Korean dancers strike gold at the Moscow International Ballet Competition

Two students from the Korea National University of Arts have won gold at the Moscow International Ballet Competition, the first time Korean dancers have claimed the top prize in the senior division of an event often called the Olympics of ballet.

Lee Kang-won and Kim Min-jin each won gold in the senior duet division at the final on Saturday at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The competition judges duet partners separately and the two earned the men's and women's top marks. Pak Kunbyulbit added a third Korean gold in the junior solo division.

The pair danced the “La Esmeralda” pas de deux and the Odile and Siegfried pas de deux from “Swan Lake” in the final, which drew the jury's highest marks.

Both had already made their mark abroad. Lee won silver in the junior men's category at the 2023 USA International Ballet Competition in Jackson, Mississippi, and Kim took first place in the senior pas de deux at this year's Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP). Pak, who studies at the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts, won the junior men's solo at last year's YAGP.

No Korean had won gold in Moscow's senior division before. The country's best previous result came in 2009, when the former Korean National Ballet principals Lee Dong-hoon and Kim Ri-hoe each won silver in the duet division. A Korean, Park Sun-mi, took junior duet gold in 2017.

Founded in 1969 and held every four years, the Moscow competition ranks among the world's most prestigious classical ballet events. This year's edition, which ran from June 25 to Sunday, was dedicated to the memory of the choreographer Yuri Grigorovich, who chaired its jury for decades. Kim Sun-hee, a professor emeritus at the Korea National University of Arts, served on the jury.

BY HA NAM-HYUN [[email protected]]