NO GRAND PRIZE IN PARIS.

An audible sigh of disappointment swept through spectators at the ninth biennial Paris International Dance Competition when, on December 2, the classical dance jury announced that no contestant would walk away with the Grand Prize of the City of Paris and its 40,000 francs ($5,400) in prize money. There were no winners in the first-place senior male and couple categories either.

"Excellence must be rewarded with excellence--none of the contestants merited a prize of such distinction," said choreographer Pierre Lacotte, the head of the classical jury, adding, "We saw some wonderful dance nonetheless!"

Despite the failure of the forty classical finalists to win the favors of the international jury, this dual classical and contemporary dance competition was once again the occasion for dance amateurs, professionals and aficionados to admire some of today's most promising young talents, most notably in the junior classical and contemporary categories.

With inimitable style and form, French contestant Melanie Lomoff bowled over not only the crowd but also the jury. The agile 22-year-old walked away with the Grand Prize of the City of Paris in the contemporary competition, making her the only dancer to achieve such an honor this year.

Lomoff began her dance career at age 9 in the northern French city of Caen, where she remained until moving to Paris in 1990. Since 1997, she has been working with Jose Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu and dancing in their hit show Paradis. Her prize-winning solo was an excerpt from the Montalvo-Hervieu piece He Wu.

"Melanie won the Grand Prix because she had the most overall points," said Thierry Malandain, head of the Contemporary Jury and director of the National Dance Center of Biarritz. However, Malandain was most inspired by the originality and determination of the many Asian contestants. "I was truly amazed," he said. "They each presented something entirely personal that went far beyond the schools of Eastern and Western dance."

Five of the twelve award-winning contemporary contestants were Asian, including first-place female dancer Zhenyan Wu, a 20-year-old from China who performed a solo with the cinematic feel of an old black-and-white suspense film. The 24-year-old South Korean dancer Jong-Chul Shin, honored with second place in the male contemporary category, shocked the crowd when, apple in hand, he finished nude in his very personal biblical reference to Adam.

Asian dancers also made a strong showing in the classical competition, with four of the evening's eleven prizes going to Chinese and South Korean contestants. A memorable performance of Raymonda, Act II won 25-year-old Chinese dancer Pingping Ji first place in the women's senior category, including 30,000 francs ($4,100) and an invitation to the twentieth Varna International Ballet Contest in 2002. The second-place award in the same category was presented to her compatriot, 21-year-old Shu Fu, for her performance of the Esmeralda variation.

Lacotte's jury found Pingping Ji remarkable for her style and her air of nobility, elements that distinguished this year's classical competition. "What struck me most," said Lacotte, "was the move away from the spectacular towards the refined, which is more and more the case with the Asian competitors."

More than 220 competitors enrolled in this year's contest; future candidates can now enroll on the bilingual French-English Web site www.nfidp.org.