Prix de Lausanne prize winners Ashley Coupal and Harrison Lee ‘in conversation’ with Christopher Powney
25th January 2023
The Chair of the London Ballet Circle, Susan Dalgetty Ezra, welcomed dancers Ashley Coupal (English National Ballet) and Harrison Lee (Royal Ballet), both prize winners at the Prix de Lausanne. She also welcomed Christopher Powney, Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet School and a member of the jury at this year’s competition, who was to lead the conversation.
The Prix de Lausanne is a prestigious international competition which attracts young dancers seeking to pursue a professional career in ballet. Susan noted that the two artists had been prize winners, which represented huge achievements for both of them. Christopher started the conversation by inviting both dancers to summarise their early experiences in ballet.
Ashley Coupal was born in Canada. As a youngster she loved moving to music and was always a performer. She started training at the age of six with Kathryn Long and Chan Hon Goh at the Ballet Academy in Vancouver. In 2019 she became a trainee with Orlando Ballet, where Phillip Broomhead (a former Royal Ballet dancer) was the Director.
Harrison Lee was born in Australia. He had also been about six when introduced to dance through being dragged – unwillingly – to his sister’s class because he could not be left at home alone. He had remained bored until the music started which, he said, immediately took him over. Accordingly he joined the class where he learned the basics of different styles of dance, such as jazz, tap and ballet. Over time he dropped all except ballet which was what he really enjoyed. Harrison went on to train at The McDonald College in Sydney, a performing arts school in which he studied ballet for two hours a day alongside the academic curriculum. In 2013 he had met Christopher at a summer school organised by the College and at that time had felt the need to get himself ‘on the radar’!
The Prix offers participants two main strands of opportunity, recruitment to schools for younger dancers and directly to companies for those somewhat more advanced in their careers. Thus the event is supported by some thirty schools who seek talented pupils for further training, together with perhaps another thirty ballet companies seeking potential stars to join their ranks. In broad terms, Ashley and Harrison represent these two strands.
Both dancers had entered a number of competitions during the course of their careers and Christopher asked why they had chosen the Prix?
Ashley responded that it had been a big dream since she commenced her professional training. She had auditioned while at Orlando, where Phillip Broomhead’s mentoring had been most significant. She had always enjoyed performing and the subsequent evaluation of her performance by knowledgeable and experienced dancers. She loved the coaching, the need to study a role in depth, and to learn and perfect the nuances of the role through the valuable feedback offered. Ashley felt that it all contributed to her growth as an artist.
What was unique about the Prix in 2021, the year in which Ashley took part, was the Covid pandemic and its effect on public gatherings. The entire competition was held online, which was not easy for competitors nor those organising the event. It had been a difficult year, and Christopher praised Ashley’s sheer determination to perform under these conditions.
A video clip of her Prix solo, from Giselle, was then shown, attracting a ‘wow’ reaction from Christopher. He then asked why she had not applied to enter the competition earlier in her career? Ashley replied that she had applied but didn’t get through the first round! Nevertheless it had been a good learning experience. When, at 18, she applied again she clearly had much more experience, especially in refining the detail of her performance.
‘Were you at Lausanne to win?’ asked Christopher. Ashley responded that for her the importance lay in the whole structure of the competition. She did not enter with the intention of winning and it was a tremendous bonus when she heard that she was a prize winner. The opportunity to network was terrific and just before the final of the competition she was approached by Tamara Rojo and invited to join English National Ballet for the 2021 season as an Artist.
Christopher then posed the same question to Harrison. Why the Prix?
Harrison replied that he had planned his entry to competitions with Jane Kesby at The McDonald College. He decided to enter the Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) in 2014 where he won the junior section. The following year he entered and won the Gold Medal and the Prix de Lausanne.
On his way to Switzerland he had been able to stop off in London and visit the Royal Ballet School, where he took some classes. During this time he was offered a place for 2015. Accordingly he had already received an offer of further training before he actually took part in the Prix. This allowed him to relax a little during the competition and maybe enjoy it slightly more. It had been terrific to work with internationally renowned coaches and, as he already had just what he wanted, he simply soaked up the experiences. Becoming a finalist was very much an unexpected plus!
A video clip of his Prix solo, from Swan Lake, was then shown. Christopher questioned Harrison’s age at the time and was told that he was just 15, and therefore one of the youngest participants. Christopher remarked that at that age a dancer, especially a male dancer, was still learning to get proper control of the body. However, he also noted that Harrison’s potential talent had been in his mind from their first meeting.
Harrison was then asked what it had been like to come to the Royal Ballet School as a teenager. He replied that it had been a great shock. Firstly there was the different work pattern. In Sydney he had followed a normal school curriculum, with performing arts being studied at the end of the day. The Royal Ballet School was very different, being focussed almost entirely on dance. At first he found it gruelling, a situation in which you had to either sink or swim.
He had a difficult first term, with everything new – coping for himself, shopping, clothes washing, managing his money. He very much missed the close support of his family, even though he could keep in contact regularly through social media. It was fine when he was busy at school but when alone he often felt homesick. Asked how long the homesickness lasted he responded that he didn’t think it ever completely went away. However, he travelled home for Christmas and when he returned got into a routine which made it easier to cope.
