Watch the Prix de Lausanne from Your Couch

Ballet nerds like me LOVE the Prix de Lausanne. The super-prestigious competition, held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland, attracts top dancers from around the world, for starters. But it’s also remarkably open about its proceedings. For the past few years, it has live-streamed the final round of competition on its website—encouraging bunheads of all stripes to keep up, even if they can’t make it to Europe.

This year, the PdL is taking things a step further: It’s broadcasting not just the final round, but also excerpts from each day’s activities. From February 2nd to February 6th, you’ll be able to watch one hour of live coverage each day at prixdelausanne.org/multimedia/live-streaming/.

What are you likely to see? The candidates rehearsing and taking class, bien sûr, plus interviews with competitors, teachers and jury members. There’ll even be insider-y peeks at coaching sessions. And the whole thing wraps up with the live-stream of the February 6th “selections” and February 7th finals in their entirety, so you can witness firsthand how the dancers’ hard work has paid off. (Click here for the full list of candidates—you’ll probably recognize a bunch of names.)

To all the competitors: Merde! And to all the ballet fans out there: Get your popcorn ready! While you’re waiting for the February 2nd to roll around, check out this slideshow of photos from last year’s Prix.

All photos by Gregory Batardon, via
Prix de Lausanne

[portfolio_slideshow nowrap=0 thumbs=true timeout=4000 showtitles=true showcaps=true showdesc=true]