National Ballet Competition to host aspiring dancers March 8-10

The National Ballet Competition, now in its sixth year, will take place Friday to Sunday, March 8 to 10, at the Grand Opera House in downtown Wilmington.

National Ballet Competition provides students with a rich learning experience and brings hundreds of young dancers, their teachers and their families to downtown Wilmington each year.

Open to student dancers ages 9 to 19 years, the competition attracts participants from all over the country. Students perform for an international panel of nine distinguished dance professionals, representing schools and ballet companies that have included San Francisco Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Philadelphia Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Idyllwild Arts Academy and more. Dancers perform on the Copeland Hall stage over three days, and take master classes taught by jury members and other outstanding professionals in the field.

The competition portion of the event is open to the public, and master classes are open to non-competitors. This event has grown over the past five years from 85 to more than 200 competitors from training programs all over the country.

Since its inception, NBC has awarded over $650,000 in scholarships from some of the country’s elite summer ballet training programs.

This year’s event is sponsored by Truist Wealth and the City of Wilmington, Mayor Mike Purzycki. For more information, go to nationalballetcompetition.org.