Grand Jeté

Grand Jeté is a statewide celebration of classical and contemporary dance, presented by the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities' Dance Department!

September 28 - October 4, 2026

Thanks to everyone who attended grand jetE 2026!

Congratulations to our 2026 Competition winners!

Pre-Competitive Category

Promise Award: Giana Rosenbaum

Junior Ballet Category

1st Place: Zephyra Lewis

2nd Place: Sadie Taft

3rd Place: Camille Louie

Senior Ballet Category

1st Place: Brooke Smith

2nd Place: Andrew Howell

3rd Place: Rebekah Bolton

Junior Modern/Contemporary Category

1st Place: Sadie Taft

2nd Place: Brennan Roberts

3rd Place: Eliza Kirkland

Senior Modern/Contemporary Category

1st Place: Rebekah Bolton

2nd Place: Peyton Money

3rd Place: Andrew Howell

Student Choreography Award: Emma Smith

Honorable Mentions:

Lydia Challenger

Ayla Hurley

Zar Magwood

Olivia Ross

Donate To Grand Jeté

Adjudicators

Christopher Alloways-Ramsey - Orlando Ballet

Christopher Alloways-Ramsey is the Director of Education for Orlando Ballet School, where he oversees the organization’s nationally recognized training programs and serves as Director of Orlando Ballet II. He previously held the position of Assistant Professor of Dance at the University of Utah, where he also served as Recruitment Director for the School of Dance.

A former professional dancer, Alloways-Ramsey performed with Boston Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet West, BalletMet, and Alabama Ballet, dancing a wide range of roles across the international classical repertoire and works by leading contemporary choreographers. He received much of his training under Mira Popovich and Dame Sonia Arova and studied on full merit scholarships at the School of American Ballet, Kirov Academy, San Francisco Ballet School, and Houston Ballet Academy. Alloways-Ramsey graduated from the high school ballet program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He holds an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University (2019) and graduated cum laude from Harvard University with an ALB in 2003.

As an educator, Alloways-Ramsey has served on the faculties of the University of Utah, American Academy of Ballet, Boston Arts Academy, Boston Ballet, Boston Conservatory, and Florida Ballet Conservatory. His former students perform worldwide in ballet, contemporary, modern, and Broadway companies. In 2013, he received the Surdna National Artists Teacher Fellowship, and in 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Dee Grant at the University of Utah.

From 2014 to 2016, he worked in Cape Town, South Africa, as Ballet Master for Cape Dance Company and Head of the Classical Ballet Department at Cape Academy of Performing Arts. He has also been a frequent guest instructor and répétiteur, staging classical works and teaching both nationally and internationally.

As a coach and principal stager, Alloways-Ramsey has mentored dancers who have received medals at the South African International Ballet Competition, Youth America Grand Prix (Paris), Puerto Rico Classical Dance Competition, and The American Ballet Competition.

Richard Chen See - Paul Taylor Dance Company

Richard Chen See, Licensing Director at Paul Taylor Dance Foundation, performed for 30 years with ballet and modern dance companies based in the UK and in the USA, spending the latter 15 years with Paul Taylor Dance Company. He is a master teacher and regisseur authorized to restage the works of the international, award-winning choreographer Paul Taylor. Chen See has staged many of Taylor’s dances for dance companies around the world including Queensland Ballet, Australia; Wiener Staatsballett and Volksoper Wien, Austria; Rambert, England; Ballett am Rhein, Germany; American Ballet Theatre and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, USA.

As a master teacher, Mr. Chen See is a three-time Fulbright Fellowship recipient to New Zealand and India. In addition to managing the licensing of Paul Taylor’s dances, he is on faculty for the pre-professional conservatory program at Peridance and permanent guest faculty at The Taylor Center for Dance Education, both located in New York City.

His interests outside of dance have led him to extensive involvement in the outdoor recreational industry as a business owner and leader specializing in kayaking for both able-bodied and physically-challenged individuals.

A Jamaican by birth, where his early training was in ballet, modern, and Afro-Caribbean folk forms, Chen See danced with companies as varied as Northern Ballet Theatre (England), Oakland Ballet (USA), ODC/San Francisco (USA) and various independent productions in classical, contemporary, and experimental disciplines before joining Paul Taylor Dance Company, where he originated and assumed roles in more than forty of Paul Taylor’s dances.

Endalyn Taylor - University of North Carolina School of Arts

Endalyn Taylor, dancer, choreographer, and educator, is the Dean of the School of Dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She has held the positions of Director of Dance Theatre of Harlem School in New York - a company she joined in 1984, becoming a principal dancer in 1993 - and Director of the Cambridge Summer Art Institute in Massachusetts. Her extensive administrative, artistic, and academic career is steeped in ballet pedagogy and she has created an eclectic body of choreographic works.

Taylor excels at restaging ballets, having performed many of the classics and having worked with luminaries in the field including Dance Theatre of Harlem founder Arthur Mitchell, British-American ballet dancer and choreographer Frederick Franklin, director and choreographer of LINES Ballet Alonzo King, American dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille, and director and choreographer of Garth Fagan Dance and “The Lion King,” Garth Fagan. She has performed on Broadway and stages all over the world, including as an original cast member of Tony Award-winning Broadway productions of “The Lion King,” “Aida,” and “Carousel.”

Prior to joining UNCSA, she served six years at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she taught ballet and musical theater as an Associate Professor of Dance. In 2020, she was appointed the Dean’s Fellow for Black Arts Research.