PRIX PRIZEWINNERS.

Before anyone danced at this year's Prix de Lausanne, John Neumeier, Hamburg Ballet's director and chief choreographer and the Prix's president of the jury, announced that the prize for excellence was being suspended (reason cited: general standards are so much higher that "excellence" has become difficult to determine). That was before the judges saw Jaime Garcia Castilla's breathtaking performance as Prince Albrecht in Giselle and in two modern variations, however. In the end, the Spanish dancer walked away with the prize. Garcia Castilla, just 17, also won the Contemporary Dance Award and a possible internship with San Francisco Ballet. But his performances were just some of the highlights at this year's Prix, the premiere competition for 15- to 17-year-old ballet dancers held each winter in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Another major talent to emerge was Natalia Domratcheva, a Russian whose training in flamenco dancing brought a sensational fieriness to her performance as Kitri in Petipa's Don Quixote. She too was awarded an internship and has elected to go to Frankfurt Ballet.

To be watched: 15-year-old Ludovic Ondiviela, a French dancer of confidence and technical brilliance who, with a bit of maturing, promises greatness; and Sarah Kora Dayanova, dancing for Switzerland, who at 16 has a conscientious quality that needs a bit of naughtiness to round it out.

Thai dancer Sarawanee Tanatanit brought tremendous grace to her Raymonda and a sexiness to her modern variations and won an internship with American Ballet Theatre. She's a different type of dancer from Domratcheva, Ondiviela, and Dayanova, who are in the tradition of classical ballet greats. Tanatanit brings something new, including a beauty that could open horizons outside the ballet world.

American dancer Cornell Callender, who studied at Hartford Ballet School and London's Royal School of Ballet, was the audience favorite; there were moans of disappointment when he didn't get an internship. Callender was flamboyant in style and technique, but the bond he created with the audience lay, above all, in his smile.

These dancers were among 15 finalists culled from 112 candidates through a grueling selection process. Twenty-five countries sent thirty semi-finalists, who each presented a classical and a modern variation. The fifteen finalists repeated these variations at the finals, adding a free variation.

For more information about, or to register for, the 2002 Prix de Lausanne, visit www.prixdelausanne.org or write to Prix de Lausanne, avenue Bergieres 6, 1004 Lausanne, Switzerland. Telephone [phone] or 643 21 11, fax [phone].