margot London, Tara Milne, Vicki Reiss, Ralph Rucci, Denise and Andrew Saul, Denise Sobel, George Vanderploeg, David Weinreb and YAGP Board Chair Linda K. Morse with her husband, Ed. Guests also included many dancers from that evenings performance including the Bolshoi Ballet's Semyon Chudin and Olga Smirnova; NYCB's Harrison Ball, Joaquin De Luz, Emilie Gerrity, Christopher Grant, Spartak Hoxha, and Megan LeCrone; Paris Opera Ballet's Artistic Director Aurélie Dupont with dancer Dorothée Gilbert as well as dancers from other world-renowned companies including American Ballet Theatre's Skylar Brandt, April Giangeruso, Marcelo Gomes, Calvin Royal III, Gabe Stone Shayer, and Sarasota Ballet's Ricky Rhodes.

YAGP is the world's largest network for dance. Their mission is to support and develop world-class dancers (ages 9 – 19) of all ethnic backgrounds by providing scholarships, auditions, education, performance opportunities, and by serving as the global network of dance; connecting students, teachers, schools, dancers, dance companies and audiences.

Photo credit: Paul Bruinooge for PMC