Youth America Grand Prix Gala Celebrates 20th Anniversary Season

Thanks to the legions of young dancers packing the seats, the Youth America Grand Prix is one of the liveliest evenings of dance at David H. Koch Theater. The nonprofit organization, which provides scholarships for young dancers, was celebrating its 20th anniversary year. There was a lot to cheer for Thursday night: performances by competition finalists, the world debut of a new piece by choreographer Melanie Hamrick in collaboration with her father Mick Jagger (who was rumored to have made a quiet entrance just for the performance), and appearances by top ballet dancers from companies worldwide. Based on cheering from the upper levels of the theater, the romantic pas de deux danced by ABT’s Hee Seo and Cory Stearns was particularly popular with the younger dancers in the crowd. Performance guests also included event chairs Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen and husband Olivier Sarkozy, whose daughter Margot accompanied them, and Chelsea Clinton, who slipped into the theater and left before the final curtain call (perhaps for fear she would be asked her opinion of the Mueller report). Midway through the program, Cicely Tyson appeared onstage to honor her friend, the late Dance Theatre of Harlem founder Arthur Mitchell, who died last September. “Arthur and

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