Mária Aradi
President of the Jury
Mária Aradi graduated from the State Ballet Institute of Hungary in 1961. She became a member of the Hungarian Opera House, and soon after became a principal dancer of the National Ballet Company. From the Opera house, she was contracted to the Netherlands, where she was the leading soloist and later, ballet master of the Dutch National Ballet until her return to Hungary.
A classical ballerina with outstanding technique, who could also interpret modern ballets authentically and with a strong presence. In 1966, she was the bronze medalist of the Varna Ballet Competition, and in 1969, she received the special prize of the Moscow Ballet Competition. Today, she still works tirelessly as a teaching ballet master of the Hungarian National Ballet and as an invited guest instructor of the Hungarian Dance University.
She was also recognised with the Hungarian Order of Merit Middle Cross (2015), Hungarian Golden Cross of Merit (2006), and the EuroPass Award (2002).
A classical ballerina with outstanding technique, who could also interpret modern ballets authentically and with a strong presence. In 1966, she was the bronze medalist of the Varna Ballet Competition, and in 1969, she received the special prize of the Moscow Ballet Competition. Today, she still works tirelessly as a teaching ballet master of the Hungarian National Ballet and as an invited guest instructor of the Hungarian Dance University.
She was also recognised with the Hungarian Order of Merit Middle Cross (2015), Hungarian Golden Cross of Merit (2006), and the EuroPass Award (2002).
Megan Fairchild
Ms. Fairchild is celebrated for her technical brilliance and magnetic stage presence and has built a distinguished career spanning classical and contemporary ballet, Broadway, teaching, and writing. She studied at School of American Ballet, the official school of NYCB and joined the company in 2001, where she was promoted to soloist in 2004, and became a principal dancer in 2005.Her extensive repertoire includes leading roles in full-length classics such as Swan Lake, Coppélia, The Sleeping Beauty, and La Sylphide, as well as ballets by legendary choreographers George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins, Peter Martins, and Alexei Ratmansky. She was featured as the Sugar Plum Fairy in the 2011 telecast of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, streamed in movie theaters worldwide. She earned Theatre World Award and a nomination from the Outer Critics Circle for her outstanding performance. In addition to her performance career, Ms. Fairchild is a member of the faculty at the School of American Ballet and holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business. In 2021, she released her first book, The Ballerina Mindset (Penguin), which became a major success in the U.S., offering empowering advice on mental wellness and the pursuit of excellence—both on stage and beyond.
Mário Radačovský
Mário Radačovský, Artistic Director of The Ballet of the National Theatre Brno and choreographer for many ballet companies worldwide including Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, Jeune Ballet du Quebec, Canada , Grand Rapids Ballet, USA, Diablo Ballet in San Francisco, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Slovak National Theatre, Latvian National Ballet in Riga, Ballet Bratislava and Prague Chamber Ballet.
Mário joined the Slovak National Theatre Ballet in 1989, and became a soloist in a very short time. He went on to The Ballet of the National Theatre Brno as a soloist and soon he received an offer to dance in Jiří Kylián’s Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague.
Working at the NDT, he met some of the most important choreographers of his time, including Jiří Kylián, Mats Ek, Nacho Duato, Ohad Naharin, William Forsythe, Édou-ard Lock and many others. In 1999 he became the first soloist of the Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in Montreal, then returned to the Slovak National Theatre Ballet in 2000 as a guest soloist and later as artistic director between 2006–2010. He founded the ensemble Ballet Bratislava, which he led until its dissolution (2011–2013). Since then, he has been the artistic director of The Ballet of the National Theatre Brno.
It is an honor to welcome him among our BBGP 2025 Jury.
Kinsun Chan
Swiss-Canadian choreographer, Kinsun Chan, director of the Semperoper Ballett, former director of the Tanzkompanie des Theaters St. Gallen.
Swiss-Canadian choreographer and designer Kinsun Chan began his studies in art and graphic design and came to ballet late in life. He began his professional dance career in America and came to Europe when he was invited to join the Zurich Ballet and later the Basel Ballet. He has danced many soloist roles with renowned choreographers such as Kylián, Forsythe, Duato, Spoerli, van Manen, Wherlock, and Wubbe. He created his first choreography at the Zurich Ballet for the Young Choreographers platform. Soon after, he was invited to choreograph for the Noverre Company of the Stuttgart Ballet. His choreographies have been performed internationally by Ballet Basel, the Singapore Ballet, the Tiroler Landestheater, the Lucerne Theater, the Hong Kong Ballet, the Hannover State Opera Ballet, the Kassel State Theatre, the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp, the John Cranko School, the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, the Zurich Dance Academy, and in programs of the Heinz Bosl Foundation. His creation for the Hong Kong Ballet has been invited to the Jacobs Pillow Festival (USA) and the Festival des arts de Saint-Sauveur (Québec, Canada). In the 2019/20 season, he took over the direction of the dance company at the Theatre St. Gallen. From the 2024/25 season, he will be the ballet director of the Semperoper Ballet.
Kinsun’s choreography also represents his insight in art and design, encompassing a dynamic visual language.
Jahn Magnus Johanssen
Jahn Magnus Johanssen, Assistant Director of Norwegian National Ballet and Leader of The Norwegian National Ballet Youth Company.
Mr. Johansen’s ballet education stretches from Bolshoi Ballet Balletschool to the Norwegian Opera balletschool.
He worked with companies including Norwegian National Ballet, Washington Ballet, Dutch National Ballet (as Principal dancer and ballet master), Oslo National Academy of the Arts (Head of classical ballet line) and from 2022 also Leader of NNB youth company, NNB UNG.
As a memorable and gracious Principal dancer, he performed leading roles in the classical ballets like Swan Lake, Giselle, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, La Sylphide, Midsummernight Dream, La Bayadere and Onegin.
Danced many principal/soloist roles in classical and neoclassical repertory like Etudes, Scene de ballet, Le Sylphide, Volunatries and principal/soloist roles in ballets from choreographers like G. Balanchine, W. Forsyth, M. Graham, K. Pastor, D. Dawson, W. Eagling, F. Ashton, H. van Manen,R. van Dantzig and L. Massine.
He has been guesting with companies and Galas in Germany, England, Italy, France, U.S.A., Spain, Russia, Lithuania and Norway.
In 2006 he stopped dancing and started to work as ballet master with Dutch National Ballet and staged ballets in Latvia, Scotland, Netherlands and Switzerland for different choreographers.
