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Jiji Press Japanese dancer Tsukino Tanaka, right, stands with her teacher in Montreux, Switzerland, on Saturday.
Jiji Press
11:39 JST, February 6, 2022
MONTREUX, Switzerland (Jiji Press) — Japanese dancer Tsukino Tanaka won the second prize at this year’s Prix de Lausanne, a prestigious international competition for young ballet dancers, in Montreux, Switzerland, on Saturday.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s like a dream,” Tanaka, a 17-year-old from Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture, said while wiping away tears. “It was not perfect, but dancing at this dream stage gave me a lot of fun.”
Tanaka started dancing ballet at age 4 and has been studying at a school in Zurich since August 2020.
She has been forced to practice at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was difficult because I couldn’t move as I wanted, but I did all kinds of things such as using sound-proof sheets,” she said of her practice.
Japanese dancer Sachiya Takata, an 18-year-old from Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, and one of the finalists who failed to win prizes, said, “Becoming a finalist gave me confidence.”
Hiyou Shimizu, an 18-year-old with Japanese and Australian dual citizenship who became a finalist but failed to win a prize, said: “I did my best. I’m satisfied with the outcome.”
