Lithuanians in the News
2nd June, 2006
Kristina Gudžiūnaitė - A Rising Ballet Star
Kristina Gudžiūnaitė dancing
in Joseph Bayer’s "Doll Fairy"
Kristina Gudžiūnaitė, a year 10 student at the National M.K.Čiurlionis Arts School Ballet section in Vilnius, Lithuania, has won first prize in the prestigious Ballet Competition for young ballet artists of the Northern and Baltic countries of Europe, held in Mora, Sweden. As well as the first prize, she also won the viewer’s choice prize. A week earlier in
Simona Paciukonytė in C.Pugni’s "Esmeralda" and
Emilijus Miliauskas in Manuel de Falla’s "Three Cornered Hat"
Vilnius she had won the "Young Ballet Hopes" prize, awarded by the Friends of Lithuanian Ballet (FLB) society in Australia.
It is now for the third year running that FLB has given the "Young Ballet Hopes" prize. This year this prize was also shared by this year’s graduates Simona Paciukonytė and Emilijus Miliauskas. It is not the first time that FLB has supported Lithuanian ballet students financially in international competitions. Jurgita Dronina in 2003, with financial help from FLB, won 16th International Classical Dance Contest of Grasse in Paris, France. A year earlier she had won second place at the Mora Competition.

Source: Article by Helmutas Šabasevičius, www.omni.lt 29/05/06
Photos from the archives of Ballet section of M.K.Čiurlionis Arts School, by Romas Mičiūnas