The 10th edition of the Cannes-Croisette Competition will take place on Saturday April 12th and Sunday April 13rd, 2025.
The city of Cannes is hosting the Cannes Croisette International Dance Competition on its prestigious Croisette.
This artistic event is intended for young dance enthusiasts allowing them to experience the stage and to be judged by an international jury composed of recognized and authoritative personalities in the world of classical, modern-jazz dance and contemporary.
In addition to offering this experience of the stage and the public, this competition allows professionals present to identify young talents and eventually offer them auditions or even engagements.
The competition is also sponsored by Mrs. Michèle Mercier, actress and classical dancer,and, thanks to the support of our partners, numerous prizes will be awarded to the winners for a total endowment equivalent to over 15,000 euros.
Exchange, sharing, respect and generosity are the ingredients that make the Cannes-Croisette International Dance Competition successful since many years.
Competition Rules and Variations
This competition organized by the Association Danse Emotion is open to dancers of all nationalities, from the age of 7 years; three disciplines are represented (Classic, Modern-Jazz and Contemporary) in the “Amateurs” and “Pre-Professional” categories and for individual performances (solo) and in groups (no duo).
Free registration are accepted and the competition is open to the public for a fee.
The competition takes place on Saturday April 12th & Sunday April 13rd, 2025 at the Théâtre Croisette – Palais Stéphanie – J.W Marriott, located at 3 Rue Amouretti in Cannes (France), with the possibility to recover the bracelets for dancer and teacher on Friday April 11th from 3:00 p.m.
Spectator fees can be purchased either by the on-line ticketing or at the theater from Saturday April 12th at 8:00p.m.
You can download the rules below
For the Classic Solo Pre-Pro categories, you can download the list of competition variations and the audio files below.
On-line registration and spectator ticketing
You can download the registration forms for the solo and group categories.
The payment of the registration fees and the registration is done online no later than Sunday, March 16th 2025 (attention, early closing if the maximum number of participants is reached before this date).
On-line registration, click on Participer
Spectator tickets can be booked and paid on-line (or at the theater from Saturday April 12th at 8:00 p.m).
Results
The results of previous editions are available here
Individual Performance
Jury
Here is the presentation of the jury of this edition as well as the jury of previous editions
Jury 2024
CLAUDE AYMON
DANCER, TEACHER AND CHOREOGRAPHER
As a multidisciplinary artist, Claude Aymon has been working in the choreographic field for almost forty years.
He teaches, dances and choreographs in France and abroad, wherever possible, from associations to professionals, including schools.
He is a jury for numerous international competitions, at the French Dance Federation as well as for the technical, musical and educational tests of the State Dance Teacher Diploma in jazz dance and contemporary dance.
He has performed for numerous companies including:
– Josette Baïz (Place Blanche company, Grenade company)
– Geneviève Sorin (MEAARI company)
– the Marjan Raar Dance CO (Finland)
– Dancecology (Taiwan)
– Wei Dance Company (Taiwan)
Choreographer and artistic director of the C2a company since 1998, he composes the music for his creations.
Since 2011, his artistic activities have been developing between France and Asia, more particularly in Taiwan where he was the laureate of the International Young Choreographer Project in Kaohsiung organized by the UNESCO.
GABOR KAPIN
PRINCIPAL DANCER, BALLET MASTER
Born in Budapest (Hungary), Gabor Kapin began his training in classical dance at the Hungarian Academy of Dance. During his studies, he had the chance to perform with the Hungarian National Ballet in productions of Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Coppélia and La Somnambule.
In 1999, he moved to the United States to join the Carolina Ballet, where he quickly rose to the rank of soloist.
Between 2005 and 2008, Gabor danced with the Boston Ballet where he worked with many contemporary and modern choreographers.
He then returned to Carolina Ballet as a Principal Dancer and built an impressive repertoire, dancing in productions by Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine and many others.
In August 2013 he joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders as Principal Dancer and from 2016 he took on responsibilities as ballet master.
Finally, in September 2022, he joined the Ballet de l’Opéra National du Capitole (Toulouse/France) as ballet master.
