For the past week, young ballet performers have been giving it their all. The world’s largest network of dancers, the Youth America Grand Prix, had gathered the most promising names in ballet from around the world to work with masters to perfect their craft. The result? A two-hour opus unfolding on the David H. Koch Theater stage, complete with pliés, pirouettes, and pas de deux. The select group of dancers came from all over, performing alongside established dancers from the American Ballet Theatre, Bolshoi Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, and Mariinsky Ballet, just to name a few.

Some dancers were just 5 years old. “I am in awe of this organization,” the evening’s host, Hoda Kotb, told the sold-out theater. “Sometimes all you need is one person who thinks you can do it, or one person who brings you out of the shadows and pushes you right out here on center stage. Well, that is exactly what this organization does. I’ve been watching the incredible dancers backstage, and they have just moved me to my core.”

Some dancers were just 5 years old. “I am in awe of this organization,” the evening’s host, Hoda Kotb, told the sold-out theater. “Sometimes all you need is one person who thinks you can do it, or one person who brings you out of the shadows and pushes you right out here on center stage. Well, that is exactly what this organization does. I’ve been watching the incredible dancers backstage, and they have just moved me to my core.”

But, appropriately, it was Isabella Boylston who stole the show. The American Ballet Theatre principal dancer counted the evening as her triumphant return to her home stage after a whirlwind tour spent performing everywhere from Budapest to Lincoln, Nebraska. She entered shimmering, showing no signs of fatigue from performing moments ago alongside Kimin Kim the Grand Pas de Deux from Don Quixote (which elicited a thunderous applause). “We literally had one rehearsal before the show,” she confessed. “He came straight from the plane, from Russia, to the studio. He’s one of the best dancers in the world. That was a big reason why I agreed to do it with so little rehearsal!”

What’s more, Boylston and her costar are both alums of the Youth America Grand Prix competition. “When I was 14, I came to New York and did the Grand Prix,” she told Vogue. “I think it was a turning point for me. I was from a small town, and I didn’t really have any concept of what ballet really was other than that I loved to dance, so I think it was great for me to see these kids from all over the world.”

 
 
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