Youth America Grand Prix
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Search complete. 59 mentions across 7 episodes found for "Youth America Grand Prix".
Sep 23, 2026
InekeHOST
Because over the past few weeks, the dance world has been having a very public reckoning with itself.
JustinHOST
Youth America Grand Prix, better known as YAGP, is one of the biggest names in the pre-professional ballet competition world, and it finds itself at the center of a very big and growing controversy involving allegations about weight comments, altered scores, and claims about racial bias in advanced decisions.
InekeHOST
There's been threads on Reddit about the ballet YAGP drama and the follow-up, thoughts on recent YAGP backlash, and they're filling up with dancers, former dancers, angry parents sharing their stories about...
InekeHOST
Some supportive stories, but others are really aggressive stories.
JustinHOST
But today's conversation isn't about YAGP.
JustinHOST
It's about dance competitions more broadly.
JustinHOST
[gentle music]
InekeHOST
We have a son who's becoming a pre-professional student, and we have plenty of students over 18 years of teaching experience, and we love to share our opinion about this.
GabbyHOST
It's like I planned it or something 'cause I wanted, [laughs] wanted to get into your...
GabbyHOST
Like, I feel like your trajectory, your career is not maybe, like, the most typical pathway of, like, YAGP, like ballerina to Pointe Park-
Julia PontarelliGUEST
No
GabbyHOST
... to NBA, NFL dancer.
Julia PontarelliGUEST
Mm-hmm
GabbyHOST
... into the Pointe Park aspect of it, I...
GabbyHOST
There's this, like, this very current or very timely talking about this, the whole, the YAGP, like-
Julia PontarelliGUEST
Mm
Kathryn MorganGUEST
So for me, that was a chance to, like, connect with them ... personally rather than just on stage.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
But I think we need a lot of people who are forward-thinking in this business, and if you are a professional who is forward-thinking, I think we need more people like that to be in judges positions, not just YAGP but at, at all competitions.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
There are so many benefits to doing it, and you get to see a lot of students all at once, I will say.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
It is really nice to be able-- And, and for me, too, having done certain regionals so many years in a row, you see these kids grow.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
You're playing a dangerous game mentally.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
You know, a, a lot of these kids do like four or five cities, and they go to Europe and they do this and they do that.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
And yeah, the judges all know them, but that's not-- that is the absolute .1% of all the kids that do YAGP.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
And you have to go into it with the mind- the right mindset.
JustinHOST
If you have been anywhere near dance social media in the last few weeks, you would have seen the discussions around YAGP.
JustinHOST
What's YAGP? For those who don't know, that's the Youth America Grand Prix.
JustinHOST
We dove in and we just read those comments and here are some of what the people have been saying.
JustinHOST
So YAGP is nothing but a money-making factory that champions thinness and the most extreme form of physical ballet over artistry and individuality.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
the winners and this and that, and that's what they want.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
And so it becomes all about, well, I have to go to YAGP to maybe get on the social media account, or I want to grow my following.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
I want to get more followers.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
When actually the way to become a dancer is through training and class and doing both sides and not just turning to the right or to the left and not just lifting your right leg or your left leg.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
And a lot of, don't get me wrong, a lot of dancers are doing it.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
A lot more schools are doing it in order to stay relevant because here's the issue.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
You become irrelevant if you don't do YAGP or if you don't do ballet competitions because students come in and they say, I want to do YAGP.
Kathryn MorganGUEST
Do you offer YAGP? And if you don't, they'll go elsewhere because they think they have to.
HannahHOST
interesting.
HannahHOST
And I think like this is one thing that I've noticed even in watching some of the like YAGP solos and things like that is because when you know what the variation came from like you know the the full ballet and you've seen it in the context of the full ballet so when when the dancer like looks or kind of gestures to people I think you can definitely tell when a dancer is carrying that awareness of who would be around her in the Just performing for the fright.
HannahHOST
Because, you know, obviously in the setting of a ballet, most of the time there's other characters that are positioned around you on stage.
HannahHOST
Like I'm thinking of a variation of Keytree, you know, and there's everyone else.
SarahHOST
Yes, that part.
speaker_2HOST
After, I think, four or five years of YAGP and the other ballet competition, it was...
speaker_2HOST
There was, like, this feeling of need to get this amazing ballet dress.
speaker_2HOST
Sure.