WIM VANLESSEN
President of the jury
PRINCIPAL DANCER, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Wim was born in Belgium and studied at the Royal Ballet school in Antwerp then joined the Royal Ballet of Flanders where he quickly became Principal.
He is regularly invited to perform at International Galas such as the Hivernales de la Danse, “Le Gala des Etoiles” in Paris, during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Nagano (Japan), at the “Prix de Lausanne”, at the “Benois de la danse”, where in 2003, he was nominated in the “Best Male Dancer of the Year” category on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.
Wim Vanlessen received the “Critics Prize” from “Ballet 2000” magazine in Cannes in 2000. He was also honored with the title of “Best Dancer of the Year” by “Dance Europe” magazine in 2003, 2004, 2005 , 2006 as well as the title of “Best Partner” with Aki Saito in 2007 and 2009.
Wim said goodbye to the Ballet de Flandre in 2019 with Le Boléro by Béjart. After 25 years of dance career, Wim is also the author of his book “DANCER” retracing a large part of his life and career. In Belgium he appears on the jury of “Dancing with the Stars”
With Aki Saito, they formed an exceptional star couple and danced together for nearly 25 years and as such they received the title of Knights of the Order of Leopold for their cultural contribution to Belgium.
He is the founder and artistic director of Time To Dance, a non-profit organization which organizes a major international dance gala each year and which supports young dancers at the start of their professional careers.
JULIEN CHAPERO
CASTING DIRECTOR
Julien was a professional dancer in the cabaret world on stages such as La Nouvelle Eve and the Moulin Rouge in Paris.
He also had the opportunity to dance on TV sets (Dancing with the Stars, NRJ Music Awards, etc.) and it was at this time that he discovered the production professions. It was following an injury that he took this path.
For 10 years, he has worked as a casting director on artistic programs such as The Dancers, Got to Dance, France Has Incredible Talent…and for 9 years he has been the casting director of Dance with the Stars. He introduced the general public to dancers like Ines Vandamme, Elsa Bois, Anthony Colette…and judges like François Alu. He was a judge in the program Qui Dansera avec les Stars alongside Chris Marques who revealed dancers like Calisson Goasdoué and the winner Pierre Mauduy.
He also works as an artistic coordinator on various projects or events and accompanies or has accompanied artists like François Alu or Fauve Hautot.
He was also manager of the event artistic recruitment team at Disneyland Paris.
Passionate, Julien loves discovering and supporting emerging artists!
Previous jury
2023
- Wim Vanlessen, principal dancer, choreographer and president of jury
- Nancy Osbaldeston, principal dancer
- Angelo Monaco, teacher, choreographer
- Claude Aymon, teacher, choreographer
2022
- Wim Vanlessen, principal dancer, choreographer and president of jury
- Aki Saito, principal dancer, teacher
- Angelo Monaco, teacher, choreographer
- Claude Aymon, teacher, choreographer
2021
- Cancelled
2020
Cancelled
2019
- Aki Saito, principal dancer, teacher
- Wim Vanlessen, principal dancer, choreographer
- Sadok Khechana, teacher, choreographer
- Bruno Vandelli, teacher, choreographer
2018
- Mathias Heymann, principal dancer of the Paris Opera
- Jurijus Smoriginas, soloist dancer, artistic director
- Christine Hassid, choreographer, artistic director
- Roberta Fontana, teacher choreographer
2017
- Claire Feranne, principal dancer
- Nancy Osbaldeston, soloist dancer of the Royal Ballet Flanders
- Olivier Lucea, soloist dancer, teacher
- Christiane Sturnick, teacher choreographer
- Angelo Monaco, teacher, choreographer
- Sadok Khechana, teacher, choreographer
2016
- Cyril Atanassoff, principal dancer of the Paris Opera
- Carlotta Zamparo, principal dancer, ballet master
- Sadok Khechana, teacher choreographer
- Christine Hassid, choregrapher, artistic director
Partners
And finally, the Organizing Committee of the competition warmly thanks all its partners without whom this event could not exist