Grand Jeté

South Carolina's Premier Student Ballet Competition - March 21, 2020

Ballet students, ages 10-19, are invited to participate in master classes and compete for cash prizes in the first annual Grand Jeté student dance competition, hosted by the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities. 

Participants will compete by age group divisions:

• Pre-Competitive (ballet) - ages 10-12
• Junior Division (ballet) - ages 13-15
• Senior Division (ballet and/or contemporary) - ages 16-19

Registration opens October 1.

Congratulations to our inaugural Grand Jeté Winners!

First Place

• Senior Ballet Division
  Rimi Mizuoka, International Ballet Academy
• Senior Contemporary/Modern Division
  Niko Heers, SC Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities
• Junior Ballet Division
  Gabrielle Gardner, SC Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities

Second Place

• Senior Ballet Division
  Gabrielle Brown, International Ballet Academy
• Senior Contemporary/Modern Division
  Olivia Mozie, SC Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities
• Junior Ballet Division
  Virginia Welsh, Columbia Conservatory of Dance, Inc.

Third Place

• Senior Ballet Division
  Isabelle Snelling, SC Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities
• Senior Contemporary/Modern Division
  Hallie Walter, SC Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities
• Junior Ballet Division
  Anna Ohi, International Ballet Academy

Honorable Mention

Senior Ballet Division
McKaela Rowland, International Ballet Academy

2019 Competition Jurors

Grand Jeté was adjudicated by the following out-of-state, world-renowned dance professionals.

Lorna Feijóo

Lorna Feijóo is an International Star considered “stunning with an exceptional attention to detail” by The New York Times. Ms. Feijóo joined Boston Ballet in 2003 from the Cincinnati Ballet. She studied at The National Ballet School in Havana and became a principal dancer at the National Ballet of Cuba, under the direction of the famous Alicia Alonso. Ms. Feijóo has performed in several International Ballet Festivals in Havana and on worldwide tours. Ms. Feijóo won critical acclaim in leading roles performed in many classical and contemporary ballets. She has received numerous awards, including a gold medal at both the Vignali-Danza Contest and the Positano Contest of Young Talents in Italy. She has been a guest artist with The Royal Ballet of London, Rome Opera Ballet, La Scala de Milan, Zurich Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and has performed at worldwide festivals and ballet galas in Spoleto, Italy; Gala des Étoiles, Canada; Gala des Étoiles du XXI Siècle, Paris and Japan.

Ms. Feijóo’s repertoire includes all the classical ballets of the National Ballet of Cuba. In addition, she has performed Kudelka’s Cinderella, Ashton’s La Fille Mal Gardée, Bournonville’s La Sylphide, Nureyev’s Don Quixote, Cranko’s The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet, Fokine's Les Sylphides, Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias and Lambarena, Morris’ Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes and Up and Down, Martins’ Distant Light, Balanchine’s Serenade, Who Cares?, Stars and Stripes, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Ballo de la Regina, Concerto Barocco, Emeralds, Jewels, Tchaikovsky Pas de deux, Sylvia Pas de deux, Divertimento No. 15, Fokine’s The Dying Swan, Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty, Le Corsaire Pas de deux and Raymonda, Act III, and Harald Lander's Etude, Clerc's La Bayadére, Alosa's Paquita, Child's Ten Part Suite, Gielgud's Giselle, Tharp's In the Upper Room and multiple versions of The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Additionally, Ms.Feijóo’s repertoire include works such as Jiri Kylián ballets: Bella Figura, No More Play, Sechs Tanze; William Forsythe’s The Second Detail, and Vaslav Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun. Ms. Feijóo has been invited to dance in the Benoit de la Dance (Bolshoi Theater) and participated in two famous American shows, the legendary Sesame Street and popular Dancing with Stars. Ms.Feijóo's sister Lorena Feijoo, former Principal Dancer with San Francisco Ballet are both Ambassadors of Milk Life (Somos Fuertes). 

Ms. Feijóo's dance partners have included Jose Carreño, Carlos Acosta, Nelson Madrigal, Manuel Legris, Jose Martinez, Maximiliano Guerra, Carlos Molina, Yury Yanowsky and Damian Woetzel, just to name a few. 

Ms. Feijóo has two beautiful children, a girl and baby boy with husband former Principal Dancer, Nelson Madrigal. Their children are the light of their lives.

Francie Huber

Francie Huber is from Kansas City, Missouri. She earned a B.F.A. from
the Juilliard School in New York. A principal dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company for fourteen years, Ms. Huber created many roles including the solo in Cascade, “the polka” in Company B, as well as the lead role in the internationally acclaimed Piazzolla Caldera. Her contribution to this work was featured in the 1999 Academy Award nominated documentary film, Dancemaker.

Ms. Huber was also featured in several television productions including the Dance in America series’ Emmy Award winning Speaking In Tongues, the Emmy nominated The Wrecker’s Ball, the Dannmarks Radio production of Spindrift And Syzygy, and the 1992 Kennedy Center Honors. She was awarded a Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) for sustained achievement in dancing for her work with Mr. Taylor.

Ms. Huber also performed with other companies including Twyla Tharp Dance as well as performed her own solo works. In addition to her performing career, Ms. Huber has been a teacher of Modern dance and Taylor workshops for the past 30 years. She has served as director of the Taylor 2 Dance Company, the second company of Paul Taylor and continues to stage Mr. Taylor’s works on professional companies and universities. Ms. Huber is a Fulbright Scholar. She received a Post-Doctoral, lecture and research grant, which led her to Amman, Jordan where she was the Guest Artist at the Queen Noor Al Hussein Performing Arts Center. She was also the Dance Artist in Residence at the Carlsen Center in Kansas City for several years where she worked on the advancement of state and national standards for dance education and teacher training.

Ms. Huber’s choreography can be seen on many regional companies and schools. She also was featured in the documentary film, “Callings” by John Altman. She currently lives in southwest Florida with her husband and two children and teaches at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Olivier Pardina

A native of France, Olivier Pardina was born to be a dancer. Raised in a very artistic family, he is exposed to the world of dance and classical music at a very young age. His father was a well-known Ballet Teacher, Choreographer, and Artistic Director and his mother, a celebrated Opera Singer. At age 10, inspired by his father, he begins his training under his watchful eyes before moving to Paris to continue his studies with the Master Teachers of the Paris Opera.

At age sixteen, he is promoted to Principal Dancer with the Nice Opera House (France); four years later he is offered a contract by celebrated choreographer Maurice Bejart after winning the first prize in a National Ballet Competition. As a Principal Dancer, Pardina performs with various prominent European Ballet Companies and tours extensively as a guest artist and as ambassador of the French culture. He performs around the world the leading roles of the Grand Ballets of the repertory and contemporary pieces. He is chosen by renowned choreographers to perform their work; amongst so many others, Birgit Cullberg in the Ballet “Miss Julie” alternating with Rudolf Nuryev’s and Hans Van Manen in the Ballets “Songs without words”, “Five Tangos” and “Septet Extra”…

During a tribute to French choreographers, he is chosen by Serge Lifar to perform his production of “Suite en Blanc” and by Marcia Haydee to perform a filmed production of Serge Lifar’s “Phedra”. Invited by the RAI, the Italian TV channel, he performs in a film production of “Romeo and Juliet” with the Roma Opera House and he is selected by Moses Pendleton, creator of the Momix and Pilobolus Dance companies to perform his world premier creation of the role “Pulcinella”. While performing with the Ballet Theatre Français, Pardina is chosen by Rudolf Nureyev as his alternate for several international tours, notably at the Coven Garden in London in the role of “Petrouchka” where Pardina received a standing ovation.

As a recipient of the teaching degree awarded by the French government, he is called upon by Rosella Hightower to evaluate the level of the National Conservatory of Dance and he is later appointed as Artistic Director and Principal Teacher of the school of the Nice Opera Ballet.

In 1991, after years of performing on stage, Pardina moves to Florida and dedicates his full time to nurturing the next generation of dancers as a full-time faculty at the Harid Conservatory. Under his well-versed and accomplished coaching, his students have won major prizes at the renowned Prix de Lausanne (Switzerland), the Youth America Grand Prix in New York and California Dance Classics to name a few. Many of his students are now Principal Dancers with renowned Ballet Companies (American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Houston Ballet…)

As a guest teacher, he has taught at the Rock School in Philadelphia, the Orlando Ballet School, the San Francisco Ballet School, the National RDA in Phoenix… and he is regularly invited to South America particularly in Brazil and Mexico.

He was invited by the American Ballet Theatre, the Teatro de Rio de Janeiro and the Cordoba Ballet Company (Argentina) to teach the company.

From 2013 to 2017, Olivier Pardina was Principal Teacher of the Pre-Professional division of the Miami City Ballet School.

In 2017, Pardina, in very high demand as a teacher and as a jury member for national and international Ballet competitions, decided to work exclusively as a freelance artist.

Thank you to these participating schools!

• Columbia Conservatory of Dance, Inc., MariClare Miranda
• Crosby-Miller School of Dance/Aiken Civic Ballet, Mary Dianne Toole Miller
• DanceArts Greenville, Anita Pacylowski-Justo
• English Theatre Arts, Barbara English
• Independent, Jordan Ann Shannon
• International Ballet Academy, Lena Forster
• Lowcountry Youth Dance Academy, Amanda Neikirk
• South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, Josée Garant

For Corporate Partnership Opportunities, contact: 
Amanda Herlihy
amanda.herlihy@gsafoundation.net 
864-282-4104

MORE DETAILS COMING SOON!