XV International Ballet Competition—Laureates’ Gala
Bolshoi Theatre
Moscow, Russia
July 05, 2026 (live stream)
by Ilona Landgraf
Copyright © 2026 by Ilona Landgraf
After three rounds of competition in ten days, the XV International Ballet Competition’s jury awarded medals, certificates, and diplomas to 50 of 131 contestants. Due to the high standards, discussions to determine the laureates continued late into the night after the final round. A laureates’ gala concert concluded the competition.
Of the seven gold medals, three were awarded to competitors from the USA and the Republic of Korea and one to a Japanese dancer. Russian dancers received seventeen prizes, Chinese six, and Mongolians four. Western Europe wasn’t represented, and only a few dancers from Central Europe scored: the Swede Auguste Marmus (bronze medal men, duet), coryphée and, as of late, Kammertänzer of the Hungarian National Ballet, the Serb Jana Zimonjic (bronze medal women, solo), and the Slovene Vid Vogrin (silver medal boys, duet). What mattered, though, wasn’t nationality but talent.
Vogrin, for example, just graduated from Moscow’s State Academy of Choreography and will join the Bolshoi Ballet. Two of the USA’s gold medalists, Yana Peneva and Alexei Orohovsky, graduated from Stuttgart’s John Cranko School in 2024 and 2025, respectively, and joined the Mariinsky Ballet as second soloists in 2025. They competed together in the junior duet category and earned an especially remarkable victory, as Orohovsky had injured his foot before round III but went on to perform impeccably. He received his gold medal on crutches.
In the laureates’ gala, Ryoma Hudzeleu, the Japanese gold medalist (men, solo) mentioned above, replaced him as Basil alongside Peneva’s Kitri in a fabulous pas de deux from Don Quixote. As it happens, Hudzeleu is also a 2025 graduate of the John Cranko School and joined the Mariinsky as a second soloist right away. All three testify to the high standard of the Cranko School under Tadeusz Matacz’s directorship (who stepped down in 2025) as well as the appeal of Russian companies.
The third U.S. gold medalist (girls, solo), Crystal Huang, was the only one who performed twice at the gala. Only seventeen years old, Huang danced Esmeralda’s variation from La Esmeralda and her own contemporary choreography, Hypnosis Waltz, which resembles an acrobatic, resolute struggle against invisible forces. The piece was, like some others, created for the competition. Huang has technique, clean lines, musicality, temperament, and individuality, but what thrilled me most was that she seemed to be dance incarnate.
I admired the self-assurance of the not-yet-sixteen-year-old Korean Pak Kunbyulbit, gold medalist (boys, solo), whose Jean de Brienne sailed flawlessly through an excerpt of Grigorovich’s Raymonda. His compatriots, Minjin Kim and Kangwon Lee, won gold in the duet category. Watching their Grand Pas Classique by Victor Gsovsky, I thought of what Andrian Fadeeyev said is most important to him as a juror: good taste. That’s what Kim and Lee displayed. The cleanliness and harmony of their lines and the level of perfection were amazing. Most striking, though, was the absence of any visible strain.
Unfazed by its many intricate lifts, the Chinese Yikun Zhang (silver medal women, duet) and Zhangfeng Wang (prize and diploma for partnership in the Senior category) infused Grigorovich’s balcony pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet with emotion. Verona’s velvety night could be felt even on screen.
Of the gala’s many top-notch performances, Andrey Grachev (Russia, bronze medal boys, solo) showcased his powerful jumps in Actaeon’s variation from La Esmeralda, Dulguun Batbold (Mongolia, bronze medal boys, duet) soared high as the Wind God in a variation from The Talisman, and Viktoria Sokolova (Russia, silver medal girls, solo) generously spread her grace as Aurora. The dreamlike pirouettes of Sakura Nagai in a variation from Petipa’s La Halte de cavalerie were akin to swirling cherry petals, reminding me of her home country, Japan.
Elisey Volkov (Russia, silver medal boys, solo) gave Bournonville’s never-ending series of jumps weightlessness and ease, as did Alexander Dmitriev (Russia, silver medal boys, duet) and the Bolshoi Ballet’s Sofia Maymula (prize and diploma for partnership in the Junior category) in their pas de deux from The Flower Festival in Genzano. It combined nimble feet, butterfly-like lightness, filigree details, and a clean style. The Japanese Denis Watanabe’s (silver medal boys, solo) Philippe from The Flowers of Paris had brio, Razmik Marukyan (Armenia, bronze medal men, solo) was a mighty Ferkhad (the male love interest in Grigorovich’s A Legend of Love), and Dmitry Sobolev, a first soloist of the Leonid Jacobson Ballet St. Petersburg, who also won the bronze medal in the men’s solo category, made Colin from La Fille mal gardée very likable.
The level of professionalism extended to Tatyana Gevorkyan and Nikolay Rastvortsev, who hosted the awards ceremony and the laureates’ gala. As before, the Bolshoi Ballet’s Ana Turazashvili and Gennady Yanin presented the live streams and conducted interviews during the break. Alexei Bogorad was at the conductor’s podium of the Bolshoi Theatre’s Symphony Orchestra.
| Links: | Website of the International Ballet Competition | |
| Website of the Bolshoi Theatre | ||
| International Ballet Competition—video archive | ||
| Photos: | 1. | Laureates, XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre |
| 2. | Kunbyulbit Pak (Republic of Korea) and Sun Hee Kim, XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre |
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| 3. | Anar Uyen (Mongolia) and Lili Xin, XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 4. | Jana Zimonjic (Serbia) and Tan Sağtürk, XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 5. | Kangwon Lee (Republic of Korea) and Gulzhan Tutkibayeva, XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 6. | Ryoma Hudzeleu (Japan) and Svetlana Zakharova, XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 7. | Kunbyulbit Pak, Minjin Kim, Sun Hee Kim, and Kangwon Lee (Republic of Korea), XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 8. | Rachel Pimentel Quintao and Auguste Marmus (Hungary), XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 9. | Egor Arkhipov (Russia), XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 10. | Sakura Nagai (Japan), XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 11. | Andrey Grachev (Russia), XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 12. | Elisey Volkov (Russia), XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 13. | Viktoria Sokolova (Russia), XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 14. | Crystal Huang (USA), XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 15. | KangWon Lee and Minjin Kim (Republic of Korea), XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 16. | Gennady Yanin and Ana Turazashvili, XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 17. | Gulzhan Tutkibayeva, Tamas Solymosi, Svetlana Zakharova, Andrian Fadeev, and Sun Hee Kim, XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| 18. | Jury, XV International Ballet Competition 2026, Bolshoi Theatre | |
| all photos © Press Center of the International Ballet Competition | ||
| Editing: | Kayla Kauffman |