On April 29, 2025 at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, the annual YAGP 2025 Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow Gala will feature international stars from the ballet world sharing the stage with this year’s Youth America Grand Prix winners.
This year’s emcee will be YAGP alumna Melanie Hamrick, a former dancer with American Ballet Theatre and current choreographer, producer, and author (First Position and The Unraveling).
YAGP 2025 Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow Gala Program
Tuesday evening’s program, curated by YAGP Founder and Artistic Director Larissa Saveliev, includes:
- Lucia Lacarra and Matthew Golding* in a U.S. premiere choreographed by Golding
- Germain Louvet and Hannah O’Neill* (Paris Opera Ballet) in Angelin Prejlocaj’s Le Parc
- O’Neill and Friedemann Vogel (The Stuttgart Ballet) in a pas de deux from John Cranko’s Onegin
- Louvet in a variation from Rudolf Nureyev’s Swan Lake
- Yana Peneva* (The Stuttgart Ballet) and Daniil Simkin in the pas de deux from Act II of Le Corsaire
- Samuel Bassler and Daria Suzi in a world premiere choreographed by Ballett Dortmund’s Artistic Director, Xin Peng Wang
- Isaiah Day (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) in a world premiere choreographed by Day and set to original music by Matthew Whitaker (Emmy-nominated pianist and composer)
- The YAGP International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) – 25 dancers selected from the worldwide YAGP auditions – in the U.S. premiere of an excerpt from Sofia Nappi’s PUPO
- Zoey Anderson (Parsons Dance)
- Max Barker* and Paloma Livellara* (ABT Studio Company)
- Alexei Orohovsky* (John Cranko School of The Stuttgart Ballet)
* YAGP alumni
This performance marks New York City debuts for Peneva, Bassler, and Suzi.
Philanthropist Sarah Hoover will be honored at the Gala dinner for her lifelong devotion to ballet. Among her many involvements, she is co-founder of ABT’s Accelerator Committee, a board member of Art Production Fund, and author featured in publications such as the New Yorker, New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Vogue.
The Gala dinner is chaired by Marcella Guarino Hymowitz and Maria Cristina Anzola with a committee that includes Julia Arnhold, Paul Arnhold and Wes Gordon, Janna Bullock, Chelsea Clinton, Rebecca Hessel Cohen, Courtney Davis, Aly Gradone, Melanie Hamrick, Lilli Hymowitz, Lindsay Kraus, Kamie Lightburn, Colby Mugrabi, Grace Pomeranc, Lilah Ramzi, Emily Reifel, Priya Shukla, Daniela W. Tisch, Barbara Tober, Virginia Tomenson, Lesley Thompson Vecsler, and Lina Wallach.
Featured Photo for the YAGP 2025 Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow Gala of Lucia Lacarra in Xin Peng Wang’s Faust, courtesy of Jonathan Marder + Company.