All the little bun-heads around the world, the young men who put on tights and take dance lessons, get blisters and dream, all over the world. If they are good, they may one day end up competing in the Youth America Grand Prix, which concluded in April.
Vsevolod Mayevsky, the hostess Elizabeth Jacoby, Chloe Misseldine (Photos by Richard Lewin)
It awards prizes not just for individual dancers but for groups, choreography and dance academies.
Bruna Rocha, Alexis Tobin, Danielle Vigliotti (Photos by Richard Lewin)
Two fans of the organization, Elizabeth Jacoby and Richard Brand, invited friends and supporters of The Dance to a reception at their Amagansett home on Sunday, July 23.
Roger Eulau, Sherri Donghia (Photos by Richard Lewin)
Guests of honor included two dancers who were alumni of the competition: the Ukrainian dancer Vsevolod Mayevsky and a soloist from ABT, Chloe Misseldine.
Among the guests was the founder the Youth America Grand Prix, Larissa Saveliev, and Linda Stocknoff, a major backer of the Parsons Dance company. Also there were the philanthropist Michele Gerber Koch, the Broadway producer Stewart F. Lane, the actress Carrie Barrett, and the design maven Sherri Donghia.
Back to the dancers.
Vsevolod Mayevsky, who was born in Kiev, had been dancing in Russia’s Mariinsky Ballet when the war began. The dancer, who is 6 foot 4, went to Turkey, where he joined others of his family who were able to escape Ukraine. Then Saveliev and others from the Grand Prix stepped in. They invited him to perform at a YAGP gala in 2022, and from that he got a job with the Dresden Semperoper Ballet.
The entrepreneur Morrie Sandler and Linda Stocknoff (Photos by Richard Lewin)
Chloe Misseldine. 21, is tall in her own right. She grew up in Orlando, Florida. Her mother, Yan Chen, who was born in China, competed at the 1987 Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland, and was awarded the Paris Foundation of Dance Award. She later danced with the American Ballet Theatre and the Washington Ballet before becoming ballet mistress in Orlando.
At 15 Misseldine, who is about a head taller than her mother, won second place at the Youth America Grand Prix finals. Her mother coached her when she competed at the Prix de Lausanne in 2018, where she became a finalist.
Elizabeth Jacoby, Michele Gerber Klein, Rena Brand, MD (Photos by Richard Lewis)
The two dancers, Mayevsky and Misseldine, clowned around for a bit, then mingled. And took out their cellphones to snap photos, aware that they would need careers after dancing as well.
Linda Lee
Linda Lee is a former writer and editor at The New York Times.
