(Raleigh)-Cameron McCune, a 16 year old high school student who trains at The Raleigh School of Ballet (RSB) won the Senior Men’s Division (15-19 year olds) at the Youth America Grand Prix 2012 Philadelphia, PA Regional Semi-Finals held Jan 14-16. Mr. McCune competed against 18 other dancers. With this win he is invited to compete in the final round in April in NYC with winners from all over the world.
Mr. McCune has trained at The Raleigh School of Ballet since he was 8 years old. Additionally, he trained two summers at Miami City Ballet. He was coached for this competition by Gyula Pandi, a former Hungarian National Ballet Dancer and recently retired dance faculty member of UNCSA. Mr Pandi thought Cameron won the competition before he actually performed his variations. “In the warm-up studio all the dancers, their teachers/coaches were blown away by Cameron’s poise, confidence and technical level. He won the competition right there before stepping on the stage. He stood out like a palm tree in the middle of the desert,” he said.
Mr. McCune is a member of the school’s affiliate performance training company, Raleigh Dance Theatre (RDT) and has been invited by Carolina Ballet Artistic Director, Robert Weiss to perform company roles throughout the 11-12 season.
Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) is the world’s largest student ballet scholarship competition that awards over $250,000 annually in scholarships to leading dance schools worldwide. The competition is held annually around the world and in New York City, and is open to dance students of all nationalities 9-19 years old. For more information please visit: yagp.org.
The Raleigh School of Ballet celebrates 30 years as one of the triangles premiere professional ballet training schools. RSB alumnae are currently dancing with professional ballet companies include Ashley Hathaway (Raleigh), Sarah Newton (Durham) Lindsay Purrington (Raleigh) with Carolina Ballet; Laura Bowman (Raleigh), with Pennsylvania Ballet; Jessie Truesdale (Raleigh), company member with National Ballet of Flandars; Chris Weisler (Raleigh) company member with Dutch National Ballet, and Emily Proctor (Raleigh) company member with Aspen-Santa Fe Ballet. Please visit the following websites for more information: RSB raleighballet.com or RDT raleighdance.org.