The first year was quite difficult as the students, from diverse backgrounds, were all trying to come to terms with each other and with basic ballet techniques. The second year was rather more relaxed but the pressure returned during his final year as students started to search for jobs. While at the School he took a major role in Les Patineurs, and Christopher revealed that Sir Anthony Dowell had said that he had never seen the role performed better.
Harrison joined the Royal Ballet’s Aud Jebsen Young Dancers Programme in 2018 and was promoted to Artist in 2019.
Christopher then turned to ask Ashley about her experiences as a young dancer having to leave home to join the Orlando Ballet.
She was 16 and still had two years of high school to complete when she went off to Orlando, and accordingly had some long days studying in the evenings. She had also found it a challenge to adjust to being away from home and, as with Harrison, found the first months from September up to Christmas the most difficult. Trainees worked closely with the company itself and she learned a great deal about how it operated, which was valuable. Ashley emphasised the importance of creating your own ‘family’ within the school and company.
Christopher commented that she must have been determined if she had to take evening classes as well as working through the day. What assistance had she had? Ashley responded that she had done it all herself. It was vital to learn time management and essential to focus on the task in hand. However, she enjoyed studying and learning new things. She was currently working for a degree in business studies. It was good to have a secondary interest, to prepare oneself for a possible life beyond dance, and she had some hopes that she might one day become an artistic director.
Covid, of course, loomed large in both of their lives and they were asked how the pandemic had affected them. Ashley replied that when it hit all ballet ceased and she went home for some time. However, the shut-down did not last for long and soon they were able to train and perform again. Some adjustments to their regime were necessary, for instance, testing, temperature monitoring, and mask wearing. It was at that time she was anticipating going to Switzerland for the Prix and she only found out that the competition would be held online about a month before the event.
The pandemic hit Harrison in a rather more dramatic manner. All dancing stopped and he went back to his home in Sydney. At that time he was suffering something of a crisis in self-confidence which his family quickly picked up on. He was concerned that his jawline appeared to be asymmetric and with family support decided to have this investigated. A tumour was discovered within his jaw which was removed during a long operation, and his jaw reconstructed to restore the symmetry to his face. Slowly he was able to regain his fitness so that he was ready to return to the stage once the UK opened up again.
Christopher thanked Harrison most sincerely for the disclosure and asked if the tumour would have been discovered that quickly had he not gone home. Harrison said that aside from some concerns about the shape of his face, there had been no indication of its presence. In that sense Covid had proved a blessing in disguise!
‘What are your favourite roles so far?’ asked Christopher. Ashley cited the Giselle variation she had performed for the Prix, and which she would like to perform again. Harrison said ‘a hedge’ – this was apparently in Alice in Wonderland and represented his professional debut with the Royal Ballet. But he also loved the Trepak – the Russian dance from The Nutcracker – because this was always such a crowd pleaser.
‘Greatest challenge to date?’ Ashley said that managing her time between class, shows, and her degree studies could present difficulties, although she enjoyed it! Harrison admitted that maintaining motivation during company class could sometimes challenge him. Class at school had involved constant interaction with teachers, whereas in company class you were very much left to your own devices.
In a question from the audience both dancers were asked what it was like to mix with dancers from all across the world during the Prix. Harrison replied that it had been good to socialise, although inevitably the various language groups tended to stay together. The atmosphere, however, was good and the competition not too cut-throat. Ashleys’s experience was rather different, being online. However, everyone had been most supportive and she remained in touch with a number of other competitors.
Ashley had been a finalist in ENB’s ‘Emerging Dancers’ programme in her first year with the company, in which she had performed a pas de deux from Coppélia and then another in contemporary dance. Responding to a query about the very different styles involved she said that she felt it important to visualise in her mind exactly what was required before actually undertaking the roles.
The evening was completed by Christopher summarising the Prix competition itself from the point of view of a jury member. The competitors are usually split into four groups: young and old (purely relative terms!), and male and female. Within each group every competitor must participate in both classical ballet and contemporary dance.
The week of the Prix consists of class, individual coaching, and performances, and it is important that jury members watch every element of the work. They must assess not just the actual performances, but also the way in which dancers respond to corrections and feedback. Jury members assess the participants independently, with their individual marks being totalled at the end of the competition. The objective is not necessarily to look for the ‘finished product’ but rather to seek out participants who demonstrate the greatest potential. It is a long, hard week for the jury as well as for the competitors.
Finally Christopher explained why his students do not, in general, enter the Prix. The competition is essentially for dancers seeking the next step in their careers and, in that sense, Royal Ballet School students have already achieved this goal. Competition entry also involves considerable preparatory work, and he felt that the commitment, workload and time required to take part, in addition to their already full timetable, would be a challenge. Also, the School has almost 100 students who could fairly qualify to apply and this was potentially impossible to schedule. If it offered this opportunity to just one or two individuals it would not be fair on the rest of the students who would also deserve a chance.
Susan Dalgetty Ezra, Chair of the London Ballet Circle, thanked Christopher and the two dancers most sincerely for giving up their evenings to take part in such a fascinating and enlightening conversation.
Written by Trevor Rothwell, and edited/approved by Ashley Coupal, Harrison Lee, and Christopher Powney.
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