The American Academy of Ballet (AAB) is delighted to announce the two winners of the Grand Prize (junior & senior division) of the inaugural South African Performance Awards Competition that was held last Saturday at the Roodepoort Theatre.
The AAB, a New York-based organisation that coordinates and hosts auditions and Performance Awards events all over the world was established by Mignon Furman, a visionary South African trailblazer in the world of ballet education in the early 90s. The Performance Awards programme, a system in which dancers perform choreographed routines before a judge and receive a certificate and medal, offers aspiring dancers from around the world the opportunity to refine their skills in a focused, supportive environment.
Open to all ballet teachers and their students in junior and senior age level divisions, the AAB Performance Awards started with an Open class on stage taken by Robin van Wyk, with piano accompaniment by Marlene Watkins, and then moved on to set solos from the AAB syllabus.
The judge was Melissa Jane Williams from Durban. Ms Williams, a dancer, a certified RAD teacher and herself a Performance Awards achiever from level 4 through to level 12, brought her deep understanding of classical ballet technique and her first-hand knowledge of the AAB syllabus to serve as a judge.
The winners of the 2025 AAB Performance Awards Competition’s Grand Prize - a full scholarship (total value R85 000) to the AAB Summer School of Excellence in July 2026 held at Purchase College, State University of New York: two weeks free tuition, meals and accommodation, plus R10 000 towards the airfare to New York, are: in the junior section, Matthew Jansen van Vuuren and in the senior section, Maya Weir.
Both these talented young dancers train at Elite Ballet under the guidance of Karen Beukes, a former principal dancer with Pact Ballet and South African Ballet Theatre and one of the founders of Joburg Ballet. As the teacher of the two winners Ms Beukes was awarded two weeks free tuition at the 2026 AAB Teachers’ Summer seminar.
Additionally, three scholarships of R4 000 were awarded to Chloe Nortje, trained by Sam Seyfert, Skye Weinzheimer, trained by Brileen White and Abigail Clark, trained by Karen Beukes.
Laurence Kaplan, the son of Mignon Furman and the AAB Executive Director, in a video clip shown after the prizegiving, extended the AAB’s heartfelt appreciation to Iain MacDonald for his outstanding leadership and tireless dedication in making the Performance Awards competition such a success.
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