{"id":15362,"date":"2026-02-22T06:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/15362\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T06:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T06:28:07","slug":"milo-demeulenaere-wins-prix-de-lausanne-2026-an-important-moment-for-the-bay-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/15362\/","title":{"rendered":"Milo Demeulenaere Wins Prix de Lausanne 2026 \u2014 An Important Moment for the Bay Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a historic moment for the Bay Area. Milo Demeulenaere, a young Belgian-American dancer born and raised in San Francisco, has just won the highly prestigious Prix de Lausanne 2026<\/a>. At only 18 years old, he becomes ones of the dancers from the region to receive this international distinction, widely regarded as one of the most demanding and coveted awards in the ballet world.<\/p>\n

\"\"Trained since the age of 5 at City Ballet of San Francisco, Milo represents the culmination of thirteen years of rigorous work alongside his teacher and mentor Nikolai Kabaniaev, former dancer with the Mariinsky Theatre and head of the boys\u2019 program at the school. An institution of excellence dedicated to training future professionals, City Ballet has supported him through every stage of his artistic development.<\/p>\n

A Dream Built with Discipline<\/p>\n

Milo had intended to apply for the Prix de Lausanne for the past five years. Around age 13\u201314, he already knew he wanted to pursue ballet as a career.<\/p>\n

The selection process for the Prize is exceptionally demanding and unfolds in several stages:<\/p>\n

Early October 2025: applications open.Stage 1: video submission \u2014 5 minutes at the barre, 5 minutes in the center (pirouettes, jumps), and 2 minutes of contemporary. Results are announced at the end of October.Stage 2: selection of 80 candidates worldwide.Lausanne Week: daily classical and contemporary classes are evaluated, followed by the performance of required variations on stage.<\/p>\n

Out of the 80 selected dancers, only 21 become finalists, and 14 receive awards in the form of scholarships granted by various foundations. Milo was awarded the Nureyev Foundation Scholarship, which notably includes housing support.<\/p>\n

On Stage: Classical Virtuosity and Contemporary Intensity<\/p>\n

For his classical variation, Milo performed the variation from Paquita \u2013 Grand Pas de Deux, an iconic piece of the academic repertoire requiring precision, elevation, and technical brilliance. \"\"<\/p>\n

For contemporary, he danced Grinding the Teeth by choreographer Goyo Montero, set to music by Owen Belton \u2014 a physical and introspective piece highlighting musicality and expressive depth.<\/p>\n

During the coaching week, leading figures in ballet shared their expertise with the candidates, including Federico Bonelli (former Principal of The Royal Ballet and Artistic Director of Northern Ballet) and Yoel Carre\u00f1o (former dancer with the National Ballet of Cuba).<\/p>\n

For Milo, the two major strengths of the experience were meeting dancers from around the world and receiving high-level coaching from major ballet figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere was extremely focused in class, but deeply supportive outside of it,\u201d he shares.<\/p>\n

The Prix de Lausanne: Why Is It So Prestigious?<\/p>\n

Founded in 1973 in Switzerland, the Prix de Lausanne is an international competition for dancers aged 15 to 18. Unlike other competitions such as the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), which emphasizes competitive performance, the Prix de Lausanne stands out for its educational and professional approach, and its evaluation method is based on the candidate\u2019s learning process and attitude over the course of an entire week.<\/p>\n

Directors of the world\u2019s leading companies and schools attend the competition week to recruit their future dancers. A networking forum is held on Sunday after the final performances, offering candidates direct access to international institutions.<\/p>\n

Winning Lausanne is not just about receiving a medal \u2014 it is often a gateway to an international career.<\/p>\n

An Achievement \u2014 and a Beginning<\/p>\n

For Milo Demeulenaere, this victory marks the culmination of thirteen years of discipline, dedication, and shared vision with his mentor Nikolai Kabaniaev. But above all, it opens a new chapter. Born and raised in San Francisco, and the first laureate from the Bay Area in the history of the Prix de Lausanne, Milo represents a generation of locally trained dancers ready to shine internationally.<\/p>\n

The global ballet stage has just discovered a talent shaped here in the Bay Area. And this is only the beginning.<\/p>\n

We look forward to learning which company Milo will join next. Follow him on social media for updates.<\/p>\n

You can also see him perform at the City Ballet Spring Showcase<\/a> taking place May 9\u201310, 2026.<\/p>\n

Congratulations, Milo Demeulenaere!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a historic moment for the Bay Area. Milo Demeulenaere, a young Belgian-American dancer born and raised in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8175,10905,94,3530,10906,96],"class_list":{"0":"post-15362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lausanne","8":"tag-ballet","9":"tag-international-ballet","10":"tag-lausanne","11":"tag-milo-demeulenaere","12":"tag-nureyev-foundation","13":"tag-prix-de-lausanne-2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}