YAGP 2026 Final Round Review

Another season, a new location, and another final round… This year’s Youth America Grand Prix International Finals began Monday, May 11, 2026, in Houston, Texas. Since the pandemic, the organization has held finals at the Straz Center in Tampa, Florida, so at the start of the season, when they announced finals would be hosted at the Houston Ballet Studios, things were already feeling different.

This season, Finals took place in mid-May rather than the week of Easter. The semi-finals felt smaller, and the invitations to finals felt like they took forever. By now, many of the winners and their families feel exhausted from the week in New York City for the New York City Gala, and now a week in Houston. School directors are feeling like they are burning the candle at both ends, as many are in the middle of Spring Showcases/End-of-year performances.

While Houston may offer better food, nicer hotels, and the inspiring feel of dancing where the Houston Ballet performs, it feels like finals is a little more disconnected because there is so much space and so many things to do. Bonus, because the studios at Houston Ballet are larger, teachers are able to sit in and watch, something that hasn’t happened since the pandemic.

This year was VERY different; prior to the final round, the jury called numerous soloists of all ages to take one more class behind closed doors. Something that may happen at the international semi-finals, but never happens at American semi-finals or finals. And because the class was last-minute, it caught many off guard, but made soloists pull out their A-game Friday evening. There was an hour between the end of that class and the announcement of the final round.

Late Friday night, dancers, parents, and coaches all gathered at the theater patiently waiting for the announcement of junior and senior final round candidates. The small ceremony was hosted by international choreographer Maria Konrad and Racheal Nye, director of Oklahoma City Ballet School.

And, like every year, well, every year that I have attended, the final announcement of the final round and the version finally presented had mistakes—for the final announcement for the public, please click here for the official list sent out by Youth America Grand Prix.

There is something magical about the announcement of the final round—being surrounded by kids cheering their peers on and watching first-time final-round contestants called. And while there are more hearts that are broken because not being called into the final round, for those who are called, this is the moment they have been waiting for… Some have waited for years, some have waited their whole YAGP career, and some never thought it was even possible.

This year, I was able to see friends and colleagues have students make it into the final round for the first time—and that was magical, nostalgic, and I could see them tear up, knowing their work is being recognized. I saw colleagues and coaches who have students consistently in the final round, and they expressed a sense of relief and reaffirmed that their curriculum works and that they are consistently producing with each new cohort of students. It was just a nice night for the announcement.

However, the next day was going to be a long one.

Since the split between junior and senior final rounds, it has normally been two shows back-to-back, which is quite long. This year, it was spaced out into a morning and an evening performance, which I thought would be better, but it made the day feel even longer. Juniors started the day at with 7:30 class and 10:00 show, where seniors started at 3:30 and performed at 6:00, and ended the day around forever-o'clock.

For the junior final round, it was definitely the year of the pas de courrou kitri variation, skipping the attitude turns and opting for fast pointe work. Another trendy variation this year was Medora’s entrance from Le Corsaire. Junior final round started with #306, the youngest in the final round, 12-year-old, Candice Zhi Jing Yeo from Yan Ballet Academy, Singapore, dancing Coppelia, pulling of 5 pirouettes. But she asn’t the only one, the junior women brought everything social media loves— 4-5 pirouettes, hyper-flexibility, and strong muscles.

For me, standouts in the Junior female final round were #356, Mano Kawai, age 12, who danced Gamzatti’s temple variation from La Bayadere. While it was probably not the most age-appropriate, it was danced beautifully. #377, Doyoung Kim, age 13 from Jung’s Ballet Academy, South Korea danced the female variation from Satanella who brought extremely clean classical ballet technique.  #389, Sheravine Jhon, 13, from Marlupi Dance Academy, Indonesia, who deviated from the program and danced Swanhilda from Coppelia. #402, YAGP darling, Anne Takahashi, 13 from Flora Ballet, Japan dazzled with a very charismatic, spitfire version of La Esmeralda’s entrance. #405, Angela Yang 13, from Li’s Ballet Studio, USA served us Le Corsaire in butter yellow. #409, Tiffany Emmanuela Tanugraha, 13, from Marlupi Dance Academy, #410, Ling Ren, 13, from China, brought ease and effort. #465, Sydney Qian from Bayer Ballet Academy did a spectacular, balanced-on-your-leg Dulcinea from Don Q.

Carlos, my husband, watched on the live and couldn’t stop texting me about numbers #356, #402, #393, #404, and #461. Red might be a lucky color, he insisted, based on Miss Universe’s— Miss Mexico winning in a red dress.

Junior Boys was a little less exciting for me this year, and while many of these boys have grown up through Youth America Grand Prix, you can see the difference in development between boys and girls in their early teen years. $540, YAGP Brazil’s candidate Vinicius Ferreira Nunes Sousa, had a musical problem and didn’t perform at the Junior round but performed at the senior final round. Prix winner #543 Leon Yusei Sai, from Southland, was incredibly charismatic. He announced on instagram earlier this month he will be joining the Royal Ballet School. What was interesting for the boys, is something we say about the girls a lot, pick an age-appropriate variation— many boys took the adages from Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, roles that are normally categorized as extremely mature and artistic variations. #526, Tristan Jones, age 13 from Hasmik Amirian Ballet had the longest legs ever, and danced the Sleeping Beauty Prince Desire’s adage variation with incredibly high arabesques.

If we had to guess winners, I would say the Youth Grand Prix will go to Leon Yusei Sai, with first place men’s going to Vinicius Ferreira, second place to Tristan Jones, and third to either Charley Toscano, Owen Simmons, or George Alex Kremnev. First place women’s— Anne Takahashi, and to battle out for second, third, Shelly King and Natalia Makarova Award— I would say— Ling Ren, Nina Ros, Sheravine Jhon, Candice Zhi Jing Yeo, Sydney Qian, Victoria Carillo, and Silvia Rives Rives.

Followed by a long break, the senior final round began— and to be very candid, I sat there and wondered why there were so many in the final round, and why so many of these young people who have attended Prix de Lausanne, won or placed YAGP finals, and have been in the final round consistently, and some this was there third time in senior final round… still haven’t committed to a year-round school. And while I understand that there are family values and maturity factors—I still couldn’t help but wonder if the senior women’s and men’s final rounds really reflected the future of ballet, or those who just aren't committed to attending a year-round school… or just like to win. It made me wonder who was overlooked, and who missed out on a chance to be seen. There were so many kids out there who are desperately wanting to match, receive placement, and get a scholarship to go year-round.

There really wasn’t that much to say about the senior final round besides that those Koreans are really technically gifted, mostly because the whole time I was thinking this kid just announced they are going year-round, and this kid was at PDL, and this kid has been with YAGP for a very long time, and I couldn’t help but looking at the directory and looking at all those who didn’t make final round.