David Hallberg and Mimmo Miccolis
The Choreographer Mimmo Miccolis is the winner of the Outstanding Choreographer Award at the 2015 Edition of the YAGP
Italian choreographer Mimmo Miccolis is the winner of the Outstanding Choreographer Award at the 2015 Youth American Grand Prix (YAGP). Miccolis received the prize onstage at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Centre in New York City on April 11, 2015. The Italian choreographer created five pieces of contemporary dance, performed by the talented young dancers of The Washington School of Ballet. Mimmo’s innovative dance style, together with the original music composed by Francesco Germini, impressed the judges, comprised of a panel of dance experts from the top dance companies and schools around the world. The YAGP week concluded with the annual gala. This year David Hallberg, a dancer of from the Bolshoi Ballet and the American Ballet Theater, hosted the evening.
Launched in 1999, the YAGP has become the largest and most important dance competition in the world. Every year, approximately 5,000 dancers between the ages of 9 and 19 compete to obtain scholarships and work contracts from the most important dance institutions around the world. In 2005, UNESCO recognized the vast contributions of YAGP to the dance world and awarded it with a membership to the Conseil International de la Danse (CID). The 2012 movie First Position portrayed the lives of six young dancers competing at the YAGP and earned very positive reviews and several awards.
One of the prizes awarded at the YAGP is that of Outstanding Choreographer to recognize the talent of young artists who present their choreographic work to the international community. Among the winners of previous competitions include Justin Peck, dancer and resident choreographer of the New York City Ballet. Mimmo Miccolis is the winner of the Outstanding Choreographer Award at the 2015 YAGP Finals. Mimmo had the opportunity to present his choreographic work at the YAGP, thanks to the trust given to him by the faculty of The Washington School of Ballet, where the young choreographer currently teaches contemporary dance. Teacher and colleague Kristina Windom and the director of the school Kee Juan Han strongly believed in Mimmo’s talent. Kee Juan Han also had a key role in the professional development of fellow dancer David Hallberg, the international star to whom the 2015 YAGP Gala was dedicated.
After graduating from the dance academy Fondazione Niccolò Piccinni in Bari, Italy and studying at Balletto di Toscana in Florence, Mimmo was part of several dance companies in Italy and toured in Spain, France, Albania and Oman. In 2009 Miccolis was also part of the Italian TV Show Domenica In.
But international success for the Italian choreographer started in 2011 in London, where Miccolis was awarded the BBC Performing Arts Fund to choreograph RIGHTS(?), a dance piece that focused on human rights violations. In July 2014, Miccolis presented the world premiere of Growth, at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC with fellow dancer and choreographer Gloria Benedikt. Miccolis has also presented a large number of dance performances in collaboration with the Italian Embassy in Washington DC and The Washington School of Ballet including White, which was performed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum on December 2014 and received very positive reviews. Currently, Miccolis is part of the dance faculty of The Washington School of Ballet. On May 8, he will perform in Vienna (Austria) at the House of European Union for Europe Day, an occasion that commemorates the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.
