Youth America Grand Prix

Minneapolis, MN

General

Reviewer:

Parent

Dancer Age:

Competition experience:

6-10

Event Details

Round:

Regional

Season:

2026-27

Location:

Minneapolis, MN

Traveled to compete:

Regionals attended:

Who encouraged multiple regionals:

Entry affiliation:

School

Rules Easy to Access?

Yes

Did Dancer Miss School?

Attended master classes:

Yes

Master Classes

Master Class Types:

Contemporary, Technique

Distance from venue:

At the same venue

Received corrections:

Yes

How corrections were given:

He received one correction and one compliment during the class.

What corrections were about:

Dancing - specific technique at the barre

Anatomical language:

Yes

Correction tone:

Positive, Negative

Negative correction details:

Negative in something that needed to be fixed, but not done in a mean way.

Teacher engagement:

He didn’t tell me any details, but he did enjoy this one. It was the 3rd YAGP regional he attended and the first 2 showed blatant favoritism and he got zero actual teaching out of them.

Crowding:


Really Crowded	Plenty of Room to Move

Master Class Feedback

Technique:

Contemporary:

Additional master class comments:

Obvious favoritism, but he did get some learning in it.

Performance Details

Venue name:

Ames center

Venue description:

Decent size lobby, but only one entrance and exit could be used so there was constant traffic during dances. Lots of seating.

Stage description:

Good quality Marley; lots of dance competitions are held at this venue.

Off-stage warm-up space:

Not much

Dressing rooms:

It was a small room behind the stage

Parents in dressing rooms:

Male dressing room:

Yes

Parents backstage:

Onstage warm-up:

Rushed and very full stage. The stage manager forgot to allow the boys stage time to do across the floor jumps before their variations, which was very disappointing.

Schedule adherence:

Tended to mostly run on time

Staff communication:

No changes happened

Parent seminar offered:

Judging

Judging rubric clarity:

Judges' attentiveness:

Some of the judges watched and some seemed distracted

Feedback turnaround:

Comp ended on Sunday and we don’t have them yet (today is Wednesday)

Type of Feedback:

None yet

Feedback helpfulness:


Not Helpful At All	Extremely Helpful

Main takeaway:

Not sure since no feedback yet. Prior year feedback has been very basic and did not include specific corrections.

Scoring felt fair:

Why Scoring Unfair?

It was obvious that Larkin and WestMet were favorites - Larkin brought mostly contemporary dances and they received studio of the year.

Awards & Scholarships

Awards ceremony:

It was short, but included some unnecessary favoritism towards some students -called them by name and made side comments that were too casual, indicating they knew them well.

Won an award or training offer:

Festival offer:

Gala offer:

Invited to finals:

Final Comments

Best aspect:

My dancer enjoyed getting to perform.

Worst aspect:

Blatant favoritism

Competition culture:

They like certain studios and only they will place.

Attendee culture:

Most were comp studio parents so they didn’t know ballet competition etiquette.

Suggested changes:

Stop blatant favortism

Cost vs. expectation:


Significantly More	Significantly Less

Time worth it:


Not Worth It	Worth Every Minute

Overall rating:

Anything else?

Don’t go if you want to have a chance at placing, unless your dancer attends a partner school like Larkin.