‘My dream is to go to the Royal Ballet School in London’

Kana and Natsuka I come back from school around 4pm, eat something light quickly and start dancing at 6.30pm, continuing until 10pm, every day. Thomas Kern / swissinfo.ch

Kana I started dancing at the age of eight with my sister. She stopped but I continued on my own. Thomas Kern / swissinfo.ch

Kana My friends admire me because I have already chosen my future profession. Thomas Kern / swissinfo.ch

Natsuka Miwa always says we have to smile but keep our eyes open, it’s very difficult. Thomas Kern / swissinfo.ch

Natsuka I was in the bath and my Mum shouted : “Natsuka, you have been selected!” She had just found my name on the internet; I couldn’t get over it. Thomas Kern / swissinfo.ch

Kana We knew that the number worn for the competition is on paper, thanks to a comic we read with a story based on the Prix. And it’s true! I hope it won’t tear while I’m dancing. Thomas Kern / swissinfo.ch

Kana and Natsuka It was moving to see the dance rehearsal rooms of the Théâtre de Beaulieu, which I had only seen in photos or on television. Thomas Kern / swissinfo.ch

Kana and Natsuka European girls are very pretty, their legs are longer than ours … and they seem confident. Thomas Kern / swissinfo.ch

This year, 71 dancers are competing in the 42nd Prix de Lausanne, 21 of whom are Japanese, a recent trend. Two of them, Kana Arai and Natsuka Abe, aged 16, arrived in Lausanne late on January 24 accompanied by Miwa Horimoto, director of the Acri-Horimoto Ballet Academy. “I’m more excited than tired,” Kana says despite having travelled for 18 hours.

This content was published on January 30, 2014 - 11:00

As a photo editor I am responsible for the editorial use of photography at SWI swissinfo.ch and our collaborations with photographers. When the opportunity arises, I take a camera and accompany one of our journalists. I trained as a photographer in Zürich and began working as a photojournalist in 1989. I was a founder of the Swiss photographers' agency Lookat Photos in 1990. A two-time World Press Award winner, I have also been awarded several Swiss national scholarships. My work has been widely exhibited and it is represented in various collections.

Why are there so many Japanese taking part? “This can be explained by the fact that in Japan there are many high level schools but no dance companies, whereas in Switzerland, the dancers are employed. As the Japanese have to leave their country to become professional, the competition is certainly the best way to break through,” Miwa, who worked at the Basel Theatre in her youth, explains.

Miwa has been bringing her pupils to the Prix de Lausanne for the past ten years, much to her pride. Natsuka, whose mother and grandmother did classic dance, took up ballet at the age of three “quite naturally”, and she has decided to pursue a dance career. “My dream is to go to the Royal Ballet School in London.”

For the competition, Kana has prepared a classic dance and a contemporary dance – “The rite of spring” – where she turns into an animal. “I try to imagine what someone feels at the point of being killed, the fear and the anguish,” she says. Her goal is to attend the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in Canada. “I know it will be very difficult for me to return to Japan if I turn professional but that is what I want to do and I have accepted that.”

“The Prix de Lausanne is also one of the best places to meet a good ballet director,” Miwa says. Natsuka and Kana listen to their teacher, but for now they are only thinking of the competition, which ends on February 1.

(Photos: Thomas Kern, swissinfo.ch; Text: Kuniko Satonobu, swissinfo.ch)